Dear Friends,
December 1 will mark
my 6th year serving as President and CEO of United Way of Ventura County. As we celebrate our 75th anniversary this year, I recognize my six years are only a moment in this organization’s rich history. The true legacy of our organization lives in the leaders and volunteers like you who have stood with us for decades.
I couldn’t be prouder of the courage and results our volunteers, staff, and community have delivered over the past six years. Here are just a few of the highlights:
2015 – The Building Health Smiles initiative, formerly known as the Ventura County Oral Health Collaborative, was born. We established a strategic partnership with Clinicas so that we could provide oral health exams to more children. In 2019 alone, over 2,500 children received oral health assessments.
2016 – The AmeriCorps VIP (Volunteer Infrastructure Program) Fellows program started for the first time in Ventura County. To date, the program has served 16 nonprofits in our community.
2017 – The Women’s Leadership Council became WOMEN UNITED and decided to make lowering the poverty level of single mothers in Ventura County their #1 goal. Women United strongly believes we can do this through financial stability and higher education.
2018 – We completed a Strategy Roadmap to prepare for our 75th Diamond Anniversary. Through this experience, the Board of Directors and staff determined UWVC could make a meaningful impact on housing and homeless in our community. Our research indicated rental assistance was the #1 area of need for fire victims seeking hardship assistance. To date, we’ve provided financial assistance to over 1,800 households affected by natural disasters.
2019 – The Amgen Foundation awarded United Way a $100,000 challenge grant to launch the landlord engagement pilot program. In addition, we were also awarded a $200,000 grant from the Ventura County Continuum of Care.
2020 – This year, we permanently housed 62 individuals (33 households) through the landlord engagement program, and we received a second challenge grant of $40,000 from Ventura County Medical Resource Foundation.
Click here to read the press release.
These are the issues that United Way is facing head on, and it’s why we’ve been a trusted leader since 1945, when our founding president, Milton M. Teague, filed with the State of California to form the Ventura County War Chest. If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch our Virtual Spirit Awards & 75
th Anniversary Gala that premiered last week, you may view it by
clicking here. We hope you find it to be inspirational and a joyous celebration of the collective impact you’ve had to improve lives in Ventura County.
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