www.sdchamber.org

Chamber Endorses United Way of San Diego County

The Chamber recently pledged full support for a well-respected community leader, the United Way of San Diego County.  The United Way has been hard at work improving lives in San Diego for nearly 90 years.  Since its change to a Community Impact model, United Way has focused on creating measurable, lasting change in three critical areas: Stopping Child Abuse and Neglect, Homeless Outreach and Prevention, and Promoting Financial Stability and Independence. 

One example of how United Way is advancing the common good in the San Diego community is its effort to improve financial education across the region.  United Way chose this as one of its focus areas because there is a serious lack of standardized financial skills training across the region. High quality training in this area is critical to helping people learn how to handle their finances to maintain stability and independence, especially those who have no financial skills or whose behavior has led them into difficulties.

To address this important issue, United Way is investing over $900,000 with several organizations this year to fund financial skills training that will teach several thousand people four core standards – budgeting; credit and debt; taxes and Earned Income Tax Credit; and checking and savings.  At the end of the 16-week period, individuals will have learned how to pay the same bill on time and establish or maintain a bank account in good standing over a three-month period.  In addition, a pilot program was launched recently at NASSCO to provide on-site education for employees at large companies. Over a month-long period, employees participate in weekly 90-minute classes. United Way will evaluate results before expanding to other companies. Finally, United Way is funding a personal finance curriculum in San Diego schools to teach high school seniors how to properly handle money.

The United Way’s work in financial stability and other areas strengthens individuals and families, which in turn contributes to keeping our workforce strong.  This is vital to our business efforts and strengthens our community both socially and economically.

The Chamber encourages all members to support the United Way/CHAD Campaign.  If you do not currently run a workplace campaign, please contact Chris Buscher, Vice President of Resource Development at the United Way (858) 636-4164 for further information.