Report to the Community 2009-2010
 The United Way Report to the CommunityFederal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President and CEO and United Way's Chairman of the Board Sandra Pianalto delivered the annual report to the community during United Way's 2009/2010 Annual Meeting. Pianalto focused on four key areas: how United Way serves residents in need in our community, the great accomplishments made possible through volunteer service, the importance of raising the resources necessary to fund health and human services and the progress of the Community Vision Council. The second year of United Way's new strategic direction It took several years of research and planning to create United Way's new strategic approach to funding health and human service programs, which began in July 2008. Outcome data will be available by the end of the year. One important aspect of the new strategic direction was shifting a greater portion of funding to programs that support Self-Sufficiency and Basic Needs. Just when our community is facing the highest unemployment and home foreclosure rates in decades, United Way has increased its investment where it is most needed. 211 -- Just Three Numbers for Help Often, the first step toward help in our community is United Way's 2-1-1 line, which connects callers to a database of 2,000 health and human services programs, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Last year, 2-1-1 information and referral specialists answered more than 206,000 calls for help, which was an increase of 16,000 calls over 2008. One example of the services 2-1-1 provides is helping people find prescription drug assistance. Last year, Greater Cleveland residents received more than $630,000 in free prescriptions through the assistance provided by United Way information and referral specialists. The Important Role of Volunteerism Pianalto commended Pat Mullin, Deloitte Managing Partner, and David Hooker, Thompson Hine LLP Managing Partner, and their entire campaign cabinet for the incredible work they did leading the campaign this year. She also recognized and thanked the many, many volunteers who generously donate their time and talent to make our United Way sound in its daily operations. She also acknowledged the 2,000 volunteers representing 40 organizations for their participation in the past year's Days of Caring, providing the manpower to tackle a variety of big jobs such as painting, gardening or building a playground, which saves thousands of dollars for our agencies. And Pianalto thanked the Greater Cleveland media members who helped spread the word about the importance of the United Way campaign. She also highlighted the Cleveland professional sports teams -- the Cleveland Browns, Cavaliers, Indians and the Lake Erie Monsters -- who support United Way by offering special ticket promotions and events that raise additional dollars for our community and providing sports memorabilia for auctions throughout the year. United Way Looks Forward Looking forward, Pianalto referenced the new strategic plan that United Way just completed under the leadership of Community Volunteer David Whitehead. The plan focuses heavily on resource development to ensure that United Way continues to generate the necessary resources to meet the needs of our community. The plan also focuses on continuing the Community Investment funding strategies and ensuring that United Way operates with maximum efficiency. Community Vision Council On behalf of Robert Gillespie of KeyCorp (retired), and Charles Ratner of Forest City Enterprises, who are co-chairs of the Community Vision Council, Pianalto delivered an update on Community Vision Council activities. Currently there are three Community Vision Council projects: The Access Your Benefits initiative will create a more user-friendly system to help older adults access benefits that meet their basic financial and health needs. The Northeast Ohio Areawide Agency on Aging is leading this initiative. The first year of benefits assessment and enrollment activity has been completed. The Promoting Family Behavioral Health in the Prison Re-Entry Population initiative has been combined with the Cuyahoga County Re-Entry Strategy. The Center for Families and Children leads the initiative and has been enrolling ex-offenders into case management since August 2009. And the Comprehensive Clinical Data Sharing Network has completed its first 18 months of operation. The lead agency, OneCommunity, uses federal economic stimulus money to fund the network, which links community health centers to major hospital systems for electronic medical records sharing. |
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How I Live United
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condition of all. That's what
it means to LIVE UNITED.
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Upcoming Events
United Way's Annual Meeting
Mark your calendar for the
2011-12 Annual Meeting at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel:
Friday, March 2, 2012
Rock the Catwalk
A Spring Fashion Show and fundraiser will be held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum on March 29, 2012. Hosted by the Women's Leadership Council.
RideUNITED
Choose a course, gather sponsors and ride bikes to benefit the
Greater Cleveland and Summit County United Way organizations.
All rides begin at Cleveland State University
Sunday, June 24, 2012. Learn more and register now
Our Mission
United Way of Greater Cleveland is a leader in addressing health and human service needs through convening partnerships, funding programs, generating resources, and advocating for public policy to support our community's priorities.