UNITED WAY OF NORTHWEST LOUISIANA BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS THAT CHANGE LIVES 

NITED Way of Northwest Louisiana funded a record number of nonprofit programs in 2016, thanks to the generosity of residents in Northwest Louisiana.

More than $1.5 million funded 93 programs in collaboration with area nonprofit organizations, as well as United Way’s own programs aimed at filling gaps in services throughout the community.

“The largest percent of our funding comes from individual donors through their company’s workplace campaign,”

said Jennifer Martin, vice president of resource development with United Way of NWLA. “Every dollar counts. Those who can give just $5 a month know it adds up. We can make a huge difference for many in the community by joining together.”

“United Way works on the community as a whole,” Martin said. “Whereas individual agencies work on a specific issue, our grant process works to solve the issues from homelessness to job loss to literacy. Therefore, by giving to United Way, dollars are invested wisely in programming and people, and not buildings and administrative costs of nonprofits. By collectively attacking these issues, we can make a difference and change someone’s story versus only putting a Band-Aid on a situation.”

“No one nonprofit can fix all the issues that a person or family may have,” Martin said. “It takes a collective, and that’s what United Way does. We bring people together to fight for the education, health and financial stability for all citizens living in Northwest Louisiana.”

Martin recounted a story about one such local family. “In 2012, the primary caregivers of Callie Joe and Sky Madison were incarcerated for child abuse and neglect,” she said. “Callie was hospitalized with a severe brain and skull injury, which left her with cerebral palsy. Their dad had been a part-time weekend father for the past few years. Eric, at 40 years old, who had his own issues with addiction, had to become a full-time father. Nearly a year of hospital stays, therapy, court appearances and rehabilitation left Eric unable to maintain a job, and his substance abuse was still an issue.”

After becoming homeless, Eric, Callie and Sky were accepted into the Providence House program in 2013, where they had a roof over their heads, meals, clothing and a stable environment. Eric participated in parenting classes and financial literacy to prepare for living independently as a single-parent family.

“The services Eric and his girls received changed his perspective on life, and he began a life of recovery,” Martin said. The Graham family has a furnished apartment, and Eric is employed with a property management company. They are living independently, and he is grateful for programs and services that did not give up on him and his family.

“The need in our community for all of these types of services still remains high,” Martin said. “One in three adults in Northwest Louisiana cannot read, and over half of children who enter kindergarten are unprepared. More than 92,000 households are struggling to make ends meet and are just one crisis away from poverty. Thirtythree percent of residents in Northwest Louisiana do not have a bank account. We are focused on helping those who live in poverty and those who are just above that level.”

Judy Madison, assistant vice president of Red River Bank, is the current United Way board chair.

“United Way helps so many other agencies,” she said. “We can be an advocate for all of those agencies by giving to the United Way. Every little bit counts.”

“We are an agency that likes for our community to be served,” added Madison. “We love the collaborations we’re seeing within the nonprofit community in Northwest Louisiana. It makes everyone stronger.”

One of those collaborations is with Goodwill Industries of North Louisiana. David R. Tinkis is president and chief executive officer of Goodwill and together with United Way identifies high-need areas of support using carefully gathered data. One source is The Community Foundation of North Louisiana’s Community Counts, a report card on the quality of life in Shreveport-Bossier (www.cfnla.org/give-strategically/ community-studies/report-card).

“Based on the Community Counts report released in 2016, poverty in our region is a top issue,” Tinkis said. “Goodwill helps address this issue through our job placement program. Many living in poverty have not had the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to obtain employment. They face many barriers such as lack of education, substance use issues, criminal background, homelessness or disabilities. This program provides disadvantaged job seekers with job readiness training, community referrals to address barriers, job placement and retention support.”

PROGRAMS FUNDED BY UNITED WAY OF NORTHWEST LOUISIANA AND ITS DONORS:

FAMILYWIZE is a discount prescription program that lowers medication costs for individuals who take medications and is accepted by most pharmacies. The program improves the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities by making medication more accessible and affordable.

BANK ON NORTHWEST LOUISIANA, formerly Bank On Shreveport, helps the unbanked and underbanked to achieve and maintain financial stability by breaking down the barriers of banking for individuals to enter the financial mainstream. The services offer affordable low- to no-cost checking accounts, resources on credit counseling, homeownership and money management with the help of financial partners. This program is currently offered in Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Bienville and Claiborne parishes and will expand to Red River, Sabine, DeSoto, Winn and Natchitoches in the future.

DOLLY PARTON’S IMAGINATION LIBRARY provides books each month mailed to a child’s home. Children are eligible from birth until age 5 if they live in 71103, 71106, 71109 (Shreveport), 71111 (Bossier), and 71064 (Plain Dealing) zip codes. Recently, three more zip codes were added including 71112 (Bossier), 71457 and 71458 (Natchitoches). Participants in the program perform better on kindergarten readiness in literacy and language skills. A study conducted by Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., found a 28 percent increase in kindergarten readiness for participants. The Center for Early Education surveyed children 4 years of age and found that oral comprehension increased 76 percent, picture vocabulary increased 52 percent, understanding directions increased 65 percent, and story recall increased 54 percent.

VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM provides IRS-certified volunteers who prepare annual, basic tax returns to qualified individuals at no charge for those making less than the federal determined amount. This saves many people more than $250 in tax preparation costs. MyFreeTaxes is a free software platform for qualified individuals to file annual federal and state tax filings.

“United Way has provided funding for our job placement program for many years,” Tinkis said. “When an individual is working, they are better able to provide basic necessities for themselves and their family such as food, shelter and clothing. When a parent is employed, their children are able to see what it is like to work, which influences their children’s future. Employment is one of the major ways we can work together to break the cycle of poverty.”

One program that is filling the gap is Goodwill’s Ex-offender Job Placement Program. “Finding employers willing to hire individuals with criminal backgrounds is a challenge we face daily,” Tinkis said. “When those returning from prison are not able to find work, we have found that many fall back on their previous means of gaining income – selling narcotics, theft, etc. Thus, the cycle begins again.”

United Way also supports much smaller organizations. The Rev. Albert Dyer with Plant a Seed in our Youth Foundation in Bossier City has been bringing area businesses and institutions together to provide after school programs and services to youth in Bossier City for the past four years. PASYF projects include a NIKE Store-sponsored eight-week recreation camp that included exercises, workout routines and mentoring, and a basketball camp for youth that focused on leadership development through hard work, discipline, mentoring and teamwork. PASYF also partnered with Bossier Parish Community College whose student workers provided classroom support for the certified teachers so that students could get one-on-one support, and Urban Support Agency, which provided teachers for homework and tutoring. Reach Out And Touch Inc. and Urban Support provided USDA-approved snacks and supper daily for each PASYF participant during the summer and school year, while the LSUS Ag Center conducted workshops on healthy eating and nutrition.

All of these programs have come together to build a strong foundation for area at-risk youth. “Out of the 35 reports card received, 30 out of 35 maintained a C or above,” Dyer said. “After implementing the program, we realized that there was much more interest this year than we had had in prior years. We will budget larger numbers and teachers in subsequent funding requests.”

“The United Way funding, the largest amount to date, helped to ensure that the work we do continues for the students we serve,” Dyer said. “The funding also gave us clout with another organization that included us in the 2016-2015 grant application for the only federal afterschool program, 21st Century Community Learning Centers. PASYF is extremely proud of the work we do in helping community students achieve the standards with all the reform going on in schools.”

Merrill Wautlet, of Cross Keys Bank, is chair of United Way’s Resource Development Committee.

“United Way wants to distribute as much funding as possible to charities, foundations and agencies that work with the less fortunate,” he said. “The more money we raise, the more we can distribute. In that we serve 10 parishes, this year we have gone to great lengths to ensure that we have representation on the committee from all the parishes we serve. This allows us to identify more entities that would benefit from our assistance but more fund-raising sources as well.”

The resource development committee relies heavily on ALICE, the United Way’s Study of Financial Hardship (www. unitedwayalice.org) and an acronym that stands for Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed. The group studied in ALICE represents the growing number of individuals and families who are working, but are unable to afford the basic necessities of housing, food, child care, health care and transportation. Through a series of new, standardized measurements, United Way is quantifying the size of the workforce in each state that is struggling financially, and the reasons why. These measurements provide a broader picture of financial insecurity than traditional federal poverty guidelines.

“One area of particular interest is the working poor,” Wautlet said. “Our ALICE initiative is high on our list as it relates to programs of work.”

“The No. 1 job in Louisiana is a cashier,” Martin added. “We have more people employed as cashiers than any other position. Our community must work to increase education levels and create more higher-paying jobs for our citizens in order to move the needle for the entire area.

In the ALICE report, it specifically identified a lack of affordable housing and affordable, quality childcare in our area. These two factors greatly affect a person’s financial stability.”

“We are blessed in Northwest Louisiana to have some very high-profile agencies doing meaningful work,” Wautlet said. “We are equally blessed in that we have smaller groups doing important work, but they are not as well known. We do a good job of identifying these groups and helping them with badly needed financial assistance but also by raising their profile when we award funds to them, which in turn aids them in their own fund-raising efforts and implementation of their programs of work.”

“Every community I have worked in and every company I have worked for has always recognized and supported the efforts of their local United Way,” Wautlet said. “There are victories achieved every day because of the work done by the agencies, foundations and charities supported by United Way.”

Donations to help fund programs supporting local residents can be sent to the United Way of Northwest Louisiana, 820 Jordan St., Suite 370, Shreveport, LA 71101. To make an online donation, visit www.unitedwaynwla.org.