Education

Dropout Prevention
Along with its One D partners, United Way is working with school districts, nonprofits, government, foundations, and business to implement nationally proven best practices that improve student achievement and graduation rates.

Operation ABC™
In its inaugural year, Operation ABC ™ is working with more than 30 elementary schools across the region to have hundreds of volunteer tutors work in their classrooms to help first and second graders read at grade level by third grade.

Virgil H. Carr School Attendance Initiative
United Way provides the resources families need to help area youth with chronic truancy issues through the Virgil H. Carr School Attendance Initiative. During the 2007-2008 school year, United Way reached 430 students with individual support and 355 of them showed improved attendance.

Women’s Initiative Early Literacy Program
Over 140 area families received literacy training in their homes as part of the Women’s Initiative Early Literacy Program. The rate of developmental delays among the participating children has dropped more than 9 percent. In addition, the preschoolers were increased letter recognition by 56 percent and language awareness by 77 percent. Evaluation also shows that they increased their interest in reading and writing overall and literacy rates among the parents also increased as a result of the program.

Income

Alliance for Economic Inclusion (AEI)
AEI is an FDIC national initiative committed to collaboration between financial institutions, community-based organizations and other partners to bring banking services to all of southeastern Michigan’s communities. United Way is working with partners locally to help underserved populations access financial literacy and asset-building resources.

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
As part of the Regional Asset Building Coalition, United Way recruited nearly 100 volunteer tax preparers for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Initiative. This initiative helped complete returns for low-income individuals this past season. The EITC provides a rebate of up to $4,700 for eligible tax filers.

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)
To date, 221 IDA participants have used their savings and matching funds provided by United Way on 94 home mortgages, 25 new or expanded businesses and 102 educational purchases. IDA participants have closed on more than $8.3 million in mortgages. 

Basic Needs

United Way 2-1-1
The United Way 2-1-1 call center is multi-lingual and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to connect users to more than 6,610 helpful programs as well as opportunities to volunteer or donate. In 2007, 2-1-1 handled more than 163,600 calls, up 65 percent from the previous year. In addition, 2-1-1 has launched a mobile unit, 2-1-1 On the Go, to combat homelessness in metro Detroit.

Ray West Memorial Ramp Project
The Ray West Memorial Ramp Project has been helping homebound individuals gain independence for the past six years. In that time, we ’ve built more than 140 wheelchair ramps to help people leave their homes and lead full lifestyles.