United Way of Greater Cincinnati - LIVE UNITED

Building a strong financial future is not easy. Low-to-middle income families often struggle to meet everyday obligations, and many rarely have enough left to save, or to be prepared for financial emergencies. Families are feeling the effects of high prices and limited opportunities in a real and painful way.

United Way's efforts to provide solutions for increasing income, establishing savings, achieving home ownership, and enhancing economic self-sufficiency are critical.
Consider:

• 42% of those experiencing homelessness are employed
• Ohio adults with only a high school diploma have annual earnings $14,000 less than those with a bachelor’s degree
• 52% of low-income working families and 75% of working poor families spend more than 30% of their income on housing
• Financial instability contributes to family stress and can prevent parents from meeting their child’s developmental needs

United Way is committed to helping local families and individuals develop the skills and access the tools they need to become financially stable. To achieve that goal, we invest in, and partner with, programs and organizations that:

• provide access to adult education, job readiness, training and retention programs, readying them for higher paying jobs with benefits and career potential
• provide legal intervention, homeownership counseling and education to prevent foreclosure
• provide financial literacy education, helping families build assets and better manage income

To learn more click here for the 2010 Income Impact Report.

Strategic Initiatives and Community Collaboratives

Regional Earned Income Tax Credit Initiative (EITC) provides free tax preparation and financial literacy education for families who may be eligible to take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit (CTC).

place matters is United Way’s place-based investment pilot project that seeks to achieve breakthrough change in three Greater Cincinnati neighborhoods – Avondale, Covington and Price Hill – and the Felicity community in Clermont County. Strategies specific to each neighborhood/community are being implemented through an ongoing partnership between funders and neighborhood/community collaboratives. Initiatives focusing on increasing families’ financial stability in these neighborhoods include:

• helping individuals learn marketable job skills
• increasing the supply of affordable housing
• helping families retain housing

Results

• More than $16.6 million in refunds was returned to more than 15,815 hardworking wage earners in 2009 through the Regional Earned Income Tax Credit – a dramatic increase from $9.7 million in 2008
• 1,851 individuals in United Way-funded workforce programs obtained jobs
• 80% of families receiving foreclosure counseling from HOME (Housing Opportunities Made Equal) avoided foreclosure
• 1,063 families learning emergency shelter maintained their permanent housing for at least six months

Get Involved

Click here to learn more about ways you can help build families’ financial stability.

<sup>At 54 and Homeless, Eva Found a New Career
As a home health aide, Eva currently has two clients, and they regularly tell her they don't want anyone else, probably because Eva is committed to treating each older adult she cares for like she was her own mother.

Eva is no stranger to needing help herself. At 54, she found herself unable to pay her rent and utilities and became homeless, yet she was driven to find a job and achieve financial stability. While she was getting temporary support from her church community, a friend referred her to the Council on Aging Learning Advantages (COALA)program. The Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio, a United Way agency partner, provides the formal training for home health aides who support family caregivers and help seniors remain in their homes.

When Eva began the three-week course, she was given one pair of scrubs that she washed each night by hand and wore fresh and clean to class every day. Getting to and from the daily day-long class required a one-and-a-ha-hour bus ride each way. She graduated from the COALA program in May 2009. "It was the proudest day of my life - I never finished anything before," Eva says about her graduation. Now Eva wants to get her GED.
She immediately went to work following her graduation and has been successfully employed as a home health aide ever since. Eva is financially independent and has found a new career that should last her a lifetime.

Read more Income success stories.</sup>