Funding through United Way’s Community Investments grants will support people experiencing poverty. In addition to grant funds, organizations will receive capacity building resources, such as programmatic technical assistance or consultative fundraising services, as well as facilitated connections between nonprofits and other funders, nonprofits, and community leaders – all toward the goal of supporting our region’s nonprofit sector and the people they serve.

These new investments come amid a continuing regional cost-of-living crisis that is putting further pressure on families. Data from United Way’s 211 Resource Helpline shows increased demand for housing assistance, food programs and other resources that help families meet their essential needs. Furthermore, data shows us that 36% of Minnesotans are living paycheck to paycheck, or ALICE: Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed.

“The nonprofit organizations in our Community Investments portfolio bring a unique depth of knowledge about the challenges facing our region,” says Shannon Smith Jones, Senior Vice President of Community Impact at Greater Twin Cities United Way. “Working in close partnership with these passionate and innovative organizations, we can ensure that families throughout the Twin Cities have the resources they need to thrive.”

Nonprofits supported by Greater Twin Cities United Way are working within one or more of the organization’s five impact areas, meant to reflect the areas of greatest need in the nine-county metro area:

• Stable housing, ensuring all families have a safe, stable and affordable place to call home.
• Food security, providing people with access to food that is nutritious, culturally relevant and affordable.
• Early childhood education, guaranteeing that families and caregivers are equipped to support children to be successful learners, and that children enter kindergarten ready to learn and thrive.
• Career and future readiness, helping youth develop the skills, relationships and mindsets to choose and direct their own future success.
• Economic opportunity, ensuring that adults enter the workforce prepared for skilled employment and increased wealth, and supporting the next generation of community entrepreneurs.

“We hear this time and time again from our partners: United Way investments are the gold standard for philanthropic partnership,” says John Wilgers, President and CEO of Greater Twin Cities United Way. “By providing flexible funding and technical assistance over multiple years, we’re affording nonprofits the stability they need to be responsive and strategic in their work supporting community.”

In addition to multiyear Community Investments grants, Greater Twin Cities United Way continues to invest in the local community through innovation initiatives such as 80×3: Resilient from the Start, Career Academies, Pathways Home and Full Lives. United Way also manages direct services such as the local 211 Resource Helpline and 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which are both available 24/7 and in multiple languages. Data from these initiatives informs United Way’s holistic grantmaking approach as well as the organization’s annual list of policy and advocacy priorities.

Providing stability for nonprofits, Community Investments grants will total $9.8 million for the first year of a three-year partnership. These organizations are receiving 2025-2028 Community Investments funding from Greater Twin Cities United Way:

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About Greater Twin Cities United Way: Greater Twin Cities United Way unites changemakers, advocates for social good and develops solutions to address the challenges no one can solve alone to create a community where all people thrive, regardless of income, race or place. For more information, visit gtcuw.org and follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and LinkedIn.

The post Amid Growing Demand for Community Resources, Greater Twin Cities United Way Announces $9.8 Million in Grants for Local Nonprofits appeared first on Greater Twin Cities United Way.

One key resource that makes this possible is our state’s Early Learning Scholarship (ELS) program, overseen by the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF). These scholarships are designed for children and families who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access quality early learning and child care – supporting families who are low-income or who experience foster care, and prioritizing those impacted by circumstances like substance use, incarceration or domestic violence.

I’m excited to share that in 2024, Greater Twin Cities United Way entered into a new partnership with the Department of Children, Youth & Families to help make important improvements to the Early Learning Scholarship program model – one which builds on our deep engagement with the early childhood sector and our unique administrative capabilities. Keep reading to learn more.

Streamlining Early Learning Scholarship Administration

Last year, over 16,000 children across the state received Early Learning Scholarships to access high quality child care and early education – a 31 percent increase over the previous year. To access scholarship funding, child care providers complete an invoicing process to receive direct payments from DCYF for child care services provided to families who have been awarded Early Learning Scholarships.

Many providers struggled with this invoice and billing process. Until 2024, these functions were divided among multiple organizations representing different regions of the state. Programs and providers often had to send invoices to multiple area administrators for payments, and area administrators differed in their processes and procedures, which created additional complications for providers.

