If 2020 was a year of adapting and innovating,

2021 was a year of reimagining and restructuring.

August 2022 - We learned so much in the early days of the pandemic. And we saw the impact on individuals, nonprofits, and our community. In 2021, United Way shifted from emergency response — assuring access to food, safe shelter, healthcare supports, childcare for emergency workers, and more — to taking a lead role in the recovery phase. Even though the pandemic did not end, we began the work of restructuring to create a better future for all.

Thanks to your support and partnership, we worked to assure that the United Way family came together to intentionally build more culturally responsive and inclusive spaces in our community. This is vital so that anyone in need of support feels welcomed and safe at United Way and its network of funded programs.

Working with our partner agencies, we took steps to address inequities by developing bilingual program materials, supporting mobile food pantries, and making healthcare easier to access for underserved communities. We also increased our collaborations with community partners.

Housing and sheltering issues came to the forefront. Along with our friends at the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County and several United Way partner agencies who directly serve people in need, we took the lead on an ambitious project to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-repeating in our region.

And we restructured our focus areas for the years to come. A new application process for funding was launched. This streamlined grantmaking maintains high standards for agencies, with a focus on funding programs that best help rebuild our community’s resilience.

Whether you donated, volunteered, advocated, or cheered for us, your actions throughout the past year fueled the progress detailed in the pages to follow. Your support made this possible. All the ways we came together to build and rebuild community after the darkest days are thanks to your partnership.

Thank you for helping us reimagine a better future.