By David Rabin
Imagine a Greenwich without many of the organizations and programs that, for decades, have aided our most vulnerable citizens in areas like:
– special needs and disabilities
– adult day care
– domestic abuse
– transportation for those in need
– crisis counseling for children and adolescents
– and scores more!
The work of the Greenwich United Way (GUW) has brought our town all the above and so much more. Our website contains a comprehensive list under “accomplishments”.
Now, imagine a Greenwich WITH a brand new, state-of-the-art Youth & Adolescent Mental Health Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP). Opened in December 2024, the facility is scheduled to treat over 400 of our youth annually. It exists today, in Greenwich, solely due to our partnership with Yale New Haven / Greenwich Hospital. This is an issue that has touched all of us and now a solution exists in town for our children.
When it comes to identifying a need, raising awareness and support, and developing lasting solutions, no one does it better for the last 90 years than GUW.
Our Needs Assessment, performed every 5 years (the next one will be available this year), is our blueprint as it relates to the top human services needs in Greenwich. We take that data and develop ways to address those needs in the most data-driven and cost-effective ways possible. In other words, we find it and we fix it! Visit our website at greenwichunitedway.org and see how the Needs Assessment details what we do and why. Some of the data may surprise you. For example, the federal poverty level and ALICE (Asset Limited Income Constrained, Employed) populations combine to make up almost one-third of the population of Greenwich.
If you want to ensure the most positive impact (for Greenwich residents) of your donor dollar, then your best bet is contributing to our Annual Campaign each year. The microscopic, deep dive we do into every applicant’s annual budget, audited financials, and tax returns, along with other criteria, allows us to do the work, so you don’t have to…giving you, our loyal donors, the knowledge that you are helping the people that need it the most in our town.
Our programming, always based on research and results, has proven to do things like:
– Narrow the achievement gap among at-risk children entering kindergarten (Early Childhood Achievement Gap Solutions- ECAGS).
Per Toni Jones, GPS Superintendent: “GPS has been excited to see the data showing that ECAGS is closing the achievement gap for our youngest learners in Greenwich. The impact going forward is truly life changing for the children.”
– Improve reading fluency for 350 children every year in all 11 of our elementary schools and 5 after school sites (Reading Champions)
– Enhance the lives of families and children by ensuring they have quality childcare (Early Childhood Scholarship Program)
– Give teens a voice and action items to make the world better (Greenwich Junior United Way)
– Monthly convening of subject matter experts to shed light on and develop solutions for critical matters facing our town (Community Planning Council and Quarterly CEO Roundtables)
– Improving teenager’s financial awareness (Finance Champions)
– And more!
Our two lines of business, grantmaking and programming (over $50 million into the community in these areas over the last 25 years alone!), touches thousands of lives each year. A quote I have on my whiteboard ever since I became CEO 9 years ago reads: “You are taking someone else’s money, to put it into someone else’s life to try and make a difference…you better be showing you ARE making a difference!” We show we are making a difference through our program data and the results-based accountability reports we require from grantees twice a year.
Where would these tens of thousands of people have turned to in their time of need if not for the programs and organizations, the grants and the research, that the Greenwich United Way has fostered over the years. When you lift up the most vulnerable in your community, the entire community wins!
The outcomes provided by the Greenwich United Way, through its grants and programming, has helped make Greenwich, well, Greenwich over the last 90 years.
Your call to action: Get involved and learn more about the ONE organization that helps ALL of Greenwich!
David Rabin
CEO, Greenwich United Way
