Thriving Kids
There’s nothing more important than ensuring our community’s children have what they need to thrive. LEARN MORE
- Our Ready for K Alliance mental health pilot program, led by Play Cousins Collective, wrapped up their initiatives serving child care providers and families in the community. This included Wellness Wednesdays — an initiative focused on bringing mental health resources direct to child care centers — and family engagement nights focused on social emotional learning for children and their families. The project served five child care centers where they hosted 10 family engagement nights (two per center) and 20 Wellness Wednesdays. 200 families were served through family engagement nights and 75 staff through Wellness Wednesdays.
- Our Ages & Stages (ASQ) team continues to expand our reach into Southern Indiana to help more parents and caregivers track their children’s development by connecting to pediatricians and working with more strategic partners for referrals.
- A recent story from our Ages & Stages (ASQ) screening hub:
A pregnant mom on HUD assistance was forced to leave her home due to unsafe living conditions. Despite the unsafe conditions, her landlord is demanding payment for the final two months’ rent. The Hub connected her with legal and medical advocates, as well as her child’s insurance housing case manager. Mom was unable to complete the JCPS Early Childhood enrollment, due to not being able to provide documentation of her income. The Hub suggested using her WIC certification to verify her income. She also requested smoking cessation resources and was given two program options, along with a referral to a home visitation program for added support. The Hub continues to monitor the situation and provide wraparound resources to ensure the well-being of both mother and child. - On May 29, the Youth Success team hosted our end of year celebration for our Youth Success Network. This was an opportunity to celebrate our successes together and to listen to our community partners to learn what they need for us to support them. We had 75 individuals in attendance representing over 50 organizations.
Strong Households
When families have what they need, they can break cycles of poverty and work toward a better tomorrow for future generations and our entire community. LEARN MORE
- The Safe and Stable: Housing for All coalition is made up of more than 40 organizations committed to addressing the housing crisis in Louisville. These are some of their stories:
- Metro United Way continues to offer backbone support to the Housing Alliance of Louisville (HAL). This collective of over forty entities works towards housing justice. In May, HAL continued to advocate with Louisville Metro Government to allocate funds towards shelter services, affordable housing, and innovative and effective case management approaches. The group will be embarking on a strategic planning process this summer, and has spent the month of May outlining this timeline.
- Through Metro United Way’s partnership with Kentuckiana Works and the Generation Work initiative, a training for new managers is being designed to help successfully integrate young adults into the workforce. With a focus on trauma-informed care principles, supervisors will gain skills that advance understanding and help create inviting workplaces that maximize rising talent. Metro United Way hosted two recent focus groups of employers to help inform the design of the training based on identified needs, and similar focus groups have been conducted with young adult workers. We look forward to rolling out these training courses later this year!
- A group of passionate and committed volunteers has been working with Metro United Way for several months to design and implement strategies that advance affordable housing for residents of Southern Indiana with a specific focus on home ownership. One of our lead service partners, the Salvation Army of Southern Indiana, has also joined our team to inform our efforts given their extensive work in this space.
- In the month of May, our 2-1-1 help referral line fielded 977 calls from our community. The top request categories were housing and shelter, followed by help with utilities.
Equitable Community
We envision the Greater Louisville region as a place where zip code doesn’t determine destiny and everyone has the opportunity to grow into their full potential. LEARN MORE
- Our Beyond Buzzwords speaker series welcomed back Dr. Robin DiAngelo on June 3 for a powerful discussion on racism. She called on white people to stop avoiding confrontation for their own comfort. The time to speak up is always now!
- Join us virtually on Tuesday, September 30 for our next Beyond Buzzwords event featuring Dr. Jemar Tisby! Learn more and register HERE.