Based on recommendations from the Great Start for All Minnesota Children Task Force and following engagement with administrators and providers, DCYF opted to centralize this invoice and billing administrative function under one roof. Beginning with the state’s 2025 fiscal year (effective July 1, 2024), Greater Twin Cities United Way entered a new role as the state’s Central Payment Administrator – providing a single, unified payment processing experience for all child care providers statewide.

“We strive for continuous improvement in the early learning scholarship program, and feedback from early care and education programs and providers showed the need for a central payment administrator,” said DCYF Commissioner Tikki Brown. “This centralized approach will increase efficiencies and reduce administrative burden for the program, which means providers spend more time with children and less time on paperwork.”

This partnership draws on many of our existing strengths as an organization. Among organizations working in early childhood education in our state, Greater Twin Cities United Way has a uniquely deep body of experience in managing the kinds of payment processing and financial tracking systems required for this role.

This, plus our record of success managing high-volume services like the 211 resource helpline and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, made Greater Twin Cities United Way a natural partner to ensure efficient and effective payment processing for Minnesota’s child care providers.

Supporting Child Care Providers Statewide

This new role has represented a significant investment for Greater Twin Cities United Way – one that is already making a positive impact for providers and families in our state.

Since last year, we’ve hired a new team of 15 staff entirely dedicated to processing Early Learning Scholarship invoices. Each provider and program now has a dedicated billing specialist, providing more personalized guidance and offering a straightforward point-of-contact when any questions arise.

Between July 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025, we have successfully:

• Processed 16,489 invoices for payment.
• Paid out $64,952,282.39 in scholarship funds.
• Served 10,667 children.
• Supported 1,385 child care providers and programs.
• Processed an average of $1.7M in scholarship payments each week.

These efforts are translating to a streamlined experience for child care providers. As one provider told us in a recent partner survey, “[Our organization] used to bill to three entities. Sometimes a child would live in one county but attend a center in another; what that meant for us is that one classroom could have multiple different payment administrators. One billing entity is a BLESSING.”

We’re also excited to launch a new invoicing portal this spring, which will further streamline and simplify the process for our providers to submit and track invoices.

Beyond the immediate benefits to child care providers and families, this centralized approach also allows for more effective tracking and monitoring.

All of this work helps child care organizations more easily get resources to serve families and frees them up to spend more time with children rather than with administrative tasks.

How You Can Help

Although our new Early Learning Scholarship partnership is fully funded by the state of Minnesota, we couldn’t have entered into this relationship without the support of Greater Twin Cities United Way donors. A gift to our Annual Fund helps ensure that we can continue to cultivate new and innovative partnerships to support families across our state.

With your help, we can continue to deepen our commitment to quality early childhood education. Join us, and help us ensure that all kids in our state have the great start they deserve.

• Join our Advocacy Network for the latest action alerts and updates on bills we’re supporting.
• Follow us on LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
• Donate to our Annual Fund, supporting all our efforts to create lasting change.

The post A Great Start for All: United Way’s Role in Early Learning Scholarships appeared first on Greater Twin Cities United Way.

I’m proud to share a few highlights of the many ways Greater Twin Cities United Way united community to meet urgent needs and make lasting change in the areas of housing, food, education and economic opportunity throughout 2024.

Every day, people contact our 211 resource helpline for help paying their bills, finding affordable housing, putting food on the table and so much more. Not only does our ability to provide crisis and referral services like 211 enable us to help our neighbors meet their everyday needs, but it also provides valuable data that we use to evaluate and respond to community needs.

We also continue to operate the Twin Cities call center for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline through a partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health. Entering our fifth year as the local provider, 988 has proven to be a vital lifeline for tens of thousands of Minnesotans, with 988 operators responding to 90 calls, texts or chats per day. You can learn more about how 988 became Minnesota’s go-to call for mental health crisis help in this article by Minnesota Public Radio.

Advocating for Affordable Housing

Data from our 211 resource helpline indicates that housing continues to be the most pressing need for people in our community. That is why we made stable and affordable housing one of our key policy objectives in the 2024 state legislative session. We know that by advocating for meaningful funding increases and policy changes in housing, we can help prevent homelessness and improve the quality of life for our neighbors.  

