United Way of Central Oregon is aware of an article recently published in the Huffington Post referencing allegations of misconduct at United Way Worldwide. Our organization was not provided prior notice of these charges before they were reported publicly, nor do we possess any knowledge concerning the specific allegations.

We want to make one point perfectly clear. Sexual harassment is not acceptable in any workplace, and United Way of Central Oregon does not condone any type of harassment, intimidation or retaliation. We take all workplace issues and reports of misconduct very seriously, and any such actions are met with zero tolerance. The conduct alleged of United Way Worldwide is deeply concerning for those of us throughout the network, and we fully support the thorough, independent investigation that has been ordered by the Board of Directors of United Way Worldwide. We expect them to act upon their findings.

United Way of the Central Oregon is an independent 501(c)(3) organization, governed by a Board of Directors comprised of local community leaders. Our relationship with United Way Worldwide is transactional – we receive use of the brand in exchange for adherence to membership standards.  Our local Board oversees all legal, governance, ethical and financial management policies to ensure that United Way of Central Oregon can advance our mission.

For 67 years, the mission of United Way of Central Oregon has been working to meet the needs of vulnerable families in our region. We will continue our fight for the health, education, financial stability and resilience for all. We denounce all forms of discrimination and remain committed to building an inclusive and equitable region where everyone has the strengths, resources and support they need to thrive.

The funding is to support vulnerable populations in Bend.

 In late July, the City of Bend allocated $500,000 to us at United Way of Central Oregon to assist vulnerable populations in the Bend community. The funding came from state-directed Coronavirus Relief Funds, which were part of the federal CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act.

This week, we distributed most of those funds to nonprofits serving vulnerable populations in Bend.

“United Way of Central Oregon helped the City quickly distribute critically-needed funding to local non-profits serving some of our most vulnerable community members in Bend,” said City Manager Eric King. “This partnership is helping us take care of and support our neighbors who need it most right now.”

Funded organizations thus far include: Bethlehem Inn ($32,802), Better Together ($100,000), Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon ($12,500), Council on Aging of Central Oregon ($50,812), DAWNS House ($48,000), Every Child Central Oregon ($9,700), MountainStar Family Relief Nursery ($20,252), Open Door Café & Day Center (aka Bend Church; $5,000), REACH ($25,000), Latino Community Association ($21,892), Thrive Central Oregon ($100,000), and Volunteers In Medicine Clinic Of The Cascades ($24,222).

We used our proven volunteer-led Community Impact grantmaking process to review grant applications and allocate funds. The CARES Act funding comes with a high level of financial accountability and reporting requirements. This funding can only be used to pay for COVID-19 related expenses between March and December of 2020 that were not anticipated or budgeted and must be spent by the end of 2020. Nonprofits receiving funds must prove that they are not getting funds for the same expenses from different sources.

As the most reliable agency with capacity to reach our most marginalized community members and a community leader with a deep and longstanding familiarity of agencies serving Central Oregon’s most vulnerable, we have emerged as a clearinghouse for COVID-19 funding and donations in our region. Not only have we been entrusted with distributing this $500,000 of CARES Act funding by the City of Bend, we have also been tasked with distributing $260,600+ of federal and county emergency food and shelter grants to organizations that are providing meals, clothing, housing, rent, and mortgage assistance in Deschutes County. Some of those funds are also from the CARES Act. In addition, we raised and awarded $295,000 to 44 local and regional nonprofits as part of our own COVID-19 Emergency Response, Recovery & Resilience efforts, launched with $50,000 in seed money from a corporate partner and touching the lives of over 65,000 people.

26% of Central Oregonians are served by a program or service we fund.

We are simultaneously driving the change that is building a resilient Central Oregon and working to reduce disparities and increase equity through grantmaking and through the TRACEs movement. Since 2017, we’ve has touched the lives of nearly 8,200+ individuals as the backbone of the collective impact TRACEs movement – leading, convening, and collaborating with nearly 150 public, private, and nonprofit sector partners to build resilience in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties, as well as the lands of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

DONATE today.

We’re raising funds to build resilience, reduce disparities, and increase equity in Central Oregon!

We’re officially kicking off our annual community fundraising campaign today (Thursday, September 24^th)! And, we’re raising funds to help members of the community who are most impacted by current crises to recover and to build resilience, and to help local nonprofits to adapt.

The global pandemic, civil unrest across the nation, and wildfires in Oregon have put a spotlight on financial and racial inequalities in our region and across the country. Inequities in our systems for health, education, employment, food access, and vulnerability to natural disasters. And, inequities in financial stability and opportunity for all.

