United Way of the Bay Area Blog
Live United
Have a voice, make a choice. The ballot is stronger than the bullet. Be aware, do your share, vote! These are catchy slogans to get people to the polls. You may have heard – there is a presidential election happening on November 6th. Impacting everyone’s state of mind at the voter’s booth will be the [...]
Working families are about to lose nearly $13 million annually – and they need your help. Tell Congress to make permanent the improvement in tax credits for larger families and married couples. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit for working individuals who earn low or moderate incomes. Since 2009 improvements [...]
United Way believes everyone should have access to quality, affordable health care. United Way also knows the importance of investing in community-based prevention to keep people healthy in the first place. We know access to coverage and prevention help build a better world for our kids, stronger families, a secure middle class, and our country’s competitiveness. In light of today’s Supreme [...]
Public safety and law enforcement is police job #1. But men and women in blue often have to put on their social worker hats to help out community members who have nowhere else to turn. In these situations, 211 is a vital resource that helps police connect members of the public to services like food [...]
“I’m hella oppressed and I feel it every day. The fact that I’m black, from Bayview, and I’m young. I feel it like fire under my feet. Poverty – it hurts. To knock on people’s doors and still have no job. To be without toilet paper. I have to find a way to take care [...]
As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, please think about the millions of families who are in need of housing and food assistance. Shelves of food pantries across the country are bare. Programs that provide utility and rental assistance are running out of funds to help people. The Emergency Food & Shelter Program (EFSP) helps stabilize [...]
Please join United Way of the Bay Area in a nationwide effort to protect Medicaid for millions of Californians and Americans – call your members of Congress THIS WEEK. It only takes a few minutes of your time and it is easy to do. The Congressional “Super Committee” tasked with reducing the federal deficit will [...]
We need your help to protect federal funding for VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) and EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit), which are essential to United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! (EKS) tax assistance program. Take action today to ensure the survival of EKS. Funding for both the VITA program and the EITC could be [...]
This op-ed is co-authored by Shelley Kessler, San Mateo Central Labor Council Executive Secretary/Treasurer and United Way of the Bay Area Board Member, and Eric McDonnell, United Way of the Bay Area Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. Four million of California’s poorest children, including 300,000 in the Bay Area, are in danger of losing [...]
How many lawyers in gorilla suits does it take to tackle poverty? It might sound like joke, but to the 31 Bay Area law firms competing in United Way’s Koko Challenge this year, fighting poverty is something they all take very seriously. Every year, the legal community comes together to raise money to fight poverty. [...]