Together with our partners, we successfully advocated at the state legislature for increased funding for Minnesota’s Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program — a program that provides temporary supportive services and financial assistance to eligible households experiencing a housing crisis. As a result, more families who are at risk of homelessness will be able to stay in their homes.  

A shortage of affordable housing options is making the housing crisis in our region more severe. To address this ongoing challenge, we championed the legislature for $50 million in Housing Infrastructure Bonds to promote multifamily housing development — deepening our state’s investment in affordable housing.  

Learn more about Greater Twin Cities United Way’s impact in housing through our Pathways Home initiative to prevent homelessness for youth transitioning from incarceration or the foster system.  

Learn more about Greater Twin Cities United Way’s vision for stable and affordable housing in the 2025 legislative session. 

Nurturing Our Regional Food System

Equitable access to food that is affordable and meets the dietary needs and cultural preferences of our neighbors is essential to nourishing a thriving community. That’s why in the fall of 2024 we announced the relaunch of our Full Lives initiative focused on building and strengthening our regional food system.

Expanding on the success of our first Full Lives initiative, which focused on food organizations working within North Minneapolis, we’re broadening our impact by partnering with organizations who are working across the regional food system, including food shelves, urban farms and food entrepreneurship incubators.

We’ve invested $1.2 million in grant funding to support four nonprofit collaborative efforts working across the regional food system to support farmers and community agriculture, incubate new food businesses, and even teach families new ways to cook fresh foods. Together, we are creating a stronger, more equitable regional food system that nourishes families and creates wealth.

Building Foundations For Educational Success

A child’s educational journey begins the moment they enter the world — and their experiences in the first three years of life have a significant impact on their long-term health and wellbeing. Two years ago, we launched the 80×3: Resilient from the Start initiative to expand trauma-sensitive care so our littlest learners have the tools to overcome adverse childhood experiences. Today, more than 500 children have already benefitted from our work and that number is growing.

Through 80×3, we’re working with child care partners to implement new forms of trauma-informed and culturally responsive care. We’re also bolstering our support of child care professionals by providing access to mental health care. Our funding also provides critical resources for child care providers to recruit and retain staff. These efforts are meeting urgent needs and making an impact in the classroom for children, families and childcare professionals.

We continue to make lasting change for educational success through our advocacy work. In 2024, we helped secure more than $50 million in funding for childhood literacy and pre-kindergarten programs, ensuring more young learners have the opportunity to succeed.

Additionally, in our role as administrator for the Minnesota Department of Education’s Early Learning Scholarship Awards (ELSA), we’re helping streamline access to early-childhood scholarships by centralizing payments to providers, which helps reduce child care waitlists so more families can find care.

Looking Forward to 2025

Thank you for helping make the Greater Twin Cities a thriving community where all belong. To learn more about Greater Twin Cities United Way’s impact, check out our new video featuring Shannon Smith Jones, our senior vice president of community impact.

How You Can Get Involved

• Donate to our Annual Fund, supporting all our efforts to create lasting change.
• Volunteer your time and talents to help meet the urgent needs of people in our community.
• Join our relaunched Advocacy Network for the latest action alerts and updates on bills we’re supporting.

The post Reflecting On Our Impact In 2024 appeared first on Greater Twin Cities United Way.

That’s why Greater Twin Cities United Way works with community partners across the metro to advance educational success in our region by meeting families’ most urgent needs and creating lasting change that will follow our youngest community members into adulthood.  

Meeting urgent needs 

To ensure all children and their families have what they need to thrive, we connect parents and educators via 211 to resources that help families access housing, put food on the table and meet other basic needs. Additionally, 211 connects youth and families to learning opportunities and responds to mental health crises and ongoing needs through 988 and 211. One in 10 callers to 988 is a child younger than 15. 

Generous volunteers help provide backpacks full of school supplies for 45,000 local students through our Action Day volunteer initiative. Action Day helps make education accessible, affordable and inclusive to all students so they can thrive in the classroom and beyond. 

