The United Way of The Big Bend is refocusing its mission, scaling down its operations to focus on the areas of health, education and income. The group’s president says the move is a direct response to a survey the organization put out to the community.
The United Way has raised more than a $100 million during the past decades for local non-profits but President Heather Mitchell says the group was concerned about whether its efforts were still relevant. The organization sent out a survey asking community leaders where the gaps were in its services. Education and finances came out on top. But Mitchell says she was surprised about which aspects of healthcare mattered most to people.
“I thought people would talk about infant mortality, because that’s been a big issue, but one of the big issue was dental care for kids, mental health and how people get in contact with those resources and healthy living."
The United Way is now focusing on those areas, and as part of its education initiative the United Way is expanding one of its reading mentorship programs, into neighboring Jefferson County.
Reading Pals pairs mentors with struggling students and the program will start up in the next few weeks at Jefferson Elementary School, where the district Superintendent has put a focus on reading. United Way of the Big Bend President Heather Mitchell says the ‘Reading Pals’ program is growing in popularity, with programs in Gadsden and Leon County.
“We’ll be in 15 schools this year in Leon County. Principals who came to us, teachers who came to us said, ‘how can we get this in our school?’ So we know that it works and we felt it was something Jefferson county students could benefit from and we think we have a strong volunteer force over there to make it work.”
The Jefferson County School district is a largely poor, rural district with a large population of Hispanic and disabled students. The district has struggled for years to boost its academic performance and is hoping for a turnaround this year.
