United We Win

2017 was a busy year at Greater Twin Cities United Way—from our staff to our donors to our volunteers, we’ve come together to address some of the biggest issues facing our community. Every day, we were proud to help people realize their full potential by connecting them with key resources and services. Here are just a few highlights of what our community accomplished together over the last 12 months:

• Our Home for Good initiative helped 2,500+ kids in the greater Twin Cities who are without safe shelter on any given night and raised $163,553 on Give to the Max Day to end youth homelessness.
• Arise Project, which supports LGBTQ homeless youth, has raised nearly $1 million for local programs and held their largest Pride celebration to date (pictured right).
• Screen @ Three, which promotes kindergarten readiness by ensuring kids receive early childhood screenings by age three, has created partnerships with 228 community organizations and screened more than 6,500 children to date.
• Career Academies, a high school experience combining college and career readiness, has now reached over 4,000 students and developed partnerships with over 40 organizations.
• Hometown Huddle brought together Minnesota Vikings players and 70 middle school students at Winter Park for an unforgettable character-building event.
  
• MinneMinds, a bipartisan, early childhood education coalition that we co-lead, successfully advocated for $140 million, which provides scholarships and home visits every year to 10,000 children from birth to age five who are most at risk in Minnesota.
• United Way 2-1-1, our resource and referral line, connected people to essential resources 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days a year.
• Action Day, an event to help send Twin Cities kids back to school successfully, sold out this year, with volunteers stuffing more than 12,000 backpacks with supplies for kids in need.
  
• Culturally Powered Communities, which supports organizational infrastructure for 16 culturally-focused nonprofits, has invested $1.75 million to support nonprofit leaders of color and culturally-specific organizations.

As we look ahead to 2018, Greater Twin Cities United Way will continue many of these initiatives as well as add new ones in order to build pathways toward prosperity for everyone. Also, we will be implementing a new Long Range Plan, which invites individuals, companies, nonprofits, and government to build an equitable community together. Please consider joining us on this journey next year as we continue to Live United!