Creating a United Community...
Since its founding in 1921, United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County (UWABC) has been known as a convener — bringing together the necessary people and resources needed to tackle crucial community issues and connect people to the support they need. Traditionally, we have done this in three central areas:
- Community Investments (grants and contracts)
- NC 211 (information and referral)
- Hands On Asheville-Buncombe Volunteer Center (volunteer mobilization)
As UWABC has evolved, we have taken a more hands-on approach to working in and with the community, specifically with the inclusion of the community school strategy. In recent years, we’ve expanded this strategy, adopting it as our central organizing framework, recognizing that education and equity are inseparable and key to our vision of a united and resilient community where everyone belongs and everyone thrives. This includes lifting up, listening to, and learning from partners who are actively engaged in this strategy.
We recognize the many ways inequity, particularly racial inequity, takes form both historically and today and are working to name the structures that uphold injustice and eliminate these barriers to inclusion and equity in our work and in the community.
