United Way of the Midlands recently announced new priorities for program funding in 2015-2016.
Shawna Forsberg, president and CEO of United Way of the Midlands, says they were involved in a strategic plan that started in 2012.
That plan also included a community assessment in which the United Way was talking with community partners to better understand where the needs were at the community level.
She says the results of that work meant it made more sense for the United Way to change from a partner agency model to a program model.
Forsberg says that allowed United Way to look across the community at programs that are serving in the areas that align with their mission.
"And allow those that are providing programs such as that to apply for funding. So it was really a different process for us. We had a number of people apply for funding for their programs. And our CIRT (Community Investment Review Team) really looked at all of those programs and determined which ones were the best fit for the work we wanted to get done.”
Forsberg says the 144 Community Care Fund programs aligned with United Way’s new funding priorities will begin receiving support in July 2015.
For a complete list of programs funded for 2015-2016, the website is unitedwaymidlands.org/2015-16-funding.