Nearly 40% of Central Oregonians were already living on the edge before COVID-19, according to our ALICE Report, a study of financial hardship, that we released in June of this year.

Then the pandemic hit, deepening existing disparities. The fallout of COVID-19 hit our most vulnerable first and hardest and will continue to do so in weeks and months and even years to come.

We were one of the first to respond – providing resources for food, financial assistance and basic needs – through our COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. The nonprofit’s response continues – now and in the future – through our COVID-19 Recovery & Resilience Fund.

So far, we’ve awarded $295,000 to 44 local nonprofit programs so that they may successfully face new challenges of COVID-19 and can deliver essential services and meet the needs of our community’s most vulnerable.

26% of Central Oregonians are served by a United Way funded program or service.

We are simultaneously driving the change that is building a resilient Central Oregon and working to reduce disparities and increase equity through grantmaking and through the TRACEs movement.

As the backbone of the TRACEs movement, we are convening and collaborating with community partners to build resilience in our region.

We’re leading this collective impact effort involving public, private and nonprofit sectors – listening and responding to what members of our community need, convening and collaborating with community partners, mobilizing all sectors of our community to work together for everyone to live their best lives, and using resources to be a catalyst for change and to build resilience in our community.

Over 100 agencies and individuals are partnering with us on the TRACEs movement.

In this year’s community fundraising campaign, we’re raising funds to fight for the health, education, financial stability, and resilience of every person in our community. We’re focused on reducing existing disparities so that when today’s kids are tomorrow’s adults, they can thrive. Through all the uncertainties, we have been here to help locally for 68 years, and we continue  our critical work feeding people who need to be fed, keeping them in their homes, and protecting our most vulnerable.

Did you know? We recently changed our name from United Way of Deschutes County to United Way of Central Oregon. Our current focus is on our vital role of mobilizing resources and deploying them where they are needed most. Knowing that community crises often disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and other marginalized groups, our funding prioritizes efforts that attend to racial and other inequities.

DONATE today and help us help our community!

The City of Bend is releasing $2.6 million of state-directed Coronavirus Relief Funds (from Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding) to organizations that can support businesses, families and vulnerable populations. The City will rely on community partners to distribute most of the CARES Act funding that was intended to support local governments. The City will distribute the $2.6 million funds to community partners as follows:

• $1 million to businesses and community assistance, through the Bend Chamber, which will allocate those funds,
• $600,000 for City of Bend costs, including $50,000 that the City already distributed to NeighborImpact,
• $300,000 for childcare costs, distributed to NeighborImpact and Bend Park and Recreation District, and
• $700,000 to NeighborImpact and United Way of Central Oregon to assist vulnerable populations.

The Bend Chamber’s funds will be used to help local businesses with a business resiliency grant aimed at Bend businesses with 50 employees or less.

“Preserving our existing childcare providers is vital as we look toward economic recovery,” said City Business Advocate Ben Hemson. “Allocating these funds to NeighborImpact while holding
some funds back for potential assistance to school age children this fall provides some certainty for Bend’s working families as they return to work.”

“Part of the funds to NeighborImpact will help members of our community with rental and mortgage assistance,” said Shelly Smith, a senior management analyst at the City. “United Way of Central Oregon will use their existing, successful COVID Recovery and Resilience Grant Program to quickly distribute critically-needed funds to local nonprofits that serve vulnerable populations most impacted by this pandemic.”

The City Council’s Stewardship Subcommittee met this week and heard about the allocation plan.

“Our hard working community members and excellent businesses need all the help they can get right now,” said Councilor Barb Campbell. “We are fortunate to have excellent partners such as NeighborImpact, United Way of Central Oregon and our local Chamber of Commerce to quickly get these funds out to the people, nonprofits and employers who need them the most.”

The funding must be used to pay for unbudgeted COVID-19 related expenses between March and December of 2020, and funds must be spent by the end of 2020. Funding comes with a high level of financial accountability and reporting requirements for those receiving funds, will be distributed in phases to ensure compliance on timelines and contract deliverables, and must be to the recipients by the end of 2020. Those receiving funds must prove that they are not getting funds for the same expenses from different sources.

What’s in a name? For us, the answer is: a lot.

 

We recently changed our name from United Way of Deschutes County to United Way of Central Oregon. The change reflects the regional catchment area that we have been serving for several years. Our influence touches all of Central Oregon: Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties, as well as the lands of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

 

We are focused on childhood trauma as the root cause of challenges faced by many in our community and thus began TRACEs – a partnership of nearly 150 organizations and agencies throughout Central Oregon working together to raise awareness of the effects of trauma, and to reduce its incidence and impact, as well as to build resilience in individuals, families, and our community. TRACEs launched in 2017.