To further support families and our youngest learners, Greater Twin Cities United Way partners with and funds early-childhood care and education partners committed to children’s development and parent’s success. Early-childhood success provides the foundation from which individuals and their families achieve greater life outcomes in community, academics, health and the workforce. 

We support the development of our region’s youth by funds youth-serving organizations aligned with young people’s developmental and cultural strengths and we create opportunities for young people to use their voices and lead. 

Creating lasting change for Minnesota youth 

Our innovation initiatives invest deeply to overcome the most persistent barriers in our education system. We work to protect, advance and expand early childhood, after school, and career pathway programs so that all children will be prepared to thrive academically, personally and socially. 

Innovation initiative: 80×3 

80×3, an early childhood education and care initiative launched by Greater Twin Cities United Way in 2022, is on a mission to address and minimize the impacts of childhood trauma and expand our region’s capacity to deliver trauma-sensitive care. 

Research shows trauma-sensitive caregiving can help children grow their resiliency, and a wide body of evidence demonstrates long-lasting benefits of early intervention that follow children into adulthood resulting in higher educational attainment and higher wages. By collaborating with nonprofits and the public agencies that guide and train providers, 80×3 supports local early childhood education and care programs to effectively integrate trauma-sensitive care.  

Four Directions Center: Meeting Urgent Needs and Creating Lasting Change 

Four Directions Center is a therapeutic preschool in South Minneapolis that partners with Greater Twin Cities United Way to meet urgent needs and create lasting change as an 80×3 partner. The center provides culturally responsive early-childhood education to prepare children ages six weeks to 12 years for success through full-day, year-round education and care, including access to Ojibwe and Dakota language immersion classrooms. 

“Partnering with the United Way has helped us tremendously with the families in the community we work with,” said Kelly Suzick, assistant director at Four Directions Center. “We build on each other with the families and the kids we work with every day.” 

Innovation initiative: Career Academies 

Since 2015, our Career Academies innovation initiative has partnered with school districts, employers, higher education institutions and youth organizations to establish new career pathways programs for young people. This work is helping connect young people to high-wage, in-demand career opportunities, while simultaneously closing local employment gaps and promoting greater diversity in the workforce. 

Career Academies open doors to diverse industries, engaging students in progressively deeper engagements with in-demand careers. Working together with Minnesota employers, Career Academies builds tailored programs that directly address the specific needs and job opportunities within each local community.  expanding statewide, this Greater Twin Cities United Way innovation initiative advances equity by opening pathways for young people in households earning low incomes and in Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian and Pacific Islander communities and Communities of Color to access wealth-building careers.  

Driving systemic change for young people in Minnesota 

Our bipartisan advocacy work at the local, state and national level is an important part of how we partner with community organizations and policy makers to create transformative, lasting change. We advocate for policy shifts and work in coalitions to widen our collective impact – accomplishing change far beyond what any organization can do alone. Our advocacy team works to build lawmakers’ support for policy shifts and new investments. 

Our 2024 policy and advocacy agenda centers families, young people, and children prenatal to age five in a variety of ways. Greater Twin Cities United Way is focused on the following issues:  

• Provide young people the tools to graduate high school in a position to enter high-wage, high-demand careers through career pathways programs and high-quality out-of-school programs 

• Remove governmental barriers to wealth-building opportunities for families and individuals to achieve economic stability 

• Stabilize and encourage a robust and diverse workforce through recruitment, retention, livable wages, and mental health support, specifically in Early Childcare and Education 

• Increase access to affordable, trauma-sensitive, culturally responsive childcare and early childhood education 

Learn more about our impact at the legislature in 2024.  

A further look into educational success  

Greater Twin Cities United Way advances success in education by meeting youth and families’ urgent needs and by creating lasting change through innovation initiatives and advocacy. We exist to fuel lasting change that will help us achieve our vision of a community where all people thrive, including our youngest community members and the people that support them, regardless of income, race, or place.  

1. See 80×3 in action and learn more about the impact of our initiative focused on early childhood.  

2. Hear from subject and program experts on 80×3’s focus on equity.  

3. See Career Academies in action and learn more about the impact of our youth-focused initiative.  

4. Learn more about how our 80×3 and Career Academies initiatives are building movements for change.  

5. Explore our advocacy work to understand more about how we are advancing educational success in our region.  

6. Celebrate the advocacy work we’ve accomplished in the past, setting the stage for further policy implementation in our current and future advocacy efforts.  

