Impact Areas

EDUCATION
We subsidize quality, affordable child care and family support, and provide before and after school activities for youth so that parents can afford to work knowing that their children are safe, learning and mentored.

PROBLEMS

• Affordable quality child care is out of reach for many, with child care ranking as one of the top three household expenses in every Maryland jurisdiction.
• More than 5,200 high school students in central Maryland dropped out.

Source: Maryland Child Care Resource, Kids Count 2007

SOLUTIONS

• United Way credentialed 168 child care providers, ensuring that affordable, quality care is available to low-income families.
• 2,119 youth received dropout prevention services.
• We work with state delegates and the Maryland Committee for Children to expand universal pre-kindergarten to military families and beyond.
• United Way staff serve on the Governor’s Early Care and Education Committee, playing a key role in advising the state.
• Dream & Flourish, a partnership with Procter & Gamble (Cover Girl) and Baltimore County Schools, helps mentor and inspire middle school girls.

Income
We provide support for resources that help people survive and we work to ensure families have safe, affordable housing and the means to keep it.

PROBLEMS

• More than 14,000 evictions took place in central Maryland in 2008.
• The fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in central Maryland is $1,037. That means, earning minimum wage, a person has to work 3.0 full-time jobs to afford the apartment.

Source: Maryland Judiciary, National Low Income Housing Coalition

SOLUTIONS

• 1,548 low-income or homeless individuals and families obtained or remained in safe and stable housing for at least one year.
• 2,804 people received services like job training and credit repair to help them find permanent housing.
• To combat homelessness, United Way sits on local homelessness planning committees, guiding plans to make homelessness rare and brief.
• We worked with the Maryland Alliance for the Poor, a collaboration of agencies representing needs of the poor, building the case for legislation to study poverty issues and make recommendations in this difficult climate.

Health
United Way helps agencies provide shelter, legal protection and other core services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse, problems that tend to rise in families enduring economic pressures.

PROBLEMS

• There were 19,391 domestic violence crimes in Maryland.
• In central Maryland, there were 15,000 reported cases of child abuse and neglect – 50 percent of the state’s totals.

Source: Crime in Maryland: 2007 Uniform Crime Report, State of Maryland Department of Human Services, Child Protective Services Data, 2005

SOLUTIONS

• 703 victims of violence or abuse were able to access and receive core services to help them.
• 166 victims accessed legal representation that ended with a positive outcome.
• United Way is one of the largest private funders of victim services in Maryland.
• Part of the Universal HealthCare Access Campaign, United Way is working with Healthcare for All to help cover all Marylanders.

The solution numbers are aggregated from four quarters. There are several instances where the numbers may be duplicated.