Kiwanis Club hears from United Way director

The Starkville Kiwanis Club heard from the new director of an organization focusing on supporting the community and its members.

United Way of North Central Mississippi Executive Director Brittney Oliver spoke to the club at its usual lunch meeting Tuesday, discussing the organization’s efforts locally, as well as the need for community support for the United Way. Oliver recently took over as executive director from Candy Crecink after five years. Crecink remains on the charity’s staff.

The United Way of North Central Mississippi is headquartered in Starkville and serves Oktibbeha, Choctaw, Winston and Webster counties.

“I do like to remind people that United Way Worldwide is an international organization, and with that, there comes a presence in over 40 countries and over 1,800 communities,” Oliver said. “Now that impact that worldwide has is significant, but what’s more important to me about worldwide is their emphasis on local.”

“I know that the United Way of North Central Mississippi doesn’t need the same things as the United Way down on the Coast or across the country,” she added.

Oliver discussed three areas of focus under her leadership, which were education, financial stability and health.

“We really focus on the needs within our community and how we can best respond to those,” Oliver said.

She said the organization hoped to engage the community with its own resources, plus resources from other organizations in the area.

She emphasized that the three issues she was focusing on were not the only issues being considered by the United Way, but the three that were most important in the community.

“It’s just based on my experience as a researcher, looking at social engagement with various community partners,” Oliver said. “I know that when we’re talking about food security, whether we’re talking about employment, all of those things do come back to these three main focus area.”

She spoke to the United Way’s Strong Neighbors and United We Read initiatives, which the Kiwanis

Club has been involved with.

“We know that if we improve our neighbors in their lives, we also stand to improve the community as a whole, but what’s central to that is having a strong United Way,” Oliver said.

She also gave other focuses for the organization itself. These included making sure the organization truly understood the community, meaningful interactions with the organization and continuous relationships, among others.

She also spoke specifically to the United Way’s efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The things that we’re doing in regards to COVID-19 are really expansions of other efforts that we’ve done,” Oliver said. “If nothing else, COVID-19 intensified the issues that we’re dealing with in our community.”