The post Educational Success: Supporting Communities Where Children and Families Belong appeared first on Greater Twin Cities United Way.

This was not a conference or a professional development day, and we had no business on the agenda. We simply wanted to give our partners and families the chance to connect. Again and again, the feedback from our attendees was clear: We needed this.

This has been a common refrain since 80×3 launched in 2022. We’ve worked with partners across the state – from families and child care providers, to philanthropic funders and state agencies – to support early child care that meets the needs of all families and caregivers.

That means care that is trauma-sensitive, helping kids and families navigate the hardships they face, and which is culturally responsive to the community’s values and traditions.

More than 500 children have already benefitted from 80×3’s work – but this is only the beginning. With the right public investments and resources for our communities, we can ensure that every child in our state has a great start. Two years in, we have a lot to celebrate.

Supporting our child care professionals

Funding from 80×3 has helped our child care partners implement new forms of trauma-sensitive and culturally responsive care – maintaining competitive compensation for their staff; investing in new curriculum and training materials; and providing support for parent, child and staff trauma.

We deepened that support through our partnership with Creative Kuponya, offering mental health support for child care professionals through healing circles and one-on-one support.

This work is normalizing mental health care among child care professionals – helping them get the support they need, so they can be present and engaged in the classroom. One of our cohort members called this “the biggest gift ever.”

Advocating for change in early childhood care

Our partners in the classroom tell us that our work is making an impact, but we know that lasting change requires new statewide policies and practices – prioritizing trauma-sensitive and culturally responsive care at every level of our child care system. This year, United Way and our 80×3 partners advocated for two key policy shifts that took effect on July 1.

First, updates to the state of Minnesota’s Early Learning Scholarships program expanded the criteria for eligible families, making scholarships available for children facing a wider range of adverse childhood experiences (like an incarcerated parent, to give one example). These updated scholarship criteria are a crucial step in ensuring our child care system can engage families impacted by trauma.

At the same time, 80×3’s advocacy was pivotal in driving updates to the statewide Parent Aware rating system. As of July 1, child care providers at or above a two-star rating are now required to demonstrate competency in trauma-sensitive and culturally responsive care. This new requirement will provide families with a clearer indicator of their provider’s capabilities – helping them ensure that their kids are getting the support they need.

Together, these shifts are bringing us closer to establishing trauma-sensitive and culturally responsive practices as the baseline for child care in our state.

The way forward for early childhood

While 80×3 has been pivotal in bringing this work to life, we know that the people who best understand the challenges are those who navigate it every day. The early childhood education professionals and leaders we’ve partnered with, and the children and families who have come into their centers, have shown us the path forward. Looking ahead, our team is already hard at work on our next funding opportunity for child care providers, which we expect to make available next year.

All of this work takes place in dialogue with United Way’s other work in early childhood education – working in partnership with our advocacy and grantmaking teams to meet the holistic needs of families in our state. This is just one part of the greater impact we’re able to achieve for kids and families.

You can play a part too. A gift to our annual fund helps deepen our impact – driving lasting change through initiatives like 80×3, while continuing to meet the urgent needs of families in our region and state.

Stay Connected

• Keep up to date with the latest 80×3 news by following Greater Twin Cities United Way on Facebook, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).
• Sign up for email updates and access trauma-sensitive resources for parents and caregivers at 80×3.org.
• Make a gift to our Annual Fund today.

The post Two Years of 80×3: The Progress We’ve Made Together appeared first on Greater Twin Cities United Way.

MINNEAPOLIS (Aug. 14, 2024) – Greater Twin Cities United Way (United Way) announced today the release of its 2023 Community Impact Report, which includes the results of its work with partners across the region. In 2023, United Way served more than half a million people, meeting urgent needs while making lasting change in the areas of housing, food, education and jobs.

