Professor Robert D. Putnam was the keynote speaker for United Way’s Annual Meeting on Tuesday, June 14. His comments set the context and confirmed priorities for United Way’s work to improve well-being in our community. Professor Putnam told compelling stories from his best-selling book, Our Kids: The American Dream. His presentation detailed two groups of people, the haves and the have-nots, as they struggle to achieve success in today’s world. Critical gaps in experiences and opportunities lead to starkly different life outcomes for kids from each of these groups. His book underscores the importance of achieving post-secondary education. In almost every instance, the greatest disparities in well-being are associated with people who have a high school education or less.

How You Can Help Our Kids

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Creating Long-Lasting Solutions

In East Central Iowa, United Way is building collaborative solutions to bridge this gap. Here are just a few of our partner programs that help families in our community:

RED Ahead (Read Every Day to get Ahead)
Our early literacy program, helps parents become actively involved in developing language and communication skills their children need to be ready for kindergarten.

Reading into Success
A local collaboration of more than 25 organizations working together to focus on supporting children in focus areas of school readiness, attendance, summer learning, hope & well-being, and everyday reading.

Youth Achievement AmeriCorps
Through the committed service of full-time AmeriCorps members, this program provides tutoring support to low-income children.

VITA Free Tax Preparation
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program helps low- and moderate-income taxpayers complete their annual tax returns at no cost.