LIVE UNITED Y’All!

Hi!  I’m Joe Tolan and I have been a member of the Metro United Way staff team since 1986.  Since 2001 I have served as president and CEO.  One of the great joys of working at Metro United Way is the opportunity to witness the great generosity and caring of so many people.  Over the years much has changed in our community and in the wider world, but it never ceases to impress me to see so many people decide to care for others whom they neither know and will likely never meet.  I am fond of saying that this is a true measure of community and I really believe that. 

Over the past week we have seen that spirit demonstrated time and time again as so many faced the loss of power and often heat.  People opened up their homes for others and those whose job it is to provide shelter stepped up across our regional community and responded.  Primary among them is our partner, the American Red Cross.  The two million plus dollars that Metro United Way invests in the local Red Cross are critical to enabling them to do the vital work they perform, whether is in natural disasters like this ice storm, or individual disasters like a house fire. There is something very special about our community – and it shows best when times are tough.

And times are indeed tough.  Let’s face it, most of us have never seen anything like it and it looks like it is not going to get better very quickly.  As the recession continues, we are seeing increased demands for services, often from individuals and families who have never sought or needed help before.  We’ve been working with our network of agencies to gain a picture of what is happening in our local human service system.  I have been working in human services for more than 35 years and I must say that I have never seen a time when the system has been more stressed that it is today.  Not only are demands for services up – in some instances dramatically so – demands for emergency food are up more than 30% in recent months – but funding is down.  All public budgets – federal, state and local – reflect reductions in funding and voluntary giving for human services is also down.

Our response is to redouble our efforts – to dare to think differently – to live with a sense of urgency, thankfulness and optimism.  As we move forward we will be reviewing our current investments in programs and services to ensure that we are using available resources to get the greatest bang for the buck to address basic needs and needed services as best we can. While paying increased attention to today’s needs and economic realities, we will continue to assess and invest in addressing the root causes of key community issues that, if left unaddressed, continue to create need tomorrow.  The readiness of our young children to succeed in kindergarten and improving their high school graduation rate are two of these important long-term issues.  More than one in four never graduate from high school – that is true here and across our great nation and it’s simply too many!  What a community does with and for school aged youth when they are not in the classroom is a critical part of determining whether they will succeed in school and that out of school time is our focus and the arena whereby we can make a powerful contribution to increasing the graduation rate.

As we look ahead we recognize that some folks’ capacity to give of their time and treasure has been reduced.  Yet we know of our community’s great generous spirit and history, so we will present the message and our challenge at every opportunity.  We will ask everyone to give, to advocate and to volunteer to the best of their ability so that no one in need goes without the help they seek.  The simple but powerful message is “Live United”.  I invite each of you to bring that message to life. I promise you that you will be glad you did and that you will be much the richer when you do.

Joe

General Community, Live United, optimism, thankfulness, urgency