FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The 84th U of A United Way campaign is close to the half way point and still a long way from reaching the goal of raising $125,000 for programs supported by the United Way of Northwest Arkansas that provide services for local children living in poverty.

It’s one thing to talk in general terms about helping children who live in poverty. Here are a few of the actual programs and people who do specific work providing specific services to improve the lives of children and their families. This is what you are supporting when you make a donation to the U of A United Way:

• The Children’s Advocacy Center works with victims of child abuse, and it’s emergency meal care kits provide hunger relief for children in emergency situations
• Legal Aid’s Child Poverty Law program provides legal interventions to improve child well-being and increase family stability by accessing legal protections, benefits, services, employment and housing to help lift them out of poverty.
• WelcomeHealth, the only free health clinic in Northwest Arkansas, uses its United Way funding to provide free health and dental care to uninsured low-income children.
• Havenwood provides housing for homeless youth and resources such as holisitc case management, counseling, and mentoring.
• The Teen Action and Support Center program TEEN THRIVE provides a hub for teens with housing insecurity and/or homelessness to connect to physical and emotional resources, housing assistance, clothing, school supplies, mentorship and case management.
• The Bentonville Public Schools’ Parents as Teachers program works with low-income families to prepare parents to be their child’s first and best teacher.
• The Helen R. Walton Children’s Enrichment Center’s Early Childhood Education for Children Living in Poverty program provides free high quality early childhood education, while it’s Dolly Parton Imagination Library program provides a free library of books to encourage a love of reading and learning.
• The Ozark Literacy Council’s NWA Tenacious Reading Project engages low-income students and parents in building stronger literacy skills together.
• The Boys and Girls Club of Benton County provides high-quality, low-cost after school and summer youth development programs to over 4,100 youth in Northwest Arkansas.
• The Prism Education Center’s Trailblazers in Education is an afterschool program serving students in K-9 th grades, and its “Camp Prism” summer enrichment program combats the “summer slump” by providing engaging programs, academic tutoring, and ACT prep classes in a camp-like setting.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of NWA’s Mentoring Matters provides children facing adversity with strong, professionally supported, one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better.
• The Donald W. Reynolds Boys & Girls Club’s Future U! program helps equip low income teens with critical life skills to prepare them for success after high school.
• The Prairie Grove School District’s Conversion Charter School offers classes to provide hands on training for Certified Nursing Assistants, surgical technicians, and plumbers, HVAC technicians and welders.

These programs are selected and funded by the United Way of Northwest Arkansas – and 98 cents of each dollar donated goes to these agencies and programs.

The programs have two basic goals: to provide stability in the lives of these children today, and then help them work to achieve prosperity tomorrow. Withing those goals each program focuses on one of seven areas: advocacy, child wellbeing, youth homelessness, parents as first teachers, quality out-of-school time, youth connectedness, and developing self-sufficiency.

Donations can be made through your personal donor card or through the save and secure online site.