Having a strong and healthy start in life matters. Rising costs of childcare and household necessities, shortages in childcare availability and ongoing systemic barriers have increased the pressure on families — all during their children’s most developmentally critical years. But when families are supported to meet basic needs, parents and children succeed in work, learning and life, benefiting our whole region.
That’s why Greater Twin Cities United Way works with community partners across the metro to advance educational success in our region by meeting families’ most urgent needs and creating lasting change that will follow our youngest community members into adulthood.
To ensure all children and their families have what they need to thrive, we connect parents and educators via 211 to resources that help families access housing, put food on the table and meet other basic needs. Additionally, 211 connects youth and families to learning opportunities and responds to mental health crises and ongoing needs through 988 and 211. One in 10 callers to 988 is a child younger than 15.
Generous volunteers help provide backpacks full of school supplies for 45,000 local students through our Action Day volunteer initiative. Action Day helps make education accessible, affordable and inclusive to all students so they can thrive in the classroom and beyond.
To further support families and our youngest learners, Greater Twin Cities United Way partners with and funds early-childhood care and education partners committed to children’s development and parent’s success. Early-childhood success provides the foundation from which individuals and their families achieve greater life outcomes in community, academics, health and the workforce.
We support the development of our region’s youth by funds youth-serving organizations aligned with young people’s developmental and cultural strengths and we create opportunities for young people to use their voices and lead.
Our innovation initiatives invest deeply to overcome the most persistent barriers in our education system. We work to protect, advance and expand early childhood, after school, and career pathway programs so that all children will be prepared to thrive academically, personally and socially.
80×3, an early childhood education and care initiative launched by Greater Twin Cities United Way in 2022, is on a mission to address and minimize the impacts of childhood trauma and expand our region’s capacity to deliver trauma-sensitive care.
Research shows trauma-sensitive caregiving can help children grow their resiliency, and a wide body of evidence demonstrates long-lasting benefits of early intervention that follow children into adulthood resulting in higher educational attainment and higher wages. By collaborating with nonprofits and the public agencies that guide and train providers, 80×3 supports local early childhood education and care programs to effectively integrate trauma-sensitive care.
Four Directions Center is a therapeutic preschool in South Minneapolis that partners with Greater Twin Cities United Way to meet urgent needs and create lasting change as an 80×3 partner. The center provides culturally responsive early-childhood education to prepare children ages six weeks to 12 years for success through full-day, year-round education and care, including access to Ojibwe and Dakota language immersion classrooms.
“Partnering with the United Way has helped us tremendously with the families in the community we work with,” said Kelly Suzick, assistant director at Four Directions Center. “We build on each other with the families and the kids we work with every day.”
Since 2015, our Career Academies innovation initiative has partnered with school districts, employers, higher education institutions and youth organizations to establish new career pathways programs for young people. This work is helping connect young people to high-wage, in-demand career opportunities, while simultaneously closing local employment gaps and promoting greater diversity in the workforce.
Career Academies open doors to diverse industries, engaging students in progressively deeper engagements with in-demand careers. Working together with Minnesota employers, Career Academies builds tailored programs that directly address the specific needs and job opportunities within each local community. expanding statewide, this Greater Twin Cities United Way innovation initiative advances equity by opening pathways for young people in households earning low incomes and in Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian and Pacific Islander communities and Communities of Color to access wealth-building careers.
Our bipartisan advocacy work at the local, state and national level is an important part of how we partner with community organizations and policy makers to create transformative, lasting change. We advocate for policy shifts and work in coalitions to widen our collective impact – accomplishing change far beyond what any organization can do alone. Our advocacy team works to build lawmakers’ support for policy shifts and new investments.
Our 2024 policy and advocacy agenda centers families, young people, and children prenatal to age five in a variety of ways. Greater Twin Cities United Way is focused on the following issues:
Learn more about our impact at the legislature in 2024.
Greater Twin Cities United Way advances success in education by meeting youth and families’ urgent needs and by creating lasting change through innovation initiatives and advocacy. We exist to fuel lasting change that will help us achieve our vision of a community where all people thrive, including our youngest community members and the people that support them, regardless of income, race, or place.