 

As the Backbone Agency supporting this community-wide collective action partnership and serving as fiscal agent, we are facilitating the far reach of TRACEs in our region. Also, as a member of the Steering Committee, we are guiding and funding this work.

 

As the most reliable agency with capacity to reach our most marginalized community members and a community leader with a deep and longstanding familiarity of agencies serving Central Oregon’s most vulnerable, we have also emerged as a clearinghouse for COVID-19 donations in our region.

 

In March of this year, we established the Central Oregon COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund and raised $135,000 to distribute to 29 local and regional nonprofits providing essential services and meeting the emergency needs of our community’s hardest hit as the pandemic first started.

 

Since then, we have pivoted towards ongoing needs that members of our community and the agencies that serve them are facing in adapting to the pandemic. We have created the Central Oregon COVID-19 Recovery & Resilience Fund, from which the first round of grant funding to local agencies will be announced next month.

 

We have been in existence in our region for 67 year, fighting for the health, education, financial stability, and resilience of every person in our community. New name. Same venerable organization.

 

Donate today.

In response to the police brutality and racism that caused the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and countless other Black people and people of color, we want to make it clear that we stand in solidarity with the worldwide protests demanding racial justice and the Black Lives Matter movement.

 

Our work – fighting for the health, education, financial stability and resilience of EVERY person in our Central Oregon community, reducing the incidence and impacts of childhood trauma through the TRACEs movement, integrating the practices and policies based on the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), being trauma-informed, and integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) – necessarily requires that we embrace and fight for racial justice.

 

We stand firmly against racism and oppression, and we are listening and learning. We will continue to dismantle racism where we see it – in the work we do and the ways we serve our Central Oregon community. We commit to using our position in the community to affect systemic, community-wide change in the areas of implicit and systemic racism. We want you to join us.

 

Actions:

 

• Programs: We understand the psychological and physical factors that make the trauma of racism a very real public health issue. Our collective impact aims to break the cycle of generational poverty and historical oppression in Central Oregon through our TRACEs work.  We support programs across Central Oregon that fight for the health, education, financial stability, and resilience of EVERY person in our Central Oregon community, that are nurturing resilience and reducing the effects of trauma, and that incorporate DEI.  We are investing in things like stable housing, mental health services, and community organizations… things that make up a community’s true safety net.

 

• Grant Access: As a grantor, we need to make sure EVERYONE knows about the grants we provide to nonprofits in our region. Please share or apply for grants from these funds here. We welcome ideas on how we can increase awareness about available funds.

 

• Leadership: We recognize that the leadership in our organization does not reflect the diversity it should. We commit to changing that. As staff positions transition, we will actively look to fill new positions with diverse candidates whose lived experiences enrich how we serve our community.  You can read more about the changes United Way Worldwide is instituting to directly address racial equity and ethnic discrimination here.

 

• Board Recruitment: In the past 18 months, we’ve been trained on DEI issues, and we recognized at that time that our Board of Directors didn’t reflect the people we serve, and that wasn’t fair. We’re working on making board participation more accessible to more members of the Central Oregon community. We’d like you to join us to share your voice.

 

Contact us to share your thoughts and get involved.

ALICE Report: A crisis in the making with an 87% increase in Oregon’s ALICE households over 10 years, fueled by high-priced basics and wages that aren’t keeping pace with growing costs.

To read a copy of the report and find county-by-county and town-level data on the size and demographics of ALICE as well as the community conditions and costs faced by ALICE households, visit www.UnitedForALICE.org/Oregon

 

When COVID-19 hit, just over 517,000 Oregon households were already one emergency away from financial ruin — a 10-year record high — setting the stage for the unprecedented economic impact of the crisis, according to the state’s latest ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Report, released today by United Ways of the Pacific Northwest, in partnership with United For ALICE.

 

According to the report, ALICE households in Oregon rose by 87% over the last decade. Low-income families systematically lost buying power and financial stability as the cost of essentials rose faster than wages.

 

“In Central Oregon, more than 38% of households were living on the edge before COVID-19. That’s more than 37,000 of our 97,000 households,” said United Way of Central Oregons’s Director of Development & Marketing, Diana Fischetti. “Our economy had become increasingly reliant on the very families most financially vulnerable. These ALICE families are facing the greatest health and financial risks today. Many don’t have health insurance, paid sick days, and have children who receive daily meals through school.”

 

In 2018, of Oregon’s 1.6 million households, just over 517,000 were ALICE, a record number that were unable to afford the basics for survival, despite working. In addition, another almost 200,000 families were in poverty.

