Community Investment
Report to the community 2023-2024
United Way of Greater Cleveland exists because too many families and children live in poverty in Greater Cleveland, with many more hovering on the edge of it, despite working full-time jobs.
We are committed to creating a region where everyone has an equal opportunity to build a good life.
United Way of Greater Cleveland exists because too many families and children live in poverty in Greater Cleveland, with many more hovering on the edge of it, despite working full-time jobs.
We are committed to creating a region where everyone has an equal opportunity to build a good life.
We focus on removing barriers to create opportunities that can lead to family stability and economic mobility.
Through strategic collaborations with our community partners in government, businesses, and other nonprofit organizations, we can bring solutions to market and scale them to achieve a greater impact that no one organization could achieve on its own.
By working to ensure access to basic needs like food, shelter, and legal services; building systems and pathways to career and employment opportunities; helping families increase income and savings on their way to financial stability; and improving access to stable, affordable housing, we can create a region where we all succeed.
Community Investment overview
- Answered more than 193,000 calls for help, assisting callers with immediate needs and connecting them with community resources.
- Ensured round-the-clock coverage for the City of Cleveland’s 311 Call Center and other vital regional and state-wide helplines for utility assistance, emergency shelter, and problem gambling.
- Pioneered a dynamic follow-up survey that improved client outcomes.
- Expanded access to effective safety net services for more than 69,000 clients served through our grantmaking partners at 16 community agencies.
- 50% of current grant funding is directed to BIPOC-led organizations.
- Increased the availability of lead-safe rental housing for nearly 30,000 Cleveland families so far as a lead partner in the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition.
- Expanded the availability of free legal representation through The Legal Aid Society among low-income families, resulting in more than 81% of eligible Clevelanders avoiding eviction.
- Provided financial assistance to prevent eviction or foreclosure to nearly 1,800 families through the Siemer Family Stability Initiative.
- Provided safe, affordable housing for 40 parents who are college students and their children by helping to launch the Louise C. Stokes Scholar House, which is now fully occupied and operated by CHN Housing Partners.
- Delivered over 140,000 medically-tailored meals to socially isolated adults over age 50 with chronic illness.
- Assisted over 1,000 Geauga County residents with benefits enrollment, referral services, counseling, and emergency financial assistance through the Geauga County Aging & Disability Resource Center.
- Launched a two-year pilot planning phase for a promising community-led solution called Universal Basic Employment, a bold initiative aimed at eliminating poverty through a federal jobs guarantee, in partnership with social entrepreneur Devin Cotten and the City of Cleveland.
Art had been living in a bus station after being hit by a car and hospitalized, contracting COVID, and losing his job. He went to Joseph & Mary’s Home to continue physical therapy and recover from his injuries. The United Way-funded organization provided a clean, safe place for Art to rest, eat consistently, access medical care, and assist with his search for permanent housing. After being accepted into supportive housing, Art was overjoyed and remained in contact with the organization to ensure a smooth transition. “Joseph & Mary’s Home gave me the break that I needed. To have my stress load removed enough to get direction has been quite inspiring,” Art said. “I’m now a Tri-C graduate, and I have moved into my own apartment.”
United Way 211
A unique safety net role
As the provider of United Way 211, we are uniquely positioned to identify gaps in the safety net that impact health, including food, shelter, and utility needs. This knowledge allows us to serve as a key partner in administrating the Cuyahoga County Emergency Food Contract, which uses Cuyahoga County Health and Human Services levy dollars in partnership with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and the Hunger Network to provide funding for food at area pantries.
Additionally, we administer the Cuyahoga and Geauga Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As the local administrator, we staff an EFSP Advisory Board representing consumers, advocates, and social service providers.
Collaborative Initiatives
Research continues to show that a child’s future success is impacted by the employment rate of parents of their peers, especially those in the same grade, of the same race, and same economic level. United Way’s early childhood efforts focus on preparing children for a strong start in school through programs that get them “ready to learn” and aiding families with young children to have the right mix of support for long-term success.
To answer that need, our policies focus on helping those communities where employment is low, strengthening social networks for children, and investing in social, financial, and human capital.
FamilySpace sets itself apart as a program open to all children through age five, and their families and caregivers, in Cuyahoga County. The program provides safe and fun spaces for children to play and learn and for their families to share information and learn about free resources. More than 2,000 family members have attended FamilySpace sessions at the two Cleveland Public Library and two Cuyahoga County Public Library branches that are part of the partnership.
Louise C. Stokes Scholar House provides housing and support for parents who are college students. Scholar House is fully occupied, supporting 40 students with housing and resources that allow them to focus on completing a degree or certificate program and move up the economic ladder.
Our efforts to address the root causes of poverty also focus on creating pathways to remove the barriers on employers and workers that negatively impact families and regional economies. Our leading-edge solutions include:
Workforce Sector Partnership is a public-private partnership that connects workers to career paths with sustaining wages, and helps employers find and retain skilled workers. The partnership has supported almost 100 businesses and placed more than 3,000 workers since its launch and continues to expand its strategies to align in-demand jobs, especially in manufacturing and healthcare, with underemployed workers.
Social Determinants of Work is a framework for identifying and addressing barriers to work such as access to childcare, transportation, and healthcare. As an Economic Mobility Alliance Ohio partner agency, we are also focusing on benefits cliffs, which occur when a small increase in income results in a decrease or loss of public assistance. The statewide coalition raises awareness and advocates for solutions to mitigate and ultimately eliminate benefits cliffs, reduce disincentives to work, and create a more seamless pathway to economic stability and security for all Ohioans.
