Generosity is not new to Freeborn County.

Monday, February 04, 2002

Generosity is not new to Freeborn County. The United Way of Freeborn County was established in 1939 as the community chest of Freeborn County. We have a long history of giving and taking care of our own local issues and community.

At the present time, the Freeborn County United Way funds sixteen non-profit agencies which include: Albert Lea Community Child Care Center, American Red Cross, ARC Freeborn County, Catholic Charities, Cedar Valley Services, Charities Review Council of MN, Domestic Abuse Intervention, Family Support Network, Albert Lea Family Y, Freeborn County Chemical Dependency Center, Freeborn County Crime Victim’s Crisis Center, Lutheran Social Services, Salvation Army, Senior Resources of Freeborn County, Twin Valley Boy Scouts, and Youth Anger Management.

The United Way raises money locally and keeps it local to help provide services for area residents in four major areas of support. Twenty nine percent of money raised goes to the area of nurturing children and youth, 22 percent to assisting people in crisis, 15 percent for increasing self sufficiency, and 11 percent to each of these areas: strengthening families, supporting older people and additional program services. The United Way funds go to insure that the community has programs such as after school programs for youth and teens, Special Olympics, counseling, support groups, education, food pantry, housing, transportation, chore/handwork service and many more. The fund-raising costs incurred by the Freeborn County United Way has always been at or below the national average.

A cross section of our community makes up the twenty member Allocations Committee whose job it is to oversee the distribution of funds to the agencies. Strict guidelines are followed by the agencies to be a United Way agency. Some of the guidelines include: they are a non-profit organization, no agency fund-raisers during the campaign, using funds only for programs and services, not for capital expenditures, promote their agency along with UW in all materials and publicity.

The Allocations Committee is broken down into four teams, which personally interviews and tours each agency site. The committees spend time reviewing the numbers of community members served, program usage and availability of programs to our community. The committee is responsible for making sure that United Way funds are appropriately being spent at a quality agency.

Because this year brought several disasters to Freeborn County, the United Way established a &uot;Disaster Fund.&uot; Over $80,000 was available for agencies who needed additional funds to help those who found themselves in a crisis situation. The first $20,000 was from the United Way’s own contingency fund, which is in place for disasters such as this. The other $60,000 came from individuals and companies who saw the local need and reacted to that need. Perhaps, they were homeless because of the tornado, jobless because of a layoff or business closing or without extra funds for groceries, utilities or rent because of the fires. The agencies helping our community gave the necessary support to those who fit established criteria many of our agencies have. No cash was ever given out, only services and vouchers. At this time, there is $21,000 left in our &uot;Disaster Fund&uot;. It will be kept there as a safety net for future disasters or future requests from agencies that might still be challenged to provide more services without the adequate funding to provide these services. These services related to chemical dependency, alcohol and drug abuse, childcare, domestic violence, and other stresses related to hard times.

Jean Eaton is executive director of the United Way of Freeborn County.