Our Mission
To invest, connect and empower Henderson County through proven programs in Education, Health, Financial Stability and Workforce Development.
Our Goals
In 2008, United Way World Wide initiated a 10-year program designed to achieve the following goals by 2018:
- Improve education, and cut the number of high school dropouts — 1.2 million students, every year — in half.
- Help people achieve financial stability, and get 1.9 million working families — half the number of lower-income families who are financially unstable — on the road to economic independence.
- Promote healthy lives, and increase by one-third the number of youth and adults who are healthy and avoid risky behaviors.
These goals are ambitious, but with your help, and by utilizing our core strengths — a national network, committed partners and public engagement capacity — we can achieve them.
United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey has, for nearly a century, responded to the needs of our local community while simultaneously addressing the root causes of key issues. We do this by inspiring and uniting the power of individuals, the business community, and the public and nonprofit sectors around common goals. Together, we’re able to drive real community impact in our neighborhoods, our communities, and our region. Together, we’re working to ensure that every individual and family is able to achieve educational success, financial stability and good health.
United Way works for a healthier America
Whether it is a neighbor without health insurance, a victim of abuse, or someone struggling with mental illness or an addiction, United Ways are working to ensure everyone has access to affordable and quality care.
Our Goal
Since 2008, we’ve been working to achieve our bold, 10-year goal: to increase by one-third the number of youth and adults who are healthy and avoid risky behaviors by 2018.
Our Strategy
Achieving our goal requires us all to become more aware of health risks and the potential effects they have on ourselves and others, starting from before birth. Working to change policies and practices, such as extending health care coverage, will enable more people to live healthier lives.
Health Facts
- More than 33% of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. That’s 25 million kids and teenagers.
- Children with health coverage are better prepared to learn in school and succeed in life.1
- The number of Americans without health insurance has increased steadily since the beginning of the century, now totaling about 47 million. More than 80% are working families.2
- 8.7 million children live without health insurance – more than the total number enrolled in the first and second grades in U.S. public schools.3
1Institute of Medicine. From Neurons to Neighborhood: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2000.)
2Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from the March Current Population Survey, 2007 Supplement.
3Compiled by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), University of Minnesota School of Public Health, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey 2007.