In mid-July, United Way’s Board President, Tony Klockow, discussed the agency’s newly minted strategic plan in a Sheboygan Press article. Since its approval in May, our staff and volunteers have made significant progress in the four focus areas identified early in the strategic process.

In the area of education, United Way has formed Sheboygan County’s first ever ‘Community Partnership for Children’ (CPC) based on a successful model begun in Brown County nearly 10 years ago. At the Conversation about Children, Community & Collaboration, hosted by United Way last June at UW-Sheboygan, over 130 concerned citizens were introduced to the principal architects and leaders of Brown County’s partnership. Since then, Sheboygan has formed its own partnership, recruited a tightly-aligned steering committee, procured three years of funding from generous donors to hire a full-time partnership coordinator and hired the coordinator. Next month, the CPC will embark on a strategic planning process of its own.

In the area of income, United Way completed a study and report of the status of food security in Sheboygan County this year. In 2016, we will continue to develop a plan that will serve as a roadmap to assure that Sheboygan County residents suffering from food insecurity will have access to healthy food and other social services necessary to lead healthy, productive lives.  As with any of United Way’s strategic endeavors, a central goal of the plan will be to align and leverage existing services, organizations and facilities to address this important community need.

In the area of health, United Way has piloted an innovative program in Sheboygan County to provide better access to behavioral health services for students. The program, Providing Access to Healing (PATH) is fashioned on a project developed to counter an alarming increase in teenage suicides in the Fox Cities area. United Way of Sheboygan County, in partnership with Lutheran Social Services, began to pilot the program in the Random Lake School District and Etude middle and high school last September. Early results in the two areas are extremely positive and a report to the community will be scheduled during the latter part of the second quarter of 2016.

Finally, the Volunteer Center of Sheboygan County, housed and managed by the United Way of Sheboygan County, has blossomed into a key conduit connecting non-profit agencies with specific volunteer needs and concerned citizens (individuals and corporate employees) with opportunities to give back to the community.   Member agencies submitting volunteer opportunities rose from 48 to 60+ in one year. Last month, United Way partnered with Kohler Company and the Milwaukee-based non-profit, BoardStar, to offer board training event for our county’s current and aspiring nonprofit board members and plan to offer more in 2016. Additionally, in early 2016, we will be able to report on the total impact of the Volunteer Center in 2015, including total hours volunteered and the dollar impact of those hours to our 60+ member agencies!

The future is bright for United Way and its vision to create a community where all individuals can achieve their human potential through education, income stability, and healthy lives.