News and Events

United Way Announces Major New Program Funding

Today, United Way of Central Georgia announced new program funding that will have a measurable impact on the success rate of children and youth in the Central Georgia area.

“United Way of Central Georgia is investing $217,000 in a comprehensive, coordinated, collaborative approach to youth development and enrichment in Bibb County’s most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and schools,” announced David Lanier, board chair of United Way of Central Georgia. “This money will be used for specific programs provided by four of our partner agencies: Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Georgia; Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia; Big Brothers Big Sisters Heart of Georgia; and Family Counseling Center.”

“The long term goal is to produce significantly more high-school graduates with enhanced academic and social skills. We feel the realization of this goal will most certainly benefit all of us who call Macon home,” added Lanier.

A new survey, recently released from the Georgia Afterschool Investment Council, finds that 86% of Georgia’s parents think that afterschool programs are important for children and youth, and they want to see more afterschool opportunities in the state. Afterschool programs have been shown to be critical to the development and the growth and prosperity of the economy.

National research tells us that involvement in afterschool programs yields improved academic achievement, better work habits, improved social skills and decreased negative behaviors. Having programs like this easily available right after school, in the school, make it much more likely that youth in the area will participate.
“United Way would like to thank the Peyton Anderson Foundation for their $200,000 grant that is making this afterschool initiative possible,” said Lanier.

In addition to the new afterschool programming, United Way of Central Georgia has just admitted Education First as a United Way partner agency, giving them a one-time grant of $14, 750 to establish the Imagination Library program in Bibb County.

Of the 2000 children who enter Kindergarten in Bibb County annually, nearly 500 are not on the road to success. Almost 300 don’t pass the GKAP and another 200 are retained after a year of kindergarten.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, presented by the Ferst Foundation as the Georgia Champion of the program, will provide a book in the mail each month from birth to age 5 for every child that is registered. The mailing also includes a localized newsletter and activities for parents that coincide with the book. The first book sent out will be The Little Engine That Could. The program facilitates early childhood and family literacy as a very low cost per child of $40 per year or $200 for all five years. The mission of Education First is to encourage and increase literacy in Bibb County

In 2007, a study conducted by the TN Board of Regents affirmed that children who had participated in Dolly’s Imagination Library were “better prepared” than students who had not participated in the program and on average, exceeded teacher expectations as compared to non-participants.

“The board of United Way believes that these two new programs targeting children from birth to 12th grade will have a huge impact on education and ensure that children and youth in our area become successful productive adults,” said Lanier.

United Way of Central Georgia has also been busy distributing monies from the Central Georgia Tornado Recovery Fund. United Way established The Fund with three initial grants of $25,000 each from United Way, The Community Foundation, and BB&T/BB&T Insurance.

The Fund has collected $120,000 to date and we were just notified yesterday that an additional $100,000 is being contributed by the United Methodist Committee on Relief and the Southern Georgia Storm Recovery Fund. United Way has purchased more than $19,000 worth of debit cards and vendor cards so far from Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, Kroger, and others, and is distributing them to qualified victims of the storms. As of today, we have distributed more than $15,000 to storm victims.

The Recovery Fund Committee is continuing to handle cases as they come in and hope to process all the requests for assistance in the next couple of months.