To address immediate needs, United Way continued providing direct service through its 211 resource helpline and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, grantmaking to local area nonprofits, and volunteerism engagement initiatives, such as Action Day. To create lasting change, United Way continued advocating alongside coalition partners for state investments in essential services, such as housing and child care; invested in innovative programs that focus on transforming systems; and launched Pathways Home, a new initiative aimed at preventing homelessness for youth transitioning from incarceration or foster care.

“In 2023, our collaborative efforts with local nonprofits, businesses, donors, volunteers, and advocates yielded meaningful results,” said John Wilgers, President & CEO, Greater Twin Cities United Way. “Together, we transformed lives by addressing immediate needs while also working tirelessly to dismantle barriers related to income, race, and place. Through our shared commitment, we’re building a future where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.”

Meeting Urgent Needs Through 211 and 988

Every day, people seeking help paying bills, finding food and locating other resources contact United Way’s 211 resource helpline. In 2023, United Way responded to over 342,000 requests to 211 from people across Minnesota – a 10 percent increase over 2022. Housing continued to be the most requested 211 resource, followed by utilities and energy assistance. Food was the third most requested resource – and the fastest increasing – likely due to inflation during 2023.

United Way also continued providing support as a local call center for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. In 2023, United Way crisis counselors answered over 24,000 calls to 988 – a 36 percent increase over 2022 – providing emotional support for people experiencing thoughts of suicide, substance use or other mental health crises. Callers reached out for a variety of reasons, including needing a listening ear (81 percent), preventing a progression to suicidal thoughts (12 percent), and imminent crisis (7 percent).

Creating Meaningful Impact Through Volunteerism

United Way mobilized thousands of volunteers last year through essential supply drives, community volunteer events and more. In 2023, generous volunteers helped provide 45,000 students with backpacks full of school supplies so they can thrive in the classroom and 1,400 families transitioning from homelessness to stable housing with welcome home bins full of essential household items. Volunteers also assembled 13,000 culturally relevant food packs – the equivalent of 50,000 meals – so that families using neighborhood food shelves have access to familiar flavors and foods.

Making Lasting Change Through Innovation and Advocacy

Based on deep learning in community, in June 2023, United Way launched Pathways Home, a new initiative focused on preventing homelessness for those most vulnerable to experiencing it: youth who are exiting the foster care system and/or transitioning from incarceration. As part of the launch, United Way deployed $1.2 million to its first cohort of 11 nonprofit partners. With a focus on lasting change, Pathways Home is also convening those who hold power in the foster care and corrections systems to collaborate on meaningful solutions.

In 2023, United Way celebrated its most consequential advocacy agenda ever. Together with its advocacy coalition partners, United Way successfully advocated for new investments to promote stable and affordable housing – totaling more than $1 billion, the single largest investment in housing in Minnesota history. Other advocacy wins included the passage and implementation of free school meals; a historic $2 billion investment in the state’s childcare system and workforce; and a $1 million investment in Career Academies, a United Way initiative focused on career pathways for youth.

See more of the impact Greater Twin Cities United Way and its partners made possible in our report.

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About Greater Twin Cities United Way: Greater Twin Cities United Way unites changemakers, advocates for social good and develops solutions to address the challenges no one can solve alone to create a community where all people thrive. For more information, visit www.gtcuw.org and follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and LinkedIn. 

The post Greater Twin Cities United Way Announces 2023 Community Impact Results appeared first on Greater Twin Cities United Way.

In February, we launched 80×3.org, a free toolkit for families, educators, child care advocates and more – connecting them with resources to help make trauma-sensitive child care a reality in their communities.

Earlier this month, we followed that with the launch of CareerAcademies.org, a free toolkit to help educators and employers implement career pathways programs for young adults in their communities.

Both websites represent a new phase for our innovation initiatives as we work to expand our impact statewide – taking the tools that we’ve developed with our partners and opening them up to wider audiences than ever before. Building on the breadth and depth of our community partnerships, this is a role in which Greater Twin Cities United Way is uniquely positioned to serve.

Community partnerships for trauma-sensitive care

80×3, our innovation initiative focused on trauma-sensitive early child care and education, launched in 2022. Since then, the funding and technical support offered by 80×3 has helped child care providers and educators implement new resources to address and mitigate the effects of childhood trauma during those most critical early years.

