Elena Sokolow

This past Monday a group of United Way staff and board members participated in an exercise called a poverty simulation. The basic idea is for participants to gain a sense, even for just a moment, of what life is like for those in our communities who struggle to make ends meet. Every participant is assigned a role to play, whether it is as part of a family unit or a service provider or company.  read more »

As Meghan said in her last blog, the United Way of America (UWA) recently unveiled what they are calling The Common Good Report which identifies three broad issue areas that UWA believes are the essential building blocks to a successful life, these being education, income and health, and goes on to articulate four indicators within
each of those categories, which they plan to track over time. More importantly though, is the fact that in this report and the communication that has accompanied it both in the press and at the UWA Community Leaders Conference, UWA has put forward what I consider to be both very bold and very specific goals around what they are commiting to achieve in the next ten years. Cutting to the chase, these goals are:  read more »