United Way of Florence County Announces Community Game Plan

Two years ago, United Way of Florence County announced the transition from the traditional United Way community chest model to the collective impact model, which focuses on the most pressing needs of the community. Last year, United Way of Florence County announced the focus areas determined by the community needs assessment. The primary focus areas will be 0-4 education, mental health, and home rehabilitation. The secondary focus areas will be activities for youth and basic needs.

This year, United Way of Florence County is excited to present the community game plan. This game plan outlines United Ways's long-range plan for addressing the most pressing needs of the community. In it, you will find an overview of collective impact and how we will track results using results-based accountability.

The bulk of what we and the collective impact task force have been working on is the education, health, and financial stability sections of the community game plan. These sections outline the challenges we face in Florence County, our community goals, program-level goals and objectives as well as our vision for each focus area and strategies to achieve the visions.

To view the Community Game Plan and learn more about our transition to collective impact, please visit https://www.uwflorence.org/community-game-plan.

Three special awards were presented to recognize for support beyond campaign totals. The campaign advancement award was presented to Florence County for increasing their campaign by 264%. Field Fastener received the Live United award for their 100% employee participation in their workplace campaign and their support for hosting the 2nd annual Field Fastener Golf Playday to benefit United Way of Florence County. The Partnership Award was presented to PGBA/BCBS for sponsoring numerous United Way initiatives, including the luncheon, and pioneering their Learning Management system to deliver United Way's message to their employees, bringing a unified story to those working remotely or in person.

Lastly, United Way of Florence County recognized two key individuals responsible for this year's success. The first individual recognized was Tessa Tefertiller with the City of Florence as the 23/24 Campaign Coordinator of the Year. Under the direction of Tessa, the City of Florence's workplace campaign increased 28% in two years, and employee participation increased 150%.

The second individual recognized was Les Ward as the 23/24 Board Member of the Year for United Way of Florence County. He is one of United Way’s most dedicated advocates and volunteers – always present at events and actively participating in what we do, giving him a deep and personal understanding of our work that goes far beyond what you can experience in a boardroom.

United Way Partners with

Florence One Schools

This year, United Way of Florence County partnered with Florence One Schools Fine Arts teachers and students to produce United Way medallions as part of the awards for the annual luncheon.

The idea stemmed from the Florence One Fine Arts program collaboration with Carver Elementary School, where high school students were asked to recreate elementary students' original works of art. Jonathan McKnight, Director of Resource Development for United Way, has three children enrolled at Carver Elementary School who participated in the project. After seeing his children's artwork come to life, he imagined other possibilities which eventually led to the partnership.

We hope these United Way awards will bring smiles whenever people pause to remember a local student who made them, and every company that gives to our community through the United Way will remember their impact on real, local people.

Upcoming Events

Our Annual Day of Caring is set for Friday, Septemeber 20th.

Companies and individuals can give back to the community by volunteering to complete a project(s) for one of our partner agencies.



For more information, please visit our website at https://www.uwflorence.org/day-of-caring or reach out to us at 843-662-2407 or via email at uwfloinfo@uwflorence.org