did you know?
United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley's work is organized to realize our vision of making our region the best place for children in the country. We believe that children are society’s greatest assets. When we improve the environments in which they grow up the community benefits. An investment in the future of children is an investment in future citizens who can and will give back more.
This means:
Children are prepared for kindergarten and beyond.
- Investing in research and innovative practices to enable those in the early care and out-of-school time fields to address the social and emotional needs of young children to effectively prepare them for kindergarten and a lifetime of success.
- Advocating for a workforce development system to enable those in the early care and out-of-school time fields to access professional training opportunities, a key factor in career advancement and providing consistency in a child’s life.
- Ensuring that children have health care coverage.
Improving the environments for youth so they have access to opportunity
- Creating access to quality after-school programs and enabling after-school educators to provide learning experiences that are fun and exciting to youth.
- Building a connection between schools, out-of-school programs and parents to surround youth with the caring adult relationships (and mentors) and opportunities they need to be safe and able to learn.
- Ensuring youth grow up healthy.
Kids and their families have a safe place to call home.
- Improving access to affordable housing by leveraging the latest research and educating policy makers about new approaches to homeless prevention and the need for building financial and educational assets.
Parents can support their families.
- Helping ensure that individuals and parents have the job skills and support necessary to earn a wage that provides economic opportunity for themselves and their families.
- Creating access to technology to keep people connected to information and resources about money, schools, jobs, housing, healthcare and much more.
It means we all need to work together to create a blueprint for change and progress.
