Bucks
United Way Girl Scouts in Bucks and Lehigh
Dear friends,
Good morning. The United Way organizations in Bucks and Lehigh Counties are changing their emphasis on agency contributions. My antennae sprang to attention when I read that the United Way of the Lehigh Valley was eliminating its appropriation to the Girl Scouts and was drastically cutting its funding to the Boy Scouts as well.
Ann Meredith is the CEO of the Girl Scouts in the five county areas of Southeast Pennsylvania plus Berks, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties. In our family, we have two Meredith’s with the same first name. Anne is our screenwriter daughter. Ann is the mother of our two grandchildren and the chief of the Girl Scouts.
Shortly after the announcement that the Lehigh Valley Girl Scouts would receive nothing from the United Way for the next three years, I met Susan Gilmore, the President and CEO of United Way, Lehigh Valley. She was making a presentation to the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation where I serve on its board of governors.
After I heard her explanation about the drastic change, I wondered how the United Way in Bucks County was faring? More about them in a moment.
“Our donors want to know what difference our contributions are making in the communities,” Gilmore began. “We believe that the education system is the answer to ending the poverty cycle.
“Our former philosophy [in the Lehigh Valley United Way] was to give to those organizations that ask for help,” Gilmore continued. “Today, we want to solve problems caused by poverty and we’re looking for innovative proposals, that have to be measurable.”
She told me that the poverty level is $20,000 for a family of four. “To make $44,000 per year, both parents must work 110 hours per week at the minimum wage,” Gilmore said. “That’s 50 hours of work for each parent. What’s happening to family life in these situations?”
To improve the lives of the poor, Lehigh Valley United Way will give most of its funds to pre-school and school-age programs. United Way [LV] wants to keep schools open longer for students and help their parents learn through the neighborhood schools. “We want to turn schools into community centers,” Gilmore added. “We want to fund programs which will build strong neighborhoods. And we want programs which will keep the elderly in their homes.”
She told me that if a child is not reading by the third grade, “They’ll never catch up,” Gilmore said. “There’s a sentence of failure hanging over their heads. The lack of a basic education is devastating. Each year, more than 1,000 children don’t graduate from high school. In Pennsylvania, 75 percent of the prison population doesn’t have a high school diploma.”
You can readily understand Lehigh Valley problems when you consider these statistics: One in six children has a mother without a high school education; 28 percent of third graders are not reading on grade level; 40 percent of Allentown children live in poverty; 42 percent of heads of households living in shelters are employed; 30 percent of older adults have low income or are in poverty.
“So we have to abandon the “Spray [funds around] and Pray [that it works]” style of yesterday and instead, concentrate on narrowly focused, individual approaches,” she concluded.
That may be understandable, but how do organizations like the Boy and Girl Scouts adjust to a suddenly changed economic landscape?
“We’re not changing our model,” William Schofield told me. He’s the President and CEO of United Way Bucks County. Like his colleague in the Lehigh Valley, Schofield says that “We need to get to the root cause of problems in America.
“Our donors want to measure how we’re affecting life,” Schofield continued. “They want to know if we’re making a difference.”
Bucks United Way has reduced funding from 90 programs to 70 and reduced the agencies from 50 to 33. Like the Lehigh Valley, Bucks United Way is putting the major influence on early childhood education, poverty and health. “We need to maintain a safety net,” Schofield said.
Susan Gilmore told me that Bucks County has one of the highest median incomes in Pennsylvania. But the poorest of the poor are often nearly invisible. The United Ways of Bucks County and the Lehigh Valley have their hands full. There’s never enough money to go around.
It must be agonizing to have to decide what organizations will receive less funding…or as the Girl Scouts of the Lehigh Valley are experiencing, zero!
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith