Finding new ways to meet community needs amid pandemic
♦ The United Way takes on a role of facilitator in response to more immediate needs.
The United Way of Rome & Floyd County has taken a new approach to meeting human needs in the community since it hired Alli Mitchell a year ago to serve as its executive director.
Mitchell detailed on Thursday the agency’s efforts to collaborate with other organizations to facilitate quick responses to new situations that arise.
“Last year the issue of homelessness became a very hot topic,” Mitchell said.
She spoke to members of the Rome and Seven Hills Rotary clubs via Zoom video conference about the United
Way’s work to pull various groups together to create the Interagency Council on Poverty and Homelessness.
The different groups are now looking at homelessness as a shared community problem and are attempting to prioritize funding, she said.
“Our goal is to connect, coordinate and drive collaboration,” Mitchell said.
Originally, the goal was to develop a cohesive plan to address the issue, she said, but the COVID-19 emergency probably delayed the launch of that effort.
The United Way is also coordinating a COVID-19 community call once a week where government, private and nonprofit entities get an update on response and resources to meet immediate needs.
“Community partners are brought together to help our community have a very coordinated transparent communication and track responses during this time,” Mitchell said.
Her office documents the needs and then tracks down the response to meet those needs.
“Then we move on to the next thing,” she said.
In the past year the agency has transformed from an older model that gave small amounts of money to a large number of charities to fully funding very specific programs. Seven programs are currently the beneficiaries of major funding from the United Way.
No Longer Inc., affiliated with Living Proof Recovery, helps people who are no longer incarcerated get back on their feet.
Two programs managed by the YMCA also are being funded. Become Unsinkable is a swimming program while Teen Launch tries to help middle school students with anger management issues.
Project Learn at the Boys & Girls Club of Rome is another beneficiary.
Acts of Kindness and Outdoor Adventures & Cooking Matters are a pair of programs operated by Summit Quest, which provides support to individuals who are coping with cancer in their family.
The Family Resource Center Life Skills training program — operated under the umbrella of the Rome Exchange Club — also receives major funding from the United Way. The program teaches parents basic life skills designed to prevent child abuse and neglect.
“We are super excited to partner with those programs and, if anything, we’d like to increase the funds that we give to those programs,” Mitchell said.
The United Way also has taken on the role of advocate for issues related to mental health, anti-trafficking and slavery, HIVAIDS, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
“We want to help bring awareness about those issues,” Mitchell said, adding that Georgia ranks “incredibly high” nationally for new cases of HIV.