SUCCESS STORIES
Building Brighter Futures
Every young person deserves the opportunity to discover what's possible. For many youth in Southwest Michigan, that journey begins with something simple: a safe place, caring mentors, and someone who believes in them.
Tess Ulrey - ALICE Voice
I come from a Midwestern family with an engineer father, a stay at home mother, and the
belief that if you kept your nose down and worked hard, things like owning a home with a
car in the driveway (that would always start to take you to work) were a given.
Help navigating life’s challenges
Southwestern Michigan College calls itself “a small college with big opportunities”—a place where students can get a high-quality education they can take anywhere.
Food and other basic items to anyone
In March 2023, the federal government’s pandemic-related increases ended for programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food benefits to families with low incomes to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health.
Navigating the home buying process with confidence
Buying a home is the biggest purchase most people will ever make. Understandably the first time buying one can be intimidating.
A path to education & employment success
Youth Solutions, a United Way impact partner, helps young people find their path to education and employment success through a program called Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates (JMG).
Because of you... Greg receives care
Greg has had many health challenges in his 36 years of life and lives with his mother, Dorothy. Greg has cerebral palsy and had a bone marrow transplant for acute leukemia four years ago, which made him cough frequently and feel very weak. Because of his many health issues, including graft versus host disease from the transplant, Greg is prone to infections, his wounds heal slowly, and he requires frequent medical care.
Because of you... Scarlett receives treatment
During a home visit from Melody Long, an educator with the “Parents as Teachers” program, offered by the Cass County Heritage Southwest Intermediate School District, Melody suspected Samantha’s daughter might have torticollis, a condition in which the neck muscles contract, causing the head to twist and tilt to one side.
Because of you... DT attends college
Benton Harbor High School football defensive back Davionte "DT" Tasker just graduated and is on his way in the fall to Ferris State University in Big Rapids. DT has been awarded numerous scholarships for his community service and involvement, and will be playing on the Ferris State football team, which won the NCAA Division II National Championship the last two years in a row.
Because of you... Melissa accesses food
During the most unstable points in her life, the store owners of B&B Grocery Outlet have provided a sense of security for Melissa's family.
Earned Income Tax Credit turns financial tightrope into path to success
The Earned Income Tax Credit is one of the most effective anti-poverty, pro-work, pro-business investments we can make as a community. It is a critical proven way to help workers with low to moderate income keep more of their hard-earned wages while boosting local economies.
“A good way to have a good day.”
The Stokes Family is as much of a fixture at Cass County’s annual School Supply Spectacular as the backpacks that are given away. Each August, you can count on Dowagiac resident Keaka Stokes, 40, and her four children–Jason, 21; Jacob, 19; Joshua, 17; and Kayden, 15–to put in two days of hard work in the hot sun making sure as many as a thousand kids in need, from kindergarten through 12th grade, get a backpack filled with grade-appropriate school supplies to start the academic year.
Career and Technical Education prepares students for today’s high-wage, high-skill, high-demand jobs
One of United Way’s 2022 advocacy agenda items is: Increase availability and accessibility of career and technical education programs to provide students with multiple pathways to a living wage as adults.
“Michigan Reconnect” critical to strengthening state’s workforce and economy
The program’s advocates—including United Way of Southwest Michigan—are calling on state legislators to include funding for “Michigan Reconnect” in the next 2022 state budget proposal and pass it in the fall so the program can continue.
“I fell in love with these kiddos.”
One-third of Michigan four-year-olds who are eligible for free high-quality preschool can’t access it because of lack of funding. United Way of Southwest Michigan and its advocates are asking state legislators to support the proposal to put those 22,000 left-out kids into the Great Start Readiness Program.
“I panicked.”
We all remember how scary those first days of the coronavirus crisis were, as our whole community shut down and suddenly it was every-person-for-themselves in getting the necessities. Except it wasn’t like that everywhere…
United Way fights for health equity for Black moms and babies
Bianca wasn’t going to take any chances with her health or the lives of her babies. Nothing was going to discourage her from seeing the doctor she trusted through her three pregnancies. Not even when the administrators in that obstetrician’s very office tried to persuade her not to return.
“If I’d known … I never would have reported it.”
“If I’d known what my child was going to go through, I never would have reported it.” That was the sentiment of one mother in Alabama, decades ago, after her child was the victim of sexual abuse—and was re-traumatized by the system that was supposed to protect her. But tremendous good eventually came out of their horrible experience. The prosecutor on that case fought for change in the way child sex abuse victims are treated by the system—and a new model developed.
Classroom libraries set kids up for success, making avid readers early
Shipwrecks are a big deal to some kids. For one kindergarten boy at Sam Adams Elementary School in Cassopolis, the sinking of the Titanic is utterly fascinating. Another kindergarten boy at Justus Gage Elementary School in Dowagiac is riveted by the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. They’re hungry to learn everything they can about these wrecks, and with the help of the United Way-funded Reading Now Network classroom libraries project in Cass County, both boys are getting their hands on books about them—and preparing to succeed in later grades and beyond as a result.
“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Sue Ulam is a doting 74-year-old grandmother who was thrilled when her daughter and six grandchildren—ages 3 to 15—moved into her Bangor home. But crisis struck just a few months into this transition when Sue’s water service was cut off because she was behind on paying her water bill. Their household of eight went without water for a month and a half. Sue was desperate and didn’t know what to do. So she called Senior Services of Van Buren County.