Education, Health, & Financial Stability
Children who love learning are better prepared for the future.
Education is the cornerstone for success in work and life. It also benefits the whole community: high school graduates have higher earning potential, contribute more to their local economies, are more engaged in their communities, and are more likely to raise kids who also graduate and go on to higher education or work.
Crossroads United Way, serving Elkhart, LaGrange & Noble Counties has taken the lead role in funding high quality early childhood education in our community. Together with providers, local and state government, and other nonprofits, we have secured millions of dollars of pre-K tuition assistance for families in our communities. In addition, United Way fully sponsors three Read United programs in our local public schools: Real Men Read, Reading Camps, and Spring Into Reading (Click here to learn more). We sponsor anti-bullying, pre and post school educational programs, early childhood education scholarships, summer learning opportunities, leadership summits, services for individuals with special needs, and Healthy Families services to help educate and serve parents.
Every year, United Way-funded education programs serve over 25,000 students in our communities.
We are partnering with schools, childcare providers and businesses to create transformational opportunities to fit learners at every age.
Financial stability allows individuals to unlock their potential.
We focus on helping families keep the dollars they earn, increasing their access to mainstream financial institutions, creating and building savings, and planning for the future.
United Way's financial empowerment programs include employment readiness programs, money skills and financial literacy classes, alternatives to predatory loans, pathways to home ownership, and neighborhood development programs. We also fund emergency services for those in desperate need of assistance: helping families keep their heat on during the winter, providing food to the hungry, relief from fires and disasters, and shelter for individuals fleeing violence. Our jobs skills, emergency services, and financial empowerment programs served over 10,000 households in 2019.
"Despite being employed, many individuals and families do not earn enough to afford the five basic household necessities of housing, child care, food, transportation, and health care in Indiana. Even though they are working, their income does not cover the cost of living in the state and they often require public assistance to survive" -2018 ALICE Report
We are researching, creating and implementing new ways for working families to hold on to the money they earn and begin to reach financial stability. Through partnering with banks, businesses and nonprofits we aim to reduce the struggle for working families.
Healthy people have better lives.
The fear of not being able to afford your diabetes or heart medicine, of having a loved one in need of anti-depressant medication or having a child with a disability and feeling alone is unimaginable.
That's why we leveraged over $4 million in prescription medicine assistance in 2019 for the uninsured and underinsured. That's why we help provide transportation access to seniors who need to get to doctor's appointments. We provide emotional, spiritual, and practical care for cancer patients and their families.
"Most working families have health insurance through their employer, so the issues wasn't 'no insurance'. The issue was the quality of health insurance. The most common feedback was about high premiums and higher deductibles. " -2018 ALICE Report
For every $1 given to United Way, over $41 of prescription medication is made available to someone in our community. Living United means that when things are scary, when you're feeling hopeless, when you don't know where to turn, you have a community behind you.