The United Way of the Big Bend has announced plans to support 63 programs in its eight-county service area. The organization’s President and CEO Berneice Cox explained the process of deciding who will get funding is tough.
"It is a nine-month process with over 900 volunteer hours that went into it. These are the decisions that were made for the 2025-2027 allocation, so for the next 2 years these will be the funded program partners that will receive the United Way of the Big Bend dollars."
The dollars allocated total just under one-and-a-quarter million. That might seem substantial. But Cox said that number doesn’t seem so big when you consider the need. She points to the latest ALICE report. ALICE stands for ASSET-LIMITED-INCOME-CONSTRAINED-EMPLOYED. Meaning it takes a look at the working poor in the community.
"The average in our 8-county region was 53% in ALICE. It's not going up if you look at the percentages for the 8 counties. We did have a couple of counties that went down maybe 1%. But we also saw counties that went up. And this latest ALICE report is not reflective of the hurricane disasters in Taylor, Madison and Jefferson (counties.) So I think that next report will be even more telling and probably an increase in the ALICE population."
There simply aren't enough resources to solve every problem, so Cox said the funding focuses on specific areas of need.
"We look at housing, education, early learning, health and mental health, skills development and the safety net. The calls to 211 (of the Big Bend,) which is the 911 of human services. And we also look at what's coming up there; what are they hearing are the needs?"
And what have the crisis assistance folks been hearing lately?
"Rental and utility assistance. That's the number one call they've been getting. The volunteers use that data as far as making their decisions. Transportation is another need along with food insecurity. Domestic violence, unfortunately, has increased since COVID."
Cox said there's another issue at play. That's the uncertainty of what may happen, especially on the federal level, when it comes to support for human service agencies. She says it was gratifying, in the midst of what may or may not happen there, to hear this recently from a local United Way partner agency.
"You're dependable, you're reliable, we know that as long as we're meeting the metrics and outcomes that you request in our quarterly reports, every month we're going to have a reliable source of funding from United Way of the Big Bend and that matters now more than ever with what we face from the uncertainty."
Cox now hopes the community will step up as the organization launches its next fundraising campaign on August 27th at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center.