Building on the lessons we’ve learned with our first funded partners, 80×3.org opens our toolkit to offer information and resources for all community members to play a role – including families, neighbors, educators, child care advocates and lawmakers. The resources at 80×3.org will allow all early education and child care organizations to begin embedding trauma-sensitive skills within their work.

Resources on 80×3.org include our 49-page implementation guide for child care centers, which provides a thorough overview of the steps they can take to replicate 80×3’s work in their community.

Learn more about how you can help support trauma-sensitive child care in your community at 80×3.org.

Aligning education with youth career opportunities

Since 2015, our Career Academies innovation initiative has partnered with school districts, employers, higher education institutions and youth organizations to establish new career pathways programs for young people. This work is helping connect young people to high-wage, in-demand career opportunities, while simultaneously closing local employment gaps and promoting greater diversity in the workforce.

CareerAcademies.org is built to amplify this impact – making available a new set of resources for school systems, employers and other stakeholders who play a vital role in creating career pathways programs.

We curated and developed our new toolkit in partnership with Jobs for the Future, a national leader in promoting career pathways and long-time ally of Career Academies.

Learn more about charting new career pathways in your community at CareerAcademies.org.

Toolkits for community impact

What 80×3 and Career Academies share is a commitment to changing systems – bringing about a fundamental shift in the way that our institutions and public systems approach education and youth development.

Through increased access to our resources and learnings, 80×3 and Career Academies will achieve greater impact in building new partnerships, shifting public awareness and influencing funding decisions to ensure that all young people in our state have the opportunities they need.

But we know that it is not enough to offer up helpful resources without additional support for implementation. This year, both Career Academies and 80×3 will be providing a set of implementation grants that provide additional funding for our nonprofit partners to put this knowledge into practice. Our program officers will continue to serve as trusted consultants for our partners as well, providing guidance and technical assistance to help them problem-solve and innovate in real-time.

These are just two examples of the transformative impact that Greater Twin Cities is working to advance throughout our state. You can help support this work by resharing our social media posts and spreading the word among your friends, colleagues and neighbors. You can also make a gift to our Community Impact Fund to help strengthen education for all Minnesotans.

Stay Connected

• Keep up to date with the latest 80×3 and Career Academies news by following Greater Twin Cities United Way on Facebook, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).
• Sign up for email updates at 80×3.org and CareerAcademies.org.
• Make a gift to our Community Impact Fund today.

The post Toolkits for Impact: How 80×3 and Career Academies are Building Movements for Change appeared first on Greater Twin Cities United Way.

Through funding, coaching, training, and peer-to-peer networks, Career Academies provides comprehensive support to foster collaboration among leaders from communities across Minnesota.

“These programs open doors for students to high-wage, high-demand industries, allowing them to explore career possibilities,” said Liz Williams, Senior Program Officer of Career Academies at Greater Twin Cities United Way. “Our new website is a hub for administrators, educators, employers, and community organizations to access resources, connect with opportunities, and drive meaningful change in Minnesota’s education and workforce landscape. Working hand-in-hand with Minnesota education institutions and employers, we tailor our programs to address each local community’s unique needs and job opportunities.”

Career Academies offers programs in more than 50 communities across Minnesota, spanning a wide range of fields such as Business, Management, and Administration; Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources; Arts, Communications and Information Systems; Human Services and Education; Health Science Technology; Engineering, Manufacturing, and Technology; and Automotive.

Since its inception, Greater Twin Cities United Way’s Career Academies’ programs have connected employer partners, school districts, and post-secondary institutions, benefitting more than 20,000 students statewide.

For more information about Career Academies and its initiatives, please visit the new website at https://careeracademies.org/.

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About Greater Twin Cities United Way: Greater Twin Cities United Way unites changemakers, advocates for social good and develops solutions to address the challenges no one can solve alone to create a community where all people thrive. The organization serves the community through five key offerings: Crisis and Information Support (211 resource helpline, 988 Crisis and Suicide Lifeline), innovation initiatives, nonprofit partnerships, advocacy work with legislators, and business and individual donor partnerships. For more information, visit www.gtcuw.org and follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and LinkedIn.

