United Way banner shows scale of people in need
With a few hands on deck, United Way Halifax set up its largest outdoor installation in Dartmouth this week: a 32-metre-long banner bearing 100,000 randomly generated names to showcase how many people are in need of support in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
The installation at the Dartmouth Commons has since been taken down due to high winds, but United Way Halifax CEO Sara Napier said it still got the intended message across.
“It's symbolic and it's real,” Napier told The Chronicle Herald.
“It does not name specific people in HRM who need support right now, but what it does is it conveys that this is very personal. There are the equivalent of those names and of those numbers here in HRM who need support and all of us need to be standing up for each other.”
She said the organization arrived at the number 100,000 based on statistics that indicate that 1 in 7 people in the HRM are living below the poverty line, 1 in 7 households are dealing with food insecurity and 1 in 3 people say they don't belong in the community, among other data.
Napier noted those statistics pre-date COVID-19, so the number would be even higher now as a result of the pandemic.
“It sounds big and it sounds uncomfortable, and frankly, it should, because when you look at all the individuals who may be lacking safety, healthy food, stable housing, suitable income, struggling with mental health or low sense of belonging or connection, the stats add up to over 100,000,” she said.
BANNER RECEIVES LOTS OF ATTENTION
In the short amount of time that the installation was up, several people came out to view it in person. But, Napier said there has been “much more activity on social media.”
Pictures and videos of the banner have garnered dozens of comments and shares on Facebook and thousands of likes on Instagram.
United Way Halifax partnered up with creative marketing agency Wunder on the installation.
It's one of three visual demonstrations United Way Halifax has created this month as part of its "One Hundred Thousand" campaign. The other two included a long scrolling website listing the same 100,000 names and a video of a printer printing out a list of names, both of which similarly portray how big the demand for support is in the community.
Napier said United Way Halifax is currently exploring where it can reinstall the massive banner to “get the conversation going into 2021.”
“It helps people understand even in a community like Halifax where there is prosperity, there is great spirit, there's so many wonderful things about this community, that we are not immune to struggle, we are not immune to heartbreak and we are not immune to loneliness and other social issues,” she said.
“Awareness can mean we can do something about this together.”
HOW PEOPLE CAN HELP
Napier said there are “many ways” people in the HRM can help those in need in the community,
For example, she said they can make a donation to the United Way's community fund which “empowers a network of local programs and services,” reach out to someone in need of support this holiday season, or start a conversation with their loved ones or local politicians.
“There's things that people can do from a donation to a conversation to an act of goodwill or kindness in their daily lives,” Napier added.
United Way Halifax raised more than $4.5 million to help those in need make it through the first wave of the pandemic, with funds distributed to frontline community programs and non-profit organizations. According to the organization, that money has since been used up and the demand for support is still bigger than ever.