letter from leadership

Reflecting back on the last year, it is easy to see the resilience of the human spirit and the strength of our communities in overcoming great challenges. Having lived through the worst pandemic in a century, we have emerged with a renewed commitment to building an equitable future where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. As we navigate our new ‘normal’, our resolve deepens to create meaningful and lasting change for families living paycheck-to-paycheck – those that we call ALICE® (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed).

At United Way of Western Connecticut, we are guided by our purpose to empower ALICE to thrive. This means ensuring that every person is food secure, every child enters school ready to learn and graduates with the skills needed to succeed, and every household is financially stable and journeying toward a brighter future. Our team brings this purpose to life every day in their work.

Through the challenges of this past year, there have also been bright spots. We have witnessed firsthand what makes our community so special: the strength of our partners, the innovation of our team, the compassion of our volunteers, and the resilience of people across our 15-town region.

United Way resides in the fabric of our community and in the transformative change we are able to make thanks to the generosity of our donors, partners, and volunteers. Our progress this year is remarkable and something we have deep pride in.

We can proudly say that we increased access to healthy, fresh food, expanded opportunities for affordable, quality child care, and improved the financial stability of households across Western Connecticut. We advanced our efforts to address systemic racial inequities. We invested in the development and launch of Prosperi-Key, a first-of-its-kind digital marketplace for ALICE households to access resources and savings, and received $1.2 million from the Senate Directed Funds to expand this work. We also supported our community and our partners through operational and program grants, food and toy distributions, back-to-school initiatives, blood drives, service projects, and volunteer opportunities.

We delivered on our mission – to mobilize the community to create lasting change, one step at a time.

While we anticipate that this next year will be one of continued progress, we also know that many of the challenges of this year will endure. With clear eyes toward the future, we will focus on expanding our innovative programs, deepening our strategic partnerships, supporting our nonprofit partners, and centering our diversity, equity, and inclusion work. We will continue to embrace the needs of ALICE, lift up their voices, be advocates, and destigmatize what it means to need a hand-up.

We are proud to stand side-by-side with our dedicated Board and Community Council Members, our committed volunteers, our generous donors, our collaborative community partners, and our brilliant staff. When we come together, our collective impact is powerful. Thank you for being a part of our story and for helping to create transformative change in our community. We are grateful beyond measure.