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Veterans and their families turn to 2-1-1 for help every day
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Knowing where to turn for help can be difficult for many, even veterans and their families. Navigating the maze of services can be overwhelming when a family is stressed from trying to pay their bills and care for their children. A call to 2-1-1 makes finding help easier and provides a warm, caring response to reduce the family's stress.
In 2018, veterans have called 2-1-1 for a variety of reasons including utility assistance (694 calls), housing assistance (519 calls), veterans benefits assistance (321 calls), free tax preparation (191 calls), food assistance (172 calls), and countless other needs. For housing services specifically, 2-1-1's work with the Eastern Continuum of Care helped to prescreen 236 veterans to determine their eligibility for Coordinated Entry housing services. Of all the prescreens done in 2018, 5% have been for veterans and 7% of all housing placements have been for veterans.
- A retired Army veteran needed a ramp so that he could leave his house to get to needed appointments.
- An Army veteran who is a single parent and just started a job called when he needed help with rent.
- An older veteran called to find someone who could cut his grass.
- A disabled veteran called for help with a water bill and a car repair.
- A Navy veteran called for help because he could not keep his insulin cold because his electricity had been turned off.
Please help us share some of these statistics on Veteran's Day to show how valuable the 2-1-1 service can be for them men and women who have served our country! We stand United with our veterans!
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Pennsylvanians vote more Democrat, but Republicans still have bicameral majority
At the top of the ticket, in the race of two York County residents, incumbent Tom Wolf won the nod for his second term as Pennsylvania governor. Wolf won the popular vote roughly 57 percent to challenger Scott Wagner's 40 percent. Since 1971, there has only been one Pennsylvania governor who voters declined to give a second term. Wolf will have a new Lieutenant Governor for his second term, former Braddock mayor John Fetterman from Allegheny County.
The Pennsylvania Senate's balance of power will see Republicans with majority control. With one election in Bucks County for the seat currently held by Senator Tomlinson potentially headed to recount, the split currently sits at 28 to 21. Prior to the election, Senate Republicans held a 34 to 16 majority. That includes the defeat of two moderate republican incumbents from the southeast - Rafferty and McGarrigle.
In the Pennsylvania House, Democrats captured a total of 13 seats that were previously Republican, and Republicans captured five seats which were previously Democrat. So, the Republicans maintain a majority by a count of 113 to 90, down from the current county of 121 to 82.
Pennsylvania's US Senate race was won by incumbent Bob Casey, Jr., and he will serve a third term representing the commonwealth in Washington. The U.S. Senate remains controlled by a republican majority, where the balance of power sits at 51 to 46 with two more close elections in Arizona and Florida leaning republican.
In the US House, Democrats have won 28 seats to gain control by a margin of 225 to 197, with 12 races that haven't been called yet due to close margins. Six of those lean democrat and the remaining 8 lean republican. However, all of Pennsylvania's US House seats are settled, and the balance of power shifted within the state after a court-mandated redistricting. Nine of PA's 18 House districts are now occupied by democrats. Prior to redistricting, republicans controlled 10 seats, with two vacancies due to the resignation of republicans Charlie Dent and Patrick Meehan. In any district where an incumbent was running, voters chose to send them back to Washington. In PA's 17th district, where redistricting created a unique double incumbent race - Connor Lamb (D) taking on Keith Rothfus (R) - Lamb prevailed.
In Allegheny County, there was a noteworthy referendum to increase property taxes an average of $30 per year to create a children's fund which would be used to improve the well-being of children including childhood learning, after-school programs and nutritious meals. The referendum, which would raise about $18 million per year, was narrowly defeated with 52 percent of voters saying yes, and 48 percent of voters saying no. The effort was led by several organizations, including Allies for Children and the United Way of Southwestern PA.
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UWP opens call for speakers for 2019 conference
United Way of Pennsylvania will be hosting the 2019 Statewide Conference in State College, PA June 5th-7th, 2019. We're opening up opportunities for our Member United Ways and other interested parties to submit ideas for presentations. Both members and non-members can use our 2019 Conference Speaker Form to submit their concepts.
We seek presenters to share leading-edge ideas, inspire enlightening discussions, and teach relevant skills to local United Ways. Topics are selected based on member surveys, success of past events, timeliness of topics and relevance of topic to anticipated conference attendees.
Each year's conference has different goals and objectives. United Way of PA will decide the best fit for the speakers and presentation topics. The goals of the United Way of PA Conference is to:
- Provide local United Way staff with practical and up-to-date information, training and education on topics of interest to UWP members.