 

While wages for ALICE workers remained basically stagnant over the last decade, the cost of six essentials grew 3.4% annually on average, compared to an inflation rate of 1.8%.

 

As a result, ALICE households grew to account for 32% of Oregon’s households in 2018, up from 19% in 2007. Poverty levels ranged from 13% of all households in 2007, to a high of 16% in 2012, ending at 12% in 2018. The report shows ALICE households were locked out of the boom economy and unable to establish savings due to meager pay raises and inconsistent job hours, schedules, and benefits.

 

“Regardless of how much or how hard ALICE families worked, the cost of the basics kept growing faster than their wages,” said Fischetti. “The state of emergency created by COVID-19 pushed these already fragile ALICE households into an even deeper financial hold.”

 

ALICE in Oregon: A Financial Hardship Study shows that in 2018, the cost of survival ranged annually from $25,380 for a single adult, to $28,632 for a senior citizen and $75,768 for a family of four with an infant and a preschooler. Putting this in perspective, the median hourly wage for a retail salesperson, the most common occupation in Oregon, was $12.74, or $25,480 per year — barely enough to support the single adult budget, and not enough for the senior or family budgets.

 

The report’s new ALICE Essentials Index reveals this mismatch between wages and the cost of basics. This Index shows how the cost of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and a smartphone plan rose at nearly twice the rate of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. The result is that in 2018, two parents working full time needed to earn $18.94 an hour in order to afford the Household Survival Budget for a family of four. That’s up from a wage of $12.13 an hour affording that budget in 2007. During the same period, the number of low-wage jobs grew by a substantial 150%, accounting for the largest number of jobs in Oregon by 2018.

 

“The ALICE Essentials Index shows that, through no fault of their own, ALICE families have been priced out of economic stability, setting the stage for the scope of this crisis,” said United For ALICE National Director Stephanie Hoopes, Ph.D. “Using the Consumer Price Index alone to measure inflation provides an incomplete picture of the cost of living, severely underestimating the mounting financial pressures on ALICE families.”

 

Fischetti said, “we will be acting on the report’s findings immediately and using the information to address the unique challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on Central Oregon ALICE families and business.”

 

The report calls for stakeholders across all sectors to use its findings to remove obstacles to financial stability, identify gaps in community resources and build data-driven solutions to help ALICE families achieve economic stability, bolstering the state’s economy overall.

 

The ALICE Report for Oregon was funded in part by AVISTA, The Ford Family Foundation, Idaho Community Foundation, Idaho Nonprofit Center, Providence Health Care, WaFdBank, & WSECU; and is a project of United For ALICE, a grassroots movement of some 650 United Ways in 21 states, corporations and foundations, all using the same methodology to document financial need. ALICE Reports provide county-by-county and town-level data, and analysis of how many households are struggling, including the obstacles ALICE households face on the road to financial independence.

 

For more information or to find data about ALICE in local communities, visit www.UnitedForALICE.org/Oregon.

 

 

About United Way of Central Oregon

United Way of Central Oregon fights for the health, education, financial stability, and resilience of EVERY person in our Central Oregon community and is leading the TRACEs movement. With a deep and longstanding familiarity of local agencies serving Central Oregon’s most vulnerable, our United Way is a clearinghouse for donations and best-equipped to meet new and ongoing community needs formed by COVID-19 – now and in the future. As a convener, the organization brings together community leaders, government, other funders, nonprofits, and stakeholders, to collaborate and coordinate efforts to effectively address our most complicated social issues. To learn more or make a donation, go to: www.unitedwaycentraloregon.org.

 

 

About United Ways of the Pacific Northwest

United Ways of the Pacific Northwest (UWPNW) is the regional trade association for 27 local United Ways in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. United Ways in the Pacific Northwest are committed to improving lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities to advance the common good in the areas of education, income and health. Our mission is to advance the common good throughout the Pacific Northwest by enhancing the individual and collective ability of member United Ways to impact their communities and collaborate on regional and statewide issues.

 

 

About United For ALICE

United For ALICE is a driver of innovation, shining a light on the challenges ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) households face and finding collaborative solutions. Through a standardized methodology that assesses the cost of living in every county, this project provides a comprehensive measure of financial hardship across the U.S. Equipped with this data, ALICE partners convene, advocate, and innovate in their local communities to highlight the issues faced by ALICE households and to generate solutions that promote financial stability. The grassroots movement represents United Ways, corporations, nonprofits and foundations in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Hawai‘i, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin; we are United For ALICE. For more information, visit: UnitedForALICE.org.