United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County is dedicated to reducing the impact that poverty has on the lives of students, families and communities across Buncombe County. We believe that all of our work is integral toward achieving this focus and that the financial investments we make through our Community Partnerships are a critical part of that strategy.
A Powerful Combination
For almost 100 years, United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County has financially invested in the education, health and financial stability of our community by making grants to high impact nonprofit organizations that serve a wide range of people across our county. In recent years, we’ve broadened our investment tools to include short and long term contracts that allow us to tailor and anchor needed services around specific issues or in specific communities, using middle schools as a hub for these services.
We believe that our investment tools, coupled with our Community School work, our NC 2-1-1 call center's ability to connect people to the health and human resources they need during a crisis, and our volunteer center's ability to mobilize people to take action, provide the powerful combination of resources we need to tackle critical issues here in Asheville and Buncombe County.
Examples of Your Gift, In Action
Competitive Grants
35 nonprofit organizations currently receive funding for their efforts to improve the education, health and financial stability of people across Buncombe County. A full list of the programs/agencies supported through grants can be found here.
Hubs of Service Contracts
Among the contracts we've already employed:
- increase mental health counseling for students in several schools by funding onsite individual and group counseling opportunities (Access Family Services)
- support parent-teacher home visitation and relationship-building (Buncombe County Schools Graduation Initiative)
- increase in-school parent engagement and leadership opportunities (Asheville City Schools Foundation)
- meals for the weekly Homework Diners in four local school districts (Green Opportunities)
Advocacy
In order to address policies that impact the education, health and financial stability of our neighbors, and directly address issues related to poverty, we support the work of Children First/Communities In Schools' Success Equation through an ongoing contract and provide staff representation on their leadership team. From time to time, we share their advocacy agenda and calls to action on our website and social channels.