- Provide members and non-member speakers who have subject matter expertise the opportunity to increase their exposure in the community.
- Provide high quality, knowledgeable speakers to UWP members.
- Facilitate the professional and personal development and growth of our local United Ways staff.
Your input is valued and will be carefully considered. UWP will respond to your submission by the end of 2018. We appreciate all submissions and if you are not selected for this upcoming program year, we welcome you to submit again for the following year. Any questions can be directed to
Amanda Barbarich.
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Fundraising for Impact summit Feb. 26th-28th in National Harbor, MD
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United Way Worldwide has opened registration for the 2019 Fundraising for Impact Summit. The event is accessible for PA United Ways by car this year, as it will take place February 26th-28th in National Harbor, MD.
At the Fundraising for Impact Summit, United Way Worldwide will bring together cross-functional teams from United Ways across North America to hone their individual skills and develop their collective influence. Through shared experiences, open networking, and curated learning sessions, participants will understand how to leverage their individual role as part of the "engine" that drives our social impact.
Participants from both the RD and Impact areas will hear from experts across the network on topics such as:
- accelerating revenue growth for our impact work
- designing donor-centered and corporate-centered fundraising practices
- collaborating with cross-functional teams to build sustainable and scalable community solutions
- integrating the network-wide strategy across your organization
Cost for the event is $1,095 per participant and does not include accommodation or travel. The event is eligible for your United Way to use Flex Credits to attend and if you register before February 4th, 2019 your United Way will receive $100 off!
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UWP VISTA Project Concepts Due November 16th
UWP
is proud that we can offer a chance for small and mid-sized UWs across PA to participate in the AmeriCorps VISTA program. UWP is planning to submit a portfolio of VISTA projects across the state in December and if you have an idea for how you could use a VISTA member to fight poverty, we'd love to hear from you!
AmeriCorps VISTA members are volunteers who commit at least one year to work to fight poverty in local communities. They join to build capacity in the community by creating new programs or expanding already-existing ones. United Ways who are looking to build capacity while fighting poverty may benefit from a VISTA member.
If you're interested in learning more about the VISTA program, please take a look at our
recorded webinar. If you have additional questions, please reach out to
Amanda Barbarich who will be happy to set up an individual meeting to discuss the VISTA program.
We are currently accepting projects to add to our portfolio. The portfolio will be submitted in December. To successfully submit, we are asking interested parties to submit concepts for VISTA program sites by November 16th, 2018. You can submit your project concept
here.
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EFSP Phase 35 update
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The National Emergency Food and Shelter Program board is considering an extension of the spending period timeline for Phase 35 funds. However, as of now the deadline remains January 31, 2019. The National Board for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) will make a decision in the near future regarding any additional spending period options that may be granted to allow adequate time to spend funds awarded to communities. Local Boards will be notified immediately, once a decision has been made. Updates will be provided on the EFSP website regarding Phase 35 spending period options and any other deadlines, as appropriate. In the interim, Local Boards should continue to submit Board Plans, Final Reports, Second Payment Requests, etc. to the National Board for processing, so funds may be released to LROs.
Local Boards now have access to their LRO Certifications status via a page that has been added to the EFSP website. After logging in with their user ID and password, Local Boards will be able to access the page under LRO Certifications. On the page, Local Boards will be able to track the status of funded LROs and their required certification forms. On this page, you will be able to check the status of LRO Certification Forms, Fiscal Agent/Fiscal Conduit Certification Forms, and Lobbying Certification Forms for the funded LROs each phase. Once the LRO completes the LRO Certification Form, you will also be able to access the e-signed copy of the form.
Questions regarding EFSP should be directed to efsp@uww.unitedway.org or 703.706.9660.
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Healthcare open enrollment toolkit available from UWW
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November marks open enrollment season for the Affordable Care Act Federal Marketplace. Open enrollment began November 1 and will end on December 15. For those who are currently enrolled in coverage through the federal marketplace, re-enrollment is taking place now. For those who are uninsured and looking for coverage, the federal marketplace will be accepting new applications through the December deadline.
UWW has put together a great
hub on their United Way site that gives detailed information on disseminating information about the open enrollment period. The hub includes enrollment messaging, an enrollment toolkit (which includes a variety of communications to use and information on where and how to enroll), a link to the federal marketplace, and even a connector tool to connect those enrolling with an expert to walk them through the process. If you are interested in sharing this information with your community, please take some time to check out the tools and messages UWW has put together!
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