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Community Impact:
Workforce & Asset Development

 

THE CHALLENGE:

• The majority of working-age adults in Philadelphia are functionally low literate, lacking the skills to compete in an increasingly knowledge-based economy.
• While 70% of the available jobs require intermediate literacy skills, only 45% of the working age population has those skills.
• Four out of every 10 workers in our region make poverty wages, yet research shows that a family of four must earn $60,365/year to support itself in Philadelphia and close to $70,000 in the suburbs.
• Hundreds of thousands of individuals in the region who are entitled to income supports and benefits are not even aware of their eligibility. In Philadelphia alone, there are more than 150,000 residents who currently qualify for food stamps, but do not receive them.

 

OUR GOAL:

United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania helps people build skills and get jobs that pay a family sustaining wage and ensures that they build the assets they need to become financially stable.

 

THE OPPORTUNITY:

There is a growing mismatch between the level of skills required for available jobs and the lower skill level of thousands of working-age adults in the region. Even though many of them are employed, the jobs they are qualified for don’t pay wages sufficient for them to support their families. These individuals and their families face lives of economic deprivation and dependency. United Way is leading community efforts to prepare young people and adults to acquire job skills, building industry partnerships and helping families build assets for the future.

 

THE RETURN:

Adult literacy programs that help to prepare vulnerable adults for career success have an astounding 450% return on investment in taxes and savings by creating a more-educated, self-sufficient workforce. When that individual moves on to obtain their high school diploma and a post-secondary training certificate, they add over $1 million, on average, to their lifetime income.

 

OUR STRATEGIES:

• Improve the ability of high-quality, adult literacy programs to meet workforce needs and connect directly to potential employers.
• Develop and support comprehensive workforce development partnerships that collaborate with employers to prepare individuals for jobs that exist and address skills gaps in our region.
• Support adult literacy, workforce development, asset development and life-long learning initiatives that help individuals earn family sustaining wages through advocacy and public mobilization.
• Impact the lives of more families with high-quality financial literacy, asset development and asset preservation programs.
• Increase the use of tax credits, matching savings programs and public benefits that help working families build their assets.
• Support transitional housing programs to help low-income individuals withstand crises and prevent further financial instability.

 

OUR IMPACT:

• More than more than 700 lower-skilled adults received education and training and 400 adults gained either a new job placement in a high-demand sector or obtained a wage increase in their current job due to their participation in the Job Opportunity Investment Network (JOIN), a public-private workforce partnership co-founded by United Way.
• Improved the quality of 17 adult literacy programs through the Adult Baseline Standards Project.
• Enabled low-income families to invest almost $450,000 into first home purchases, college and vocational training programs through the Creating Assets Savings and Hope (CASH) Initiative.
• Mobilized hundreds of volunteer tax preparers to offer more than 41,000 individuals and their families free tax preparation assistance, resulting in close to $50 million in tax refunds.
• Provided financial education programs to more than 6,500 individuals that have helped them to increase their savings, be better prepared to purchase a home, or avoid foreclosure.

 

Your contributions to United Way Community Impact allow us to partner with nonprofit agencies that delivered the following results:

Impact on Income

A sample of your investment’s performance, YEAR TWO:
Goal		Actual
2,230	Individuals who advanced one or more educational levels	3,425
480	Homes saved from foreclosure	1,266
4,904	Individuals obtained new or increased public benefits	5,811
3,442	Individuals reporting increased financial knowledge	4,126

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