Photos above, courtesy of United Way: (1) Dan Stevens, Pacificsource and Ken Wilhelm, United Way (2) Coby Horton, U.S. Bank
Our community needs YOU! That’s the theme for the 2016/17 Annual Campaign for United Way of Deschutes County. The campaign officially kicked off today with nearly 100 representatives from dozens of local companies and non-profit agencies in attendance.
Coby Horton, regional president for U.S. Bank, was introduced as the 2016 Volunteer Campaign Chair for United Way of Deschutes County.
Announcing the $1.4 million campaign goal Horton said, “What we do now determines the future. We need YOU to help improve lives and create a healthier, more prosperous community where all people have the opportunity to succeed, especially our children. By focusing on education, health and basic needs, and child abuse prevention we’re able to create positive outcomes and change the lives of thousands of local kids.”
Referring to ground-breaking initiative work in Central Oregon, United Way Executive Director Ken Wilhelm explained, “We have to come together and work harder to help protect our children and future generations from toxic stress and chronic health conditions associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences – also known as ACEs. United Way is uniquely poised to bring together people and organizations with the passion and expertise to seek out root causes and make lasting, measurable change.”
Last year, through United Way, individuals, local businesses, municipalities and schools, were able to help nearly 60,000 people in Deschutes County!
United Way’s Community Campaign runs now through November 18. There are many ways to get involved with the campaign. You can donate through payroll deduction at your workplace or make direct, personal contributions online at www.liveunitedco.org, by mail to PO Box 5969, Bend, OR 97708 or calling the United Way at 541-389-6507.
Collective Action for Greater Impact
Similar to United Ways across the country, United Way of Deschutes County is at a crossroads, challenged by a growing perception of non-relevance and needing to demonstrate greater impact in our community. It has become clear that it will take more than an agency-by-agency or program-by-program approach to make significant and lasting improvement in complex and interrelated social issues affecting our community.
It will take collective action. That is why we are transforming the way we do business to achieve greater impact. We are bringing together people and organizations with the expertise, resources and passion needed to create and implement collaborative, community-wide, cross-sector strategies necessary to make visible, lasting changes in the difficult issues that affect us all.
Because of conclusive evidence that intertwines severe stress and trauma in early childhood with educational achievement and long-term health, United Way has chosen the critical issue of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as the focus of this new collective action approach. ACEs refers to severely distressed family environments of children including those with physical, sexual and emotional abuse, incarcerated parents, mental illness, drug abuse and domestic partner violence.
These situations create toxic stress that diminishes the size, development, and health of a young child’s brain and cause learning difficulties and emotional/behavioral problems that negatively affect educational success and long-term health.
The more ACEs a child experiences, the higher the risk of developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, depression, and diabetes as an adult.The good news is that ACEs can be prevented and their negative outcomes reduced. That is why United Way of Deschutes County is bringing together representatives from health, education, and the non-profit sector to develop a community-wide initiative to reduce the incidence of ACEs, build resilience and promote health and well-being in children, families and our community.
