Latest Valley of the Sun United Way news and resources straight to your inbox.
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** Dear John,
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Happy February! I’m excited to share with you some of the recent happenings with our community’s MC2026 plan for Mighty Change and provide some updates on the progress we’re making together.
The past year has shown tremendous results and we’re seeing positive trends in much of the data, but we know we still have a lot of work to accomplish. We’ve seen the achievement of higher-paying employment increase from 66% to 72%. We surpassed our access to affordable health care goal of 100,000 with 272,000 additional people now covered. We saw third grade reading proficiencies decline and rebound following the pandemic, which are now beginning to level out. And we unfortunately saw the trend go in the opposite direction throughout the Valley’s housing and homelessness crisis, increasing to 9,600 from 9,000 a year ago.
As we look to the year ahead, we are diving into our community-level data to best inform the greatest opportunities and drivers of change. This includes focusing on our most impacted populations and communities. We’re seeing that seniors are being disproportionately impacted by the housing crisis and we’ll be leaning into prevention. We’ll be leading school literacy hubs and also working to address chronic absenteeism. We’re taking a specific look at addressing gaps in educational engagement, particularly among Latino youth. And we’ll be lifting up fair chance hiring so those who have been involved in the justice system have every opportunity to succeed—for themselves, for their families and for our community as a whole.
I look forward to continuing to share our MC2026 journey with you in the months ahead. Thank you for your generous support and partnership in creating a more vibrant and equitable community for all of our friends, families and neighbors across the Valley.
Sincerely,
Carla Vargas Jasa
President & CEO
WATCH OUR CEO UPDATE ([link removed])
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** We Are United Breakfast
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Please join Valley of the Sun United Way for the annual We Are United Breakfast to support Mighty Change throughout Maricopa County!
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
8:00-11:00 a.m.
8:00-9:00 a.m. Registration and Networking
9:00-10:30 a.m. Program
10:30-11:00 a.m. Post-Event Networking
Sheraton Phoenix Downtown
340 North 3rd Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85004
For table captain, sponsorship or other event questions, please email Kelli Fawcett at
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected]?subject=Inquiry%3A%20We%20Are%20United%20Breakfast&body=) .
VIEW EVENT PAGE ([link removed])
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** Education
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Meet Dawn Gerundo, one of our Valley of the Sun United Way community development and engagement directors and hear all about our education impact area and the Bold Goals ([link removed]) our community is working to achieve!
As a community we’re working together to close opportunity gaps to ensure children read at grade level by 3rd grade and youth are prepared for educational success and employment. By 2026, we will increase 3rd grade reading proficiency by 25% and increase youth age 16-24 engaged in education and employment opportunities by 38%.
Learn more about our community’s progress in our MC2026 Scorecard: 2022-2023 Report ([link removed]) .
WATCH VIDEO ([link removed])
** Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities
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** Read Across America Week | March 2-8, 2024
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Register to read with kids throughout our community! Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child, everywhere to celebrate reading on March 2nd, the birthday of the children's author Dr. Seuss. And, throughout the week of March 2-8, 2024, we will be heading out to schools throughout the Valley to bring in some fun storytelling to children ranging in grades pre-K to 3rd!
→ Select location and sign-up ([link removed])
** Emergency Breakfast Bags | March 13, 2024
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We make it simple for you to be a part of the solution, providing ongoing volunteer engagement throughout the year.
→ Sign-up today ([link removed]*0)
** 2024 LIVE UNITED Week | April 1-5, 2024
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Save the dates! Join fellow volunteers for our 2nd annual week of service as we strive to make impact in each of our four focus areas - housing & homelessness, education, workforce development, and health! Throughout the week of April 1-5, we will be bringing volunteer teams out in force across the Valley for daily opportunities to engage.
→ Pre-register ([link removed]*0)
** Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities
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We make it simple for you to be a part of the solution, providing ongoing volunteer engagement throughout the year.
→ View current opportunities ([link removed])
** The long way home: Insights into Arizona’s homelessness crisis ([link removed])
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** Arizona State University
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** If you build it, they will give: Creating an effective employee engagement program ([link removed])
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** In Business Magazine
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** Valley of the Sun United Way releases its report card ([link removed])
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** PBS
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Questions?
Reach out to our team at
(602) 631-4800 or
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected]?subject=null&body=null)
Copyright 2024, Valley of the Sun United Way. All rights reserved.
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Our mailing address is:
Valley of the Sun United Way
3200 E Camelback Rd Ste 375
Phoenix, AZ 85018-2328
USA
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