How we got here

• The Challenge and the Response
• Regional Aspiration Identified
• Community Change Timeline
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Research and Tools

The Challenge and the Response

The Challenge
The capacity of southeast Michigan's health and human service providers to serve a larger population of struggling individuals and families with declining resources is a growing challenge in our region. While public, private and non-profit agencies do heroic work in meeting metro Detroiter’s immediate needs, few efforts address the larger, community-wide conditions that give rise to those needs in the first place. This is the only way to make sustainable change.

Our Response
United Way understands that lasting community change is possible when individuals and groups come together to collectively tackle social issues that address both short-term needs and long-term challenges. Success depends not only on the ability of our region’s human service agencies to help those in need, but on the reduction in the population of individuals who are dependent on those service providers. This can be accomplished by confronting the underlying causes of the community’s most critical social issues to prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

Building on its strength as a convener, United Way is working on an action plan called the Agenda for Change which will leverage funding, professional expertise, talent and other resources from public and private sectors throughout Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, to achieve substantive results.

Through the Agenda for Change, United Way’s approach to improving lives and building stronger communities is evolving.

Regional Aspiration Identified

United Way for Southeastern Michigan is currently in the second of a three-phase transformation process. This work began in fall 2005 with an unparalleled community engagement and visioning effort, bringing in over 6,500 metro residents to share their voice. Now, United Way is focusing performing data analysis and issue identification to select the vital few areas we can make lasting change on in our region.

Community Change Timeline

United Way envisions a three-phase transition to create lasting change for children, families, neighborhoods and health.  In that time, we will engage the community in developing an agenda that provides long-lasting results.  At the moment we are in the "Planning Together" Phase.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is Community Impact?  Doesn't United Way already make an impact in the community?
• Why is a new approach needed?
• What role will United Way play?
• When will United Way's Community Impact Business Model be implemented?
• How will this change affect funding decisions in the short term?
• How can you possibly decide which issues are most important?
• What if the issues raised are things like "racism" and "polarization"?
• What will the funding process look like?
• Will agencies that don't seem to fit with United Way's priorities automatically lose eligibility for funding?
• How can agencies get involved?
• What about United Way's own programs and initiatives? Will all of them continue as before?

Research and Tools

United Way for Southeastern Michigan CST & IST
Leaving the Mucky Middle & Finding Traction with Impact
Download Powerpoint
Great Rivers Conference, February 2006

Crain's Detroit Business
Special Report: Regional Leadership

Mark Friedman, et al.
The Results and Performance Accountability Implementation Guide: Questions and answers about how to do the work
This document - which fills a large three-ring binder if you print it out - presents a clear guide to understanding the whole issue of "accountability" in all its complexity. Compiled with support from five foundations (including The Annie E. Casey Foundation), the study cuts through the jargon and abstraction that too often shroud this topic, and champions the use of plain language to discuss social change. The question-and-answer format reflects the reality of the non-profit manager who needs to know how to measure what is measurable, call the bluff of those who demand world peace in return for a $25,000 grant, and avoid the temptation of promising too much. This is a great resource, and best of all - it's free.

United Way of America
Impact Transformation Diagnostic (ITD)
The ITD provides an assessment of the local United Way's status with regard to specific Standards of Excellence that are key to the United Way's transformation to community impact, and helps the local United Way identify next steps to accelerate its progress.