COMMUNITY
United Way of Central Oregon secures funding for families in need By Caitlin Richmond
W
e’ve all heard about how COVID has upended the lives of people all over the country, whether it be through job loss, financial difficulties or many other negative consequences. But what is easy to forget or overlook is that even before COVID, thousands of families in Central Oregon were already struggling. “In Central Oregon, in 2018—before the pandemic—37,500 of our households were living on the edge,” says Diana Fischetti, Director of Development and Marketing for United Way of Central Oregon. “27,000 were ALICE households—households that earn incomes above the federal poverty level but less than what it takes to survive in their communities.” This information comes from a financial hardship study that United Way of Central Oregon commissions every two years. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained Employed, which would describe someone who is employed with an income above the federal poverty level but is living paycheck to paycheck with no savings, or has to decide between things like having childcare or paying rent, according to unitedforalice.org. United Way Central Oregon has realized that typically when people fall into a vulnerable category, it requires a multifaceted approach to help them. For example, just because someone has the resiliency to figure out how to make ends meet every month doesn’t mean they are financially stable or are really thriving in their community. So, the mission of UWCO is to “fight for the health,
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education, financial stability and resiliency of every person in our Central Oregon community,” Fischetti says. To make this possible, UWCO takes a three-step approach. The first step is a needs assessment, like the financial hardship study. From there they work on finding funding through grants and other opportunities. The final step is to take collective action, which oftentimes means distributing money to other organizations in the area that are already well established. This has been the process for the almost 70 years that UWCO has been a part of the Central Oregon community. During that
