United Way United Kingdom was established in 2014 as a national charity with the aim of providing support to local communities to ensure every family and every individual can reach their full potential through good education, financial stability, and healthy lives.
HOW WE WORK
We encourage people and organisations to support the local communities in which they live, work, and raise their children, through recognising each community's specific needs, resources and expertise.
We develop and deliver projects where the community needs and our partner’s goals meet, bringing a lasting positive impact on disadvantaged communities, reducing inequalities.
VISION
United Way United Kingdom envisions a community where all individuals and families achieve their human potential through education, financial stability, and healthy lives.
MISSION
United Way United Kingdom improves lives by mobilising the caring power of communities around the country to advance the common good.
FOCUS AREAS
As part of the United Way Worldwide Network, United Way UK focuses on supporting local communities with education, income, and health, the building blocks for a stable life.
Our impact: Making a difference for local people and communities
Reading Oasis
Our Reading Oasis programme addresses early childhood literacy challenges and aims to give every child the opportunity to develop a love for reading through providing new school libraries and reading resources. This positively affects children's ability and potential throughout school and beyond.
We focus on children from disadvantaged backgrounds as they face the highest risk of being caught in a poverty cycle. Those with poor literacy levels have a higher likelihood of experiencing financial instability and unemployment later in life.
The United Way Reading Oasis places books into the hands of disadvantaged children through donating an entire library to schools that lack reading resources, where 30% or more of pupils are eligible for free school meals.
Learn more about the Reading Oasis Programme here: https://www.unitedway.org.uk/reading-oasis-0
Give Local
Less than 1% of UK charities - those with multi-million pound incomes - receive more than 50% of charitable donations in the UK. The smallest charities in the UK are doing amazing work in local communities: feeding hungry families, getting people off the streets, supporting parents with disabled children and much more, but do not attract donations easily. Many are operating at a loss as a result of public spending cuts which means that vital community work is affected.
United Way UK is building support for local people, through these local charities, with the pioneering and award-winning Give Local programme. Give Local is funded through payroll giving by local employees, who are giving back in the communities where they live, work, and raise their children.
In the UK fewer than 4% of people give to charity through their net pay. Give Local combines community impact with employee engagement for maximum benefit to local communities, and attracts an average participation rate of 34%, which is growing year on year.
Payroll giving maximises donations through tax-relief. It is the most efficient and economical way to give to charity, since donations are made pre-tax, easing the tax burden for donors.
Learn more about the Give Local Programme here: https://www.unitedway.org.uk/give-local
Youth Opportunity
Financial stability is one of United Way’s key priorities. In the UK 808,000 young people (ages 16-24) are classified as not in education, employment, or training, i.e. 'NEET' - These numbers have continued to steadily increase since 2010. Of all young people in the UK that are NEET, 39.9% are classified as unemployed, ten times higher than the national average.
United Way UK designs and implements bespoke solutions related to youth employment and education in order to increase opportunities for financial stability among disadvantaged young people.
These programmes are designed in collaboration with our corporate partners, in line with their own community goals. We provide an end-to-end service, from needs-analysis to impact reporting, tailored to the needs of our partners.
Corporate Volunteering
We ensure our corporate partners and their employees have a positive and direct impact in the local communities where they live and work.
Employee volunteering experiences make a difference in local communities and support team and individual development. We offer an end-to-end service beginning with guiding partners in framing their goals, right through to tailored impact reporting. We design a range of volunteering options to suit partner needs including virtual, remote, in-person opportunities and skills-based opportunities.
Bespoke CSR Projects
We ensure our corporate partners make the difference they want to make in their communities by designing and implementing bespoke projects that bring together community needs and strategic goals.
We work in collaboration with other charities and across sectors, using learning and best practice from the United Way Worldwide network, which works across 1,800 locations in over 40 countries.
If you would like to learn more about these and other programmes, please contact us at info@unitedway.org.uk.