Community Impact Grants:
Community Impact Grants prioritize United Way resources on the needs that matter most to the people of the Northern Shenandoah Valley. Those giving to the United Way Community Impact Fund have the assurance that their gifts cover a broad but focused spectrum of identified needs in the community, rather than just supporting one particular program or agency. The results from these investments are closely monitored by trained volunteers. Investments in the United Way Impact Fund are monitored, leveraged, focused and achieve outcomes.
- Monitored - A diverse group of trained volunteers invest money into programs that report how they use money to improve lives.
- Leveraged - United Way and funded programs leverage United Way funding in services that prevent additional costly services, and bring additional funding into our community.
- Focused - United Way only funds programs that are successfully, efficiently filling a need for local residents in the areas of Education, Income, and Health.
- Outcomes - The Impact Fund guarantees that your donated money is changing lives. Programs must show the long-term outcomes they are achieving.
Education Impact Grants
Funding Priorities:
- Children have access to basic needs
- Preschool aged children have access to affordable, high quality, early learning programs that prepare them for kindergarten
- Students have access to high quality, enriching out of school programs where students have support and encouragement for educational success from engaged parents/advocates and mentors.
- Junior high and high school students have access to age-appropriate college and career preparation and graduate equipped with skills for success.
2020-2021 Education Impact Grants
Grant Amount: $2,875
Purpose: To provide for the continued support of Big Brothers/Big Sisters' school-based mentoring program in Shenandoah County currently running at Ashby Lee Elementary with a possible expansion to W.W. Robinson Elementary. The goal is to match up to 25 children at each school with volunteer mentors who live or work in Shenandoah County.
Priority Needs Addressed: 3
Grant Amount: $10,855
Purpose: To establish an infant room at the center, which requires installation of security cameras and shelving, diapering station, etc. and licensing requirements (background checks, TB testing, CPR training, etc) for new staff in the infant room. CCLC is located in an identified “childcare desert” and aims to help families overcome a primary barrier to employment, prepare preschool children for school, provide nurturing infant/toddler care and enriching summer/afterschool care, and address basic food insecurity. This grant will also cover tuition subsidies to reduce the cost for families with documented need (i.e. free/reduced lunch, Medicaid, WIC) and/or more than one child in the program.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $18,000
Purpose: Funds six enrichment programs in order to provide high-quality childcare to low-income and single-parents, new caregivers, and at-risk youths. Funded programs include: physical fitness, gardening, summer enrichment activities, art, music therapy, and early learning assessment.
Priority Needs Addressed: 2
Grant Amount: $4,750
Purpose: To support the Car Seat Safety Project and Cribs for Kids Service Project which distributes 30 infant car seats and 50 safe sleep survival “kits” annually to families in need in the community through partnerships with the Department of Social Services and the Lord Fairfax Health Department.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $2,875
Purpose: To provide structured learning activities, shelf-stable food bags, and book checkout services to the children and families of Page and Shenandoah counties. The Gus Bus will visit the towns of Stanley and New Market once a week for one hour at each location.
Priority Needs Addressed: 3
Grant Amount: $11,444
Purpose: To support scholarships for a summer camp program for 65 children in partnership with the NAACP. To provide two field trips with educational programs for a total of 113 children in HeadStart programs in Winchester, Frederick, and Clarke Counties, three field trips with educational programming for 36 children at Fremont Nursery and three field trips with educational programs for 40 children at Winchester Day Preschool.
Priority Needs Addressed: 3
Grant Amount: $7,200
Purpose: To provide scholarships to families who could not afford a quality preschool education.
Priority Needs Addressed: 2
Financial Stability Impact Grants
Funding Priorities:
- Families in our community are self-sufficient and move from financial instability to financial stability.
- Low or no income individuals acquire the skills necessary to secure and retain self and/or family-sustaining employment
- Vulnerable seniors are able to access services that improve their quality of life and maintain independence.
Support our most vulnerable neighbors (Basic Needs):
4. Help people in crisis meet their basic needs and become self-sufficient.
2020-2021 Financial Stability Impact Grants
Grant Amount: $28,000
Purpose: To fund the delivery and distribution of more than 2,000 lbs. of fresh, organically grown produce to families in need in Clarke County, as well as to provide employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities as growers on the farm.
Priority Needs Addressed: 2
Grant Amount: $6,500
Purpose: To provide assistance for transportation, daycare and utilities in conjunction with case management services to area ALICE families who due to governmental program guidelines do not qualify for other assistance programs.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $37,500
Purpose: To support the critical home repair program in Winchester, Frederick, Clarke and Shenandoah counties, with a focus this year on repairs in the more rural areas of Frederick, Clarke and Shenandoah where the average age of homes is around 50 years old. The program is open to homeowners living at or below 60% area median income, with priority towards aging adults who have mobility and accessibility issues, to help keep homeowners in their homes.
