Changing the Story Together

Too many households in our region are ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. They are working, often holding down two or three jobs, and still one flat tire, one medical bill, or one missed paycheck away from crisis. A bag of groceries helps for the week, but it does not change the systems that keep families trapped on the edge.

That is where United Way of Northern Shenandoah Valley comes in. Just like 211 provides a front door to resources, United Way builds the network behind that door. We connect nonprofits, corporations, government, and community leaders into a system that works for people, not against them.

“Charity meets the need today. Coalitions change what is possible tomorrow.”

Partnership Is Essential

Families do not experience need in silos. Housing is tied to health. Childcare is tied to employment. Transportation is tied to everything. The only way forward is together: government agencies, local nonprofits, health providers, faith communities, businesses, and everyday people, each bringing their piece of the solution.

Coalition Work

United Way serves as the convener, the backbone, and the connector, making sure the right partners are at the table and the work is moving forward.

• Housing Coalition of the Northern Shenandoah Valley hosts an annual Housing Summit that brings together developers, policymakers, and service providers to direct strategies for housing stability and innovation across the region.

• Age Well Council is advancing strategies so older adults can age with dignity, with coordinated support from health and community agencies. Current efforts include positioning Winchester to become a recognized Age-Friendly Community by AARP.

• Nonprofit Alliance of the Northern Shenandoah Valley strengthens local nonprofits with shared advocacy and capacity-building. The Alliance is rolling out a year-long Leadership Academy to provide continuing education and workforce development for the nonprofit sector.

• Nonprofit Advocacy Taskforce ensures policymakers hear a collective voice from community organizations. Most recently, the Taskforce hosted a Roundtable with Senator Tim Kaine focused on the funding needs of nonprofits in our community.

• Ready Region Blue Ridge has expanded access to quality childcare for hundreds of Valley children, giving parents stability at work and ensuring kids enter school ready to succeed.

These coalitions are more than meetings. They are where systems are reimagined. They align the expertise of partners into solutions that reach families at scale.

“It is not just poverty. It is the architecture of instability that keeps families from building lives of dignity and possibility.”

Corporate, Community, and Impact Grant Partners

Our partners on the ground do more than give. They mobilize employees, sponsor campaigns, and volunteer side by side with neighbors. Workplace giving accounts for about 75% of the total awarded in Impact Grant funding this year, fueling programs right here in our community. Corporate teams also contributed 1,000 volunteers across 80 sites, strengthening food banks, shelters, childcare centers, and housing programs.

Alongside them, our community and Impact Grant partners—from food pantries to mental health providers to housing nonprofits—are the lifelines United Way connects families to every day. These partners are not only meeting urgent needs but also helping United Way test innovative models, expand capacity, and lay the groundwork for systemic change.

This is not charity on the sidelines—it is a network of businesses, nonprofits, and local agencies investing in the stability of the Shenandoah Valley. Together, they fuel the safety net that ALICE families depend on, while also driving the long-term systems change that United Way leads.

Strategic Partners

United Way also collaborates with statewide and national leaders such as 211 Virginia, Virginia Housing, philanthropic foundations, and major corporations. These alliances expand our reach, bring new funding into our region, and ensure that the Shenandoah Valley has a voice at the table when policy decisions are made.

We are deeply grateful for the generosity of local donors and the commitment of these larger partners. Local giving keeps families afloat in the moment. Strategic partnerships transform that generosity into structural investment—making sure short-term relief is matched with long-term solutions.

Advocacy for Systems Change

Our role is not just to help families find a lifeline today. It is to reshape the system so fewer people need that lifeline tomorrow.

We work alongside statewide and national leaders, including Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, to secure new funding streams, advance legislation, and influence systems so ALICE families are seen, counted, and prioritized. Advocacy turns individual stories of struggle into a collective call for action.

“Advocacy is how we turn a single story of struggle into a statewide call for change.”

Why This Matters

Coalition and advocacy work may not look as immediate as handing someone a meal or paying a utility bill. But this work ensures that every meal and every utility payment is part of a bigger solution. By combining direct support with systems change, we stop treating economic insecurity like an endless emergency and start rewriting the story for families across our region.

The truth is clear: you cannot build a sustainable system on hope and local charity alone. Hope can inspire, and charity can relieve immediate pain, but neither can hold up the weight of a community on their own.

Just as businesses need margin to fuel their mission, nonprofits need steady, reliable investment to carry out the work that keeps families housed, fed, healthy, and supported. Without it, the system frays and people fall through the cracks.

This is the world United Way and our partners work in: where the stakes are measured in stability or crisis, dignity or despair. And this is why we build coalitions, mobilize resources, and fight for ALICE families—because fragile systems built on goodwill alone will never be enough.

“We cannot do this with local charity alone. But together, with our partners, we can change what is possible.”