The story goes that a villager discovered a baby floating down a river. He immediately jumped in to pull the baby to safety, only to see three more babies floating along. Again, he jumped in and brought the babies to safety, but more and more babies appeared. He called out to his neighbors, who began to help rescue the infants. A small group set out for the head of the river, discovering the source of the problem: an ogre was tossing babies into the river. The villagers realized it was as important to rescue the babies from the river, as get rid of the ogre.
United Way has served Rome & Floyd County faithfully for 65 years, directing dollars through competitive grants to services assisting people with immediate needs and those in crisis--pulling the babies from the water, we could say. But need is increasing and we know why. In line with new best practices, we have embarked on a more proactive approach. We’re taking on the ogre.
To improve lives for all in our community and make the greatest impact, we must identify and address the ogre, the underlying issues and complex challenges we face. Be it issues with mental health, substance abuse, lack of affordable housing, or life skills, only by aligning our efforts and focusing resources in a shared strategy can we achieve results. United We Win.
United Way works to drive and support ongoing, community-wide, collaborative partnerships between nonprofit missions, local government, business, industry, and volunteers--across sectors and divides. We align partners around a unified plan for addressing our community’s greatest social challenges; needs are defined and priorities identified together, effort we now meet with year-round support as those needs evolve.
By incentivizing connection, we are making a very deliberate commitment to a better quality of life for all people in Rome & Floyd County.