Priority Needs Addressed: 4
Grant Amount: $5,000
Purpose: Support clients with funding for security deposits and/or first month’s rent to help homeless families secure housing as well as providing financial assistance to cover rent or utility bills during a temporary financial crisis.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1 & 4
Grant Amount: $14,000
Purpose: Provide free legal assistance to low-income residents of NSV.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1 & 3
Grant Amount: $8,000
Purpose: To assist victims of domestic violence to become financially stable. This includes assisting with childcare expenses to help women find and maintain employment, helping with car repairs or registration fees, and providing clothing and food to women and children fleeing domestic violence.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $9,000
Purpose: To supplement the emergency financial assistance program (Pay it Forward) available to families experiencing temporary crisis. Funds will support ALICE families in paying rent/mortgage, utilities, or utility payments when an unexpected emergency occurs.
Priority Needs Addressed: 4
Grant Amount: $6,000
Purpose: To provide support services to homeless families in crisis towards financial stability including help finding employment, childcare assistance, required document assistance, transportation assistance, and rental assistance.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1, 2 & 4
Grant Amount: $6,000
Purpose: To provide personal care items to families including toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and conditioner, deodorant and lotion. In addition, a supply of feminine hygiene items would also be purchased to be distributed as requested to clients.
Priority Needs Addressed: 4
Grant Amount: $19,480
Purpose: To expand computer classes via increased support to instructors; as well as to support citizenship/naturalization test preparation courses; and to continue working with Winchester Rescue Mission clients on resume development, interview skills, and case management.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1 & 2
Grant Amount: $14,000
Purpose: To support the management of Centralized Housing Intake (CHI) and its coordinated entry process by responding to calls for financial housing assistance within a 24-hour time period and increasing walk-in hours.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $7,500
Purpose: To provide the local cash match for one of the three vans applied for in the FY 20/21 Department of Rail and Public Transportation Van Replacement Grant. This van is needed to replace a 2011 van with almost 160,000 miles on it.
Priority Needs Addressed: 3
Grant Amount: $20,000
Purpose: To support the 24/7 emergency shelter as it feeds, clothes, and houses its residents along with providing protection, and services and resources that enable women and their children to recover from violence.
Priority Needs Addressed: 4
Grant Amount: $30,000
Purpose: To support the food costs to serve 3 meals a day to residents and the community, as well as to provide residents with bag lunches and bus tickets as they venture out to start working in order to become more self-sufficient.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1 & 4
Grant Amount: $10,000
Purpose: To provide safe, reliable bus transportation of homeless guests to temporary shelter locations in the mornings and evenings for at least 14 weeks, going between Winchester’s downtown and 14 locations operated by partnering host organizations in Winchester, and Frederick and Clarke counties.
Priority Needs Addressed: 4
Health Impact Grants
Funding Priorities:
- Families and individuals are able to access quality and affordable health care which includes: physical, dental, mental health, and wellness.
- Children and Youth have access to emergency and ongoing mental health and counseling services.
- Aggressively address the substance abuse crisis in our community.
- Prevent and respond to domestic violence.
2020-2021 Health Impact Grants
Grant Amount: $10,000
Purpose: To provide free pregnancy testing, pregnancy counseling/education, prenatal vitamins, and diagnostic ultrasounds for low-income women and families without insurance and who have not yet qualified for Medicaid through the Early Pregnancy Care Stopgap Program.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $15,000
Purpose: To supplement the continuation and further development of the Grief and Loss Support Services Program which provides grief counseling, support groups, educational workshops, children’s grief programs, telephone outreach, and resource materials, while developing new programs designed to support those who have experienced a loss in hospice care, as well as anyone in our community affected by death, dying, and grief.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1 & 2
Grant Amount: $20,000
Purpose: To provide child abuse assessments, trauma screenings, and mental health treatment services for abuse victims and their non-offending caretakers at both the Winchester and Shenandoah County locations.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1, 2 & 4
Grant Amount: $5,000
Purpose: To provide quality training to individuals serving as caregivers for family members living with dementia and to give them the tools to better understand the world their loved ones are living in now.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $7,000
Purpose: To provide dental services to individuals without insurance or that cannot pay for services and to provide dental screenings during the Healthy Living Events in exchange for a healthy food voucher.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $6,000
Purpose: To provide non-emergency medical transportation to residents living in the City of Winchester and Clarke, Frederick and Shenandoah counties.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $6,000
Purpose: To provide free in-home health and wellness screenings and education to families who are ALICE or in poverty and lack the transportation needed for medical and prevention services.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1 & 2
Grant Amount: $10,000
Purpose: Provides funding to continue the Peer Support Specialist Program which provides assistance and support to those suffering with addiction.
Priority Needs Addressed: 3
Grant Amount: $20,000
Purpose: To provide one day of dental care monthly to uninsured children and adults with incomes below the ALICE threshold.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1
Grant Amount: $42,000
Purpose: To provide 40 hours per week of counseling services for students in Shenandoah County Schools by a professional counselor.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1 & 2
Grant Amount: $35,000
Purpose: To provide direct patient care of up to 200 ALICE families in Winchester, Frederick and Clarke counties by a primary care clinician.
Priority Needs Addressed: 1