United Way of Northwest Arkansas recently named 18 organizations awarded $770,000 in grants for the start of its new focus on providing every child a pathway out of poverty.
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The First Step Funding grants drew interest from 59 area nonprofits that sought funding for 79 proposals, according to United Way. A volunteer committee reviewed, scored and ranked the applications and then determined all final programs and funding amounts.
The new grants represent United Way's initial phase of making financial investments for its children living in poverty initiative, according to the agency. United Way plans to take on a different role in the community as a coordination point for agencies providing an array of services aimed at lifting children and their families out of poverty and preventing other families from getting to that point, said Kim Aaron, president of United Way of Northwest Arkansas.
"Poverty is a cycle," she said. "As people move out of poverty, more people move into poverty."
Five grants went to organizations, including schools, that had not received United Way funding, while the other 13 were prior grant recipients.
Gravette High School, one of the five new grant recipients, received a $12,000 grant for its latest job training program for students, a welding program, said Principal Jay Chalk. The hope is the program will lead students to jobs with higher wages and will help break the cycle of poverty. The district has 1,800 students, of which 48 percent qualify for free or reduced price meals.
"People think of Northwest Arkansas -- 'That's the glory land. They've got Wal-Mart, J.B Hunt and Tyson. Everything's great.' But it's not," Chalk said. "Especially out in our rural areas, you see the poverty."
Moving children and their families out of poverty requires time, focus and money, said Debbie Rambo, executive director of Samaritan Community Center.
United Way grants have gone to Samaritan Community Center for 10 years. Grants in the last couple of years have contributed to three programs: the Samaritan Dental Clinic that doesn't charge its patients, a social worker program to help clients avoid having the same need two months in a row and its snack pack program.
Samaritan will receive some funding for all three programs for one more year through United Way's former grant program. The former grant for the snack pack program helped the agency provide weekend food for 8,400 children.
A new $70,000 children living in poverty grant will go only toward Samaritan reaching 1,200 additional children, leaving the agency to find funding for the 8,400 children already served and to continue the other two programs, Rambo said.
"We weren't sure we were going to get funding under children living in poverty," Rambo said.
NW News on 08/07/2016