Media Contact: press@gtcuw.org

The post New Website: Reshaping How Minnesota Prepares Students for The Future appeared first on Greater Twin Cities United Way.

Trauma-sensitive caregiving fosters resilience and positive outcomes, particularly in marginalized communities disproportionately affected by ACEs. This early intervention can yield lifelong benefits, including improved physical and mental health, higher education attainment, increased earning potential, and more. By collaborating with nonprofits and government agencies, 80×3 empowers local early childhood education and care programs to integrate trauma-sensitive practices effectively.

“With the launch of 80×3’s new site, we’re creating new opportunities for a future in which every child has the opportunity to flourish, no matter the environment they are born into. We are committed to ensuring that no child’s potential is stifled by adversity,” said Jamie Bonczyk, program lead for 80×3 in the Twin Cities. “We are so excited to work with our local partners across the state to provide life-changing care to Minnesota’s children. We’re flipping the narrative and building communities where resilience and opportunity thrive.”

For more information about the 80×3 initiative and to access resources, visit 80×3.org.

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About Greater Twin Cities United Way: Greater Twin Cities United Way unites changemakers, advocates for social good and develops solutions to address the challenges no one can solve alone to create a community where all people thrive. The organization serves the community through five key offerings: Crisis and Information Support (211 resource helpline, 988 Crisis and Suicide Lifeline), innovation initiatives, nonprofit partnerships, advocacy work with legislators, and business and individual donor partnerships. For more information, visit www.gtcuw.org and follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and LinkedIn.

Media Contact: press@gtcuw.org

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MINNEAPOLIS (Jan. 25, 2024) — Greater Twin Cities United Way (United Way) today unveiled its policy priorities and advocacy agenda for the 2024 Minnesota state legislative session. Informed by the input of more than 100 nonprofit partners, coalition partners, staff and other key stakeholders, the agenda focuses on policies and funding that promote safe and affordable housing, provide young people with pathways to high-wage employment, and remove barriers to individual wealth-building. New this year, United Way is also seeking funding to widen the reach and accessibility of its 211 resource helpline.

United Way’s four lead advocacy issues for the 2024 legislative session are:

• Remove barriers to safe, affordable housing, by prioritizing populations at highest risk of homelessness.
• Provide young people the tools to graduate high school in a position to enter high-wage, high-demand careers through career pathways programs and high-quality out-of-school programs.
• Remove governmental barriers to wealth-building opportunities for families and individuals to achieve economic stability.
• Secure sustainable funding for United Way’s 211 resource helpline to provide reliable access to statewide services.

“The transformative investments that were accomplished during the last legislative session are already making an impact in our communities,” said Shannon Smith Jones, Senior Vice President of Community Impact at Greater Twin Cities United Way. “Building on these achievements, lawmakers have a critical opportunity to meet the needs faced by our communities through the establishment of new support systems in areas like housing and education.”

United Way recently surveyed its nonprofit partners and other stakeholders to better understand community needs and what issues to support at the Capitol. This information, coupled with real-time data from United Way’s 211 resource helpline and 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, informs United Way’s policy and advocacy agenda.

“This agenda responds directly to the important issues raised by our advocacy partners and stakeholders over several months of sustained engagement,” said Susan Carter, Director of Advocacy and External Engagement at Greater Twin Cities United Way. “Their perspectives have deeply informed the common-sense policy and funding shifts we will be advancing this year at the Capitol.”

Learn more about Greater Twin Cities United Way’s 2024 Policy and Advocacy Agenda.

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About Greater Twin Cities United Way: Greater Twin Cities United Way unites changemakers, advocates for social good and develops solutions to address the challenges no one can solve alone to create a community where all people thrive. The organization serves the community through five key offerings: Crisis and Information Support (211 resource helpline, 988 Crisis and Suicide Lifeline), innovation initiatives, nonprofit partnerships, advocacy work with legislators, and business and individual donor partnerships. For more information, visit www.gtcuw.org and follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram and LinkedIn.

Media Contact: Sam Daub, Greater Twin Cities United Way, sam.daub@gtcuw.org, 612-340-7425

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