All businesses — private and public — spend time each year analyzing how best to utilize their resources. So do charitable organizations.
Few have as good a track record as the local United Way organization. The United Way of Salt Lake (previously it was called the United Way of the Great Salt Lake Area), is dedicated to ensuring that local contributions are used in the best possible way.
What worked yesterday may not be the best procedure to follow today. Those businesses that are successful realize that and adapt accordingly. So does the United Way.
A recently completed comprehensive needs assessment is going to change — for the better — the way the United Way of Salt Lake allocates its funds.
United Way isn't dropping any of its 49 partner agencies, but any program receiving United Way funds from now on will need to account for them using specific criteria. That includes how that particular program is going to address the lack of affordable medical insurance, the burgeoning ethnic population, the lack of child care and low-income housing, family violence, education barriers and transportation in the Salt Lake, Summit and Tooele counties area.
In addition, a questionnaire filled out by 70 United Way service providers indicates that lack of affordable health care, lack of affordable mental health care and alcohol or drug abuse are the top unmet needs in the community.
That closely mirrors the results from 178 individuals who are public or private advocates for the poor. They said the most serious problems facing this community are, in order, alcohol and drug abuse, lack of affordable medical care and shortage of affordable housing.
What all of the above means is that today's United Way not only provides funds for services but funds that focus on finding solutions to the aforementioned problems.
Giving to the United Way is a compassionate gesture that benefits everyone. The United Way is a catalyst for making the world a better place today and tomorrow.