Worcester Business Journal

W o r c e s t e r 3 0 0 : C i t y o f I n n o v a t o r s 91 T he United Way of Central Massachusetts has been serving our community for 102 years. We have been instrumental in helping those most vulnerable find support and comfort in the most challenging of times. From the days of our first grant to the "Free Milk Society" in the 1920's to the "Worcester Together" response during the pandemic, we have been at the forefront of improving lives and providing stability for those most in need. In many ways, we are 'the people's philanthropy' in that our work is centered around partnerships. YouthConnect, Dollar $cholars, the RAMP program, the Afghan Refugee relief effort, Hotel Grace, 'Farm to Market to Pantry to Table, and United for Ukraine have all been created through partnership. When the need is urgent we act. When we learned about 'summer slide' we helped to develop and have funded the Summer Literacy Initiative for more than ten years. When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, we responded with a community relief effort. When COVID prevented children from attending school, we worked in partnership to create the 'Worcester Remote Learning Hub' with ten agencies that served 1,300 students. In the past year, when UMass Chan Medical School proposed and developed the Vaccine Corps concept, we stepped up and served as the largest local funder of this initiative. Medical and nursing students were trained to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. is increased capacity and sped up distribution to fight the coronavirus, with 84,000 people vaccinated with the help of 7,200 volunteers. Our vaccine equity efforts also included working with the City's Departments of Health and Human Services and Public Health. Vaccine clinics and pop-up sites were held in neighborhoods and communities throughout Central Massachusetts. e clinics focused on bringing the vaccine to our neighborhoods. e effort resulted in more than 18,000 vaccines being administered with 73% of those participants representing Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC). Our deep engagement in, with, and through the community can be witnessed in our volunteer corps, our generous contributors, and our agency partners. One of our greatest strengths is our deep, authentic connection to the community. We visit with our funded agencies regularly; we know our donors and those in the business community and we offer many engagement opportunities for volunteers. Our strong ties with the business community are at the core of our organization. We are proud of the long-time partnerships that have developed and have been sustained through financial support and engagement. Employees who volunteer through our United Way gain invaluable leadership skills which lead them to even greater success in their professional lives. As to our future and the next 100 years of the United Way of Central Massachusetts, we will strive to continue to provide leadership and financial support to those most in need in our community as well as diverse and thoughtful engagement opportunities for our business partners. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it has taught us to be bold and to work nimbly and strategically to be the beacon of hope and strength for our community. n UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS: Serving Our Community for 102 Years 484 Main Street, Suite 300 Worcester, MA 01608 508-757-5631 www.unitedwaycm.org Timothy J. Garvin, President & CEO Year Founded: 1920 "Please know all of us at SEACMA and all the people we serve who come from all over the world, broken and displaced, now have been able to have hope and tangible resources to rebuild our lives because of the United Way." – Anh Vu Sawyer, Southeast Asian Coalition of Central MA S P O N S O R E D P R O F I L E S

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