Community Impact

The mission of the United Way of Windham County is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of the community.

Working with volunteers, donors, human service providers, business and community leaders, and other stakeholders, United Way of Windham County assures a viable community-wide, human-services infrastructure for Windham County ’s residents.

United Way of Windham County is in the unique position to take a bird’s-eye view of the human service needs of our community. Whether it’s in our role as convener, fundraiser, volunteer coordinator, or putting the right people and resources together to work on an issue, that’s what we do. We are a catalyst for the creation of community solutions by working closely with the providers and other stakeholders to meet our constantly changing local challenges. Through strategic partnerships, and our investment in a network of high-performing social programs, we know that we can achieve results that no one entity could achieve alone. The collaborative process of making lasting change toward shared community goals is called "Community Impact."

What is Different about Community Impact?

For many years, United Way of Windham County has been funding agency programs which provided direct services to community members who needed them. With Community Impact as a goal, that does not change. However, a new model for deciding which programs to fund and in which community initiatives to invest is in place. All investment decisions will be based on a set of target outcomes that have been identified through a comprehensive, data-driven community participation process. This process of identifying community needs, investing resources (staff time, collaboration, expertise, time/volunteers, convening, relationships, data analysis, strategic grant making, advocacy/public policy, etc.), and evaluating our impact is ongoing and will continue to involve Windham County stakeholders. The combination of improving lives and getting at root causes is critical to making Community Impact work, and we are transforming into a Community Impact United Way with a strategic plan to make that happen. 

Thank You to the Dozens of Windham County Volunteers Who Helped

Without the help of dozens of volunteers, we could not be where we are today in our transformation to a focus on community impact.  Our most recent investments in FY2012 will reflect the hard work and dedication of local Windham County residents who spent time helping us create the process, identify the needs, determine priorities, and create an online program application.  For a list of our current Community Investment Committee and the three impact teams who have met for the past year to become educated about the current status of their particular impact areas and the community-determined target outcomes, please click here.

*The Impact Areas of Education, Health, and Income align with the 2009 Windham County Community Assessment. The focus areas and target outcomes for each were developed and proposed by the Community Impact Teams who met from summer 2010 through winter 2011. The Community Investment Committee of UWWC recommended the final outcomes for the UWWC Board’s approval after careful consideration of community rating data and the work of each Impact Team.