Universal Basic Employment is a public policy initiative aiming to prove that a federal jobs guarantee can eliminate poverty and address its many symptoms. We are incubating the two-year research and development phase of the pilot program, with financial support from the City of Cleveland, to understand how offering better financial security through meaningful employment impacts a person’s ability to continue to build income and wealth going forward.
A critical success factor for every family is having safe, affordable, and stable housing. To meet this need, we have worked with our community partners to launch leading-edge housing solutions focused on dismantling barriers to housing stability.
The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition works to ensure lead-safe rental housing for children and families. Lead-safe housing is now available for nearly 30,000 families in Cleveland.
The Siemer Family Stability Initiative provides financial assistance to prevent eviction or foreclosure. Nearly 1,800 families with school-age children have received financial support to stay in their homes.
Right to Counsel – Cleveland offers legal representation to low-income families facing eviction. We expanded the program last year, allowing The Legal Aid Society to assist over 4,500 Clevelanders in more than 1,200 eviction cases. The result is that 81% of those families avoided an eviction or an involuntary move.
United Way’s health work largely focuses on the social needs that can impact people’s health, such as food and nutrition, social connection, trauma-informed care, and navigation of the existing social services network.
Collaborative Investments + Health funds interventions supporting underlying health drivers, such as food and social interaction, to reduce downstream medical conditions and their costs. The initiative brings together a coalition of healthcare partners who can pool resources to support social services that improve health and reduce healthcare costs. Our efforts helped to launch and scale this leading-edge health solution that continues to make a difference in our community.
We funded a program that focuses on socially isolated adults over age 50 with chronic illnesses and food insecurities by offering wellness calls, nutrition education, and home delivery of medically tailored meals. To date, the program has delivered more than 140,000 meals to more than 700 people. In addition, participants saw a reduction in their healthcare costs, greater engagement with their primary care physicians, and an increase in healthy eating habits. By reducing the costliest forms of healthcare like inpatient stays and ER visits, the program provided cost savings to every investing organization.
Several programs within our Community Investment work are considered national models and have been replicated in other markets to benefit families. We continue to use the lessons we have learned to make significant progress in all aspects of our work, particularly in response to the devastating impacts of the global pandemic and unstable housing market.
“United Way of Greater Cleveland has extensive experience convening relationships and managing complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives to improve community outcomes. We act as a launching pad for promising new ideas that have the potential to address systemic issues.”
-Ken Surratt, Chief Development and Investment Officer, United Way of Greater Cleveland
Grantee Partners
At United Way of Greater Cleveland, we understand that creating conditions that allow people to move out of crisis and onto a pathway toward economic equity and mobility is an ambitious goal. We thoroughly believe this goal is imperative and achievable if we continue to invest in community partners who share the same sense of purpose.
Our investment strategy, reinvented in 2021, provides financial assistance to allow our partner agencies to focus their work on programs that impact the community, and solutions they believe will work due to their experience working directly with clients in our community.
2022-2023 grant cycle
The initial funding cycle for 16 community partner agencies – 12 in Cuyahoga County and four in Geauga County – concluded in December 2023.
Providing stable funding over two years allowed our partners to focus their efforts on programs targeting economic mobility, housing stability, and health pathways and make a significant impact in the community.
Collectively, those initial grantee partners served almost 69,000 people.
Impact Numbers
GRANTEE PARTNERS FOR 2022-2023 FUNDING CYCLE
People served by Economic Mobility programs
People served by Health Pathways programs
795
People served by Housing Stability programs
2024-2025 grant cycle
In January 2024, we began the funding cycle for our next round of 18 grantee partners. The selected agencies, with 50 percent of the funding directed to BIPOC-led organizations, exhibit an exceptional commitment to change and an alignment with our broader community impact strategies focusing on early childhood development, income pathways, housing stability, and health pathways.
Each of our grantee partners receives an annual stipend for representatives from the organization to attend United Way’s Center for Excellence in Social Services, which provides educational programming and promotes best practices across the nonprofit community. The cohort-based curriculum offers topics focusing on Building Evaluation Capacity, Board and Leadership Development, Building a Culture of RDEI, and Lifting Up Leaders of Color.
By working with our grantee partners in Cuyahoga and Geauga counties, we can collectively bring about sustainable and meaningful change to the symptoms and root causes of economic inequality that impact far too many of our community members daily.
ASIA (Asian Services in Action)
Doors of Hope (Geauga)
Family & Community Services (Geauga)
FrontLine Service
Joseph and Mary’s Home
Journey Center for Safety & Healing
Lake-Geauga Recovery Centers (Geauga)
Lexington-Bell Community Center
May Dugan Center
Ravenwood Health (Geauga)
Spanish American Committee
Starting Point
Thea Bowman Center
Towards Employment
Youth Opportunities Unlimited
YWCA of Greater Cleveland
ASIA (Asian Services in Action)
Black Child Development Institute
Catholic Charities Group (Geauga County)
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center
Enterprise Community Partners
Family & Community Services/Next Step (Geauga County)
Food Strong
Hunger Network
Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
Lexington-Bell Community Center
Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry
Milestones Autism Resources
New Bridge Cleveland
Passages
Ravenwood Mental Health Group (Geauga)
Spanish American Committee
Towards Employment
YWCA Greater Cleveland