United Way sharpens focus to better serve Portage County
Better defining goals so that the dollars you donate to the United Way of Portage County are used more efficiently and effectively has been an exercise United Way volunteers have been undertaking sporadically for five years.
At a recent half-day retreat involving 28 citizen volunteers, the exercise appeared to be coming into the home stretch as participants focused on the issues of youth education, public health and critical needs along with devising strategies likely to impact them in a positive way.
The national United Way is still an umbrella agency that raises funds to alleviate social needs by allocating money various volunteer organizations, but that strategy is evolving on the local scene. Led by Rod Ingram, the vice president for communications and marketing at Northeast Ohio Medical University and the past chairman of the United Way of Portage County board, an effort has been under way to strategize what the local United Way does so that the results can be measured.
“We are trying to identify needs in which we can have a measurable impact,” said Bill Childers, executive director and CEO of the United Way of Portage County. By choosing what it wants to affect, the United Way will still partner with local agencies to address the needs of Portage County, but the new model helps the United Way staff and volunteers decide more precisely what to fund.
The United Way’s old model targeted broad categories and apportioned the money it raised to locally based agencies that described their mission in annual sessions with United Way staff and volunteers. The new model sets measurable objectives and goals the United Way can track to see if an organization it funds is effectively improving the quality of life for families and individuals in Portage County.
“People who donate deserve assurances their money is well spent,” Childers said.
Having settled on a vision of a Portage County where no resident is without food, no child is without tools to learn and no one is without access to care, those at the retreat divided into three teams to discuss guiding principles. Those eyeing public health looked at benchmarks already established by the Portage County Health District in cooperation with other organizations. They tried to map out a five-year plan of reaching those benchmarks. Examples would be improving access for those who often do not see doctors or healthcare workers because they may lack money or even transportation.
In the category of youth education, volunteers talked about improving family engagement so that youngsters are encouraged to take studies seriously. One volunteer with experience said a goal of parental engagement in Head Start might be to double the rate of parental participation from 20 percent to 40 percent within the next five years. Improving basic reading and math skills, a measurable goal, was identified as paramount since these skills are necessary in our modern world.
The critical needs team cited requests by those who call into the United Way’s 211 telephone service that tells callers where to call for help. Statistics show the most often requested services are for basic housing, food and clothing, the team leader, said David Shea, executive Director of the Communication Action Council said.
Participants are meeting once more to spell out strategies to deal the needs identified. Besides myself, those participating were Ryan Hough, Michele Delgross, Julee Cariglio, Karlo Petrak, LuAnn Coldwell, Ina Sayre, Suzanne Livengood, Brad Cromes, Mindy Gusz, Karyn Kravetz, Joan Seidel, Rose Seganish, Don Williams, Becky Lehman, David Shea, Regina Holiday, Leah Schmidt, Craig Holcomb, Jean Booth, Walter Williams, Dr. Geraldine Nelson, Barb Boltz, Sara Evelyn, Maureen Gebhardt, Heather Rainone, Bill Childers and Rod Ingram.
Exciting basketball at Kent State
If you like college basketball, the Kent State Golden Flashes men’s basketball team is putting on one of the best shows in the mid-majors.
The Flashes went cold Tuesday and lost to Northern Illinois 86-76 and reporting Friday night’s game with Buffalo is impossible given my deadlines for this column. When Janet and I saw the home game against Ball State, the Flashes were shooting the lights out and their defense was shutting down the Ball State Cardinals, rated the second-best team in the Mid-American Conference after Kent State.
Last year, point guard Sincere Cary, an exceptional shooter, stood out. This year, he remains a standout, but others are joining him. Sophomore Guard Jalen Sullinger, senior Miryne Thomas, junior Giovanni Santiago, sophomore Cli’ Ron Hornbeak, senior Chris Payton, and others joined Carey, sinking their shots and defending against the Cardinals. Kent State is very athletic and fun to watch.
Our son, Tim, who knows more about sports than I do, avidly follows the Flashes from his home in Los Angeles. He told us a few weeks ago that this may be the best team Kent State has fielded since the great Elite 8 Team of 2002.
The atmosphere is becoming electric. Contests with Akron, Kent’s big rival, still loom this coming Friday at the James A. Rhodes Arena in Akron and again March 3 at Kent State. Predicting the outcomes of those two contests is risky given the heat of that rivalry.
David E. Dix is a retired publisher of the Record-Courier.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: United Way sharpens focus to better serve Portage County
