Give Where You Live – Building local capacity
There can be no doubt we are going through a period of rapid change and transformation.
We see the results of the pressures of dislocation and change all around us. Pressure on food banks, shelters, children’s and mental health programs, counselling and many areas of the social services.
Poverty and its impacts, hunger, homelessness, employment precarity, economic pressures all have an emotional, physical, and economic toll. It is our belief that you build stronger and more resilient communities by helping those affected. It is more than being charitable: helping people is an economic imperative in the 21st century.
Fighting poverty and its impacts, helping kids be all they can be and helping build a healthier community are at the core of the United Way mission. And Giving Where You Live is the spark which ignites the flame of community capacity.
Local communities, locally empowered, locally led, adequately resourced are best able to solve many of the problems which impact those least advantaged. From food banks and nutritional support, to counselling to housing insecurity, to programs which assist youth or seniors, (and a great deal more), the best way to solve seemingly intractable global problems is to act at the local level.
As we launch our effort to remind people who live in Durham but work outside of the Region that they can direct their United Way contribution to support their friends, families or neighbours in Durham it is important to point out that our priority is building local capacity.
In Durham Region we believe that the United Way is about a great deal more than providing nutritional or housing security, it is a great deal more than the immediacy of relief which may not be sustainable or impactful, it is about providing possibility for those facing seemingly impossible futures.
“Together we are possibility” is more than a slogan for us. It reflects what we do. We owe our donors nothing less than the assurance that their dollars are creating lasting and impactful change.
Giving Where You Live brings good intention to reality for many tens of thousands in Durham Region.