Our Mission At Work

139,604
children’s meals and snacks served.

3,036
individuals were able to maintain their housing.

119,220
volunteer hours logged with our partner agencies in 2021.

8,263
individuals helped through support and advocacy.
What’s Happening at United Way

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Currently Funded Agencies

2023 Leveling Up Career Fair Successful

We had a very successful Career Fair that was all about Leveling Up! We wanted to provide opportunities for people to get the next level and out of low wage positions.
This career fair was revolved around “Leveling Up”. We work with a lot of low income families and specifically people who fall in that Benefits Cliff. They make too “much” to qualify for assistance but not enough to live on, so they’re working 2 or 3 jobs to get by. We want to help them get to that next level and find more career focused and long term sustainable positions.
Many of the participants, through a survey, stated they were very pleased with the career fair, many of our companies and organizations stated it was a great time of networking amongst themselves, and we watched many of the participants leave with access to more resources.
We could not have done this without the companies, organizations, and higher education programs that spent two whole days with us.
Aisin
Persevere
Knoxville Area Project Access
Anderson Co Health Department
TN College of Applied Technology
ESS
Formall
SL
Express Employment
Emory Valley Center
UT TCSEPP Program
Also thank you to KenJo Markets and TNBANK for donating gas cards for participants. It was a HUGE help. As I’m sure many of you are aware but transportation is a big barrier, especially in rural communities, for employment.

2023 Initiatives

United Ways of Tennessee (UWTN) is pleased to launch

Tennessee Benefit Kitchen.  Every year, 103 million Americans leave $80 billion in public benefits unclaimed.  United Way is committed to ensuring that struggling families in our state are aware of the benefits for which they qualify and know how to apply for them.  In response, we are launching Tennessee Benefit Kitchen, a free screener that all Tennesseans can use to determine eligibility for several tax credits and many federal, state and local public benefits—and to access the application sites to apply for those for which they qualify.

Tennessee residents simply text “Benefits” to 211-211, and they receive a screener that takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete.  Once completed, they immediately receive notice of tax credits and benefits for which they are eligible, along with the links to apply to each benefit.  The tax credits and benefits covered in the screener currently include:

  • Food Stamps (SNAP)
  • Cash Assistance (TANF)
  • Women Infants and Children (WIC)
  • Head Start
  • School Meals
  • Child Care Assistance
  • TennCare (Medicaid, for adults and children)
  • ACA (Affordable Care Act for adults and children)
  • CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program)
  • County Medical Services
  • Home Energy Assistance (HEAP)
  • Lifeline
  • Child Tax Credit
  • Childcare Tax Credit
  • Earned Income Tax Credit

“United Way is excited about this initiative to support households that are struggling with basic necessities.  It is a powerful tool to help families thrive financially and obtain available resources to sustain their needs and improve their lives,” said Mary Graham, president of UWTN.  “We know many Tennesseans are not aware of all the benefits available to them, let alone how and where to apply.  This service makes it easier for them, improving the quality of life throughout our communities.

Benefit Kitchen builds benefit eligibility tools that help nonprofit agencies connect low-income families to federal, state and local benefits. To learn more, link here: http://benefitkitchen.com

VITA is a wrap for 2023!
This year was especially busy because many clients came from neighboring counties where their local programs no longer have volunteers to run them.
The VITA program is such an essential program for this community. Many of these clients are facing things we could never imagine and this service has taken a weight and burden off their shoulders. In addition to tax assistance, we were able to connect many of them with additional resources like Benefit Kitchen which enables them to find and apply for any additional benefits they qualify for through the state.
Here’s the big reveal… 1219 clients were served for a total of $4,657,416 in tax returns. Yes, over 4 MILLION dollars retuned into this community.
The real hero’s of this programs is the 24 volunteers that work countless hours, 5 days a week, to help these clients. Without them there would be no VITA program.

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