United Way initiative created to meet community’s most pressing needs | Opinion
When people are asked what they love about Knoxville, a few common themes emerge: service, kindness and a deep commitment to the betterment of our community. This commitment is reflected in the sheer number of nonprofit organizations — 4,295 — in the greater Knoxville area.
Since becoming CEO of United Way of Greater Knoxville, I’ve seen nonprofits serve their communities with relentless passion and dedication. I have watched organizations vying for resources, rallying volunteers and working to stand out from the other 4,294 nonprofits.
However, what has struck me most poignantly are those instances in which organizations have banded together and collaborated to serve the greater good.
As United Way of Greater Knoxville was considering what we wanted to accomplish in 2022 and beyond, we conducted a survey to gauge what the community considered its most pressing issues. While housing, early care and education, and food security were at the forefront, the most outstanding trend was the systemic pulse all the highlighted issues shared. No issue stood alone, therefore no solution could be built in a silo.
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In that same community survey we found one of the most consistent challenges citizens and members of the nonprofit community face is simply knowing what resources are available. “Is there a nonprofit that provides athletic equipment for my child?” “My nonprofit provides food, but many of the people we service come to us with health issues. How can we support them?”
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United Way of Greater Knoxville determined that in order to best address the issues facing our community, we need to overcome the challenges of disjointed service and resource awareness. In short, we need to educate and collaborate.
With all of this in mind, we crafted the Unite for Change initiative, the first leg of which included the inaugural UpWard Summit, a first-of-its-kind event that brought together agencies from across East Tennessee to collaborate, network and coalesce for collective action. The goal was simply to provide a foundation for a more cohesive nonprofit ecosystem.
During the UpWard Summit I saw new relationships across the nonprofit sector form and existing relationships deepen. Representatives from health-focused organizations collaborated with those centered around education. Nonprofits that provide housing services connected with those that offer career development. We already recognized how interconnected the issues in our community are, but during the UpWard Summit we came together to understand how interconnected the solutions to those issues must be.
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It has become abundantly clear over the past couple of years just how important collaboration is. The UpWard Summit hopefully marks a turning point in the nonprofit space in which our mentality shifts from “What can I do to help?” to “What can we do to help?”
By leveraging those characteristics that make Knoxville great, its people’s dedication to service, kindness and commitment to collective betterment, United Way of Greater Knoxville hopes to set a new precedent for collaborative action, empowering those 4,295 nonprofits in the greater Knoxville area to enact change, united.
Matt Ryerson is the president and CEO of the United Way of Greater Knoxville.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: United Way initiative created to meet community’s most pressing needs
