empowering women

The Women's Philanthropy Connection continued working with non-traditional students at Hawkeye Community College through the Women-to-Women Career Mentoring program.

The group also began the Head Start Reading Project in partnership with Tri-County Head Start.

Books for Babies

United Way's Emerging Leaders learned that in low-income neighborhoods there is only 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children. The Emerging Leaders wanted to change that and started the Books for Babies program.

Board books, stuffed with bookmarks full of reading tips for parents, were delivered to Covenant Medical Center and UnityPoint—Allen Hospital. The books are being distributed to babies delivered at either location to promote reading from infancy in the hopes of putting the next generation on the path to success.

Community Collaboration

United Way collaborated with several other community partners to embark on the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.

The ultimate goal of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is disrupting generational poverty. Research says that 1 of the 3 major factors in disrupting poverty is increasing graduation rates, which are heavily impacted by 3rd grade reading proficiencies. Up to 3rd grade children are learning to read, after 3rd grade they are reading to learn.

We recognize that schools cannot succeed alone, and that the areas the community can influence that have the most impact on increasing reading scores are:

• School Readiness
• Summer Learning Loss
• Chronic Absenteeism

teaching philanthropy

United Way Emerging Leaders and the University of Northern Iowa’s Nonprofit Leadership Alliance partnered to host the 3rd annual Children’s Giving Event.

Children aged kindergarten through 4th grade were invited to learn about giving and philanthropy. Fun activities were created for the children, focusing on giving to others.

Investing in our community

65 programs at 38 nonprofit organizations here in the Cedar Valley received funding grants for 2015-16. These investments work to improve education, income stability and health in our community.

Red Nose Day

May 21 we turned into clowns as we took part in Red Nose Day, a campaign dedicated to raising money for children and young people living in poverty by simply having fun and making people laugh.

Playing golf. Changing lives.

132 golfers teed up in June and raised over $27,000 to support Cedar Valley United Way.

Mental Health in the Cedar Valley

Cedar Valley United Way’s community impact teams, the volunteer groups that direct and monitor grant funding, identified mental health as a priority based on community needs assessments and local data.

United Way invited community stakeholders including law enforcement organizations, local hospitals and doctors’ offices, the schools, legislators and community organizations to provide their input and expertise to begin solution-focused dialogue. The group first met in June 2015 and continues to meet monthly.

Both crisis intervention and mental health screening/prevention within the children and adolescent age groups have been identified as the top priorities for immediate focus.

2015 Campaign Kicks off

The community was invited to attend the Rally for the Valley campaign kickoff. In addition to sharing aspirations and hearing from campaign chairs Pam Delagardelle and Tony DiCecco, attendees pledged over $5,000 to the Books for Babies program during the event.

Employees of Cedar Falls Utilities tour the Northeast Iowa Food Bank.

Campaign chairs Pam Delagardelle and Tony DiCecco visit Tyson Fresh Meats.