With new, growing community needs, Centre County United Way opens to new partner agencies

For the first time since 2017, the Centre County United Way is accepting applications from health and human service nonprofit organizations interested in becoming a partner agency.

A partner agency helps the CCUW carry out its mission, executive director Leanne Lenz said, to support the community in helping everybody have the basic building blocks of a good life, which include health, education and economic stability. Partner agencies have programs that meet the needs of the community in relation to one or more of those key areas, she said. The CCUW would work with applicants to learn more about the program and potentially provide funding through its annual campaign to support it, she said.

Currently there are 26 agencies that make up the CCUW Partner Network, including Centre Volunteers in Medicine, Interfaith Human Services and YMCA of Centre County. Agencies request financial support for specific programs that focus on health, education and financial stability. Funding is awarded each year in July after community volunteers review the agency’s application, program outcomes, financial documents and overall program and agency sustainability, according to a press release.

Since 2017, there had been a moratorium on admitting new agencies to the network. With only so much money to go around, Lenz said the moratorium was enacted to make sure all partners received adequate funding.

Lenz started as the director of the CCUW in July. After talking with those who run the campaign and distribute the funds, they all felt that it was their responsibility to respond to the evolving needs in the community, she said. Things change all the time in terms of need, she said, but they expect there to be more changes than there would have been without the COVID-19 pandemic. New needs have emerged, some have become more important, and others have grown during the past couple of years. Plus, there are new programs that have since been developed that could be a good fit for CCUW and could use that support, Lenz said.

“...We don’t want to ignore that. We want to make sure that we have an opportunity to learn about those new programs and have the biggest impact that we possibly can in Centre County,” she said.

She said a lot of the areas that Centre County was already struggling with have gotten more significant from the pandemic. Mental health concerns have grown, as well as struggles with affordable housing, homelessness, child care and education.

“About 45% of Centre County residents are either just barely getting by financially, meaning they don’t have any money to help with any type of crisis or expected expense. Forty-five percent are either at that level or under the poverty threshold. So when any kind of crisis comes up for that population ... there’s really nowhere for them to turn to. So the resources that the United Way provides to our partner agencies really helped to stabilize those families so that they don’t find themselves in an even more severe crisis, such as homelessness,” she said.

There is no deadline to apply and applications are being accepted year-round. Lenz said there’s no specific number of agencies that they’re looking to accept; they’re focused on community impact.

“We don’t have a number because, you know, one program might need $1,000 to carry out what their goal and their mission is, and another one might be asking for $100,000. So, we’re going to have to take a look and see one, what the needs are and two, what programs are out there looking for funding,” Lenz said.

A committee of volunteers who represent all of Centre County will review the applications and the board of directors will give final approval. They’ll use resources, such as the Community Health Needs Assessment through Mount Nittany Health, to help determine the most significant needs are in the community.

Lenz stressed that adding new partner agencies will not take away from current partner agencies.

“This is in no way, you know, because they’re not doing great things — they’re doing really wonderful things and they’re going to stick with us — but that we want to open it up to these new programs,” she said. “And there’s also really no sugarcoating that we definitely have to raise more money, our 2022 campaign goal is going to be set a little bit higher than normal because we really want to take responsibility for raising the funds that our community needs to make our entire Centre County community a better place.”

For more information or for an application, visit ccunitedway.org/new-agency-application-info.