How We Help

We assist working households in our community on their journey toward financial stability by collaboratively and equitably reducing barriers to prosperity. This goal is larger than one organization. It will take the community working together. 

United Way of York County has been a part of the community for over 100 years. As we step into our second century of service, we have recognized the need to evolve to better serve York County. After talking to the community and what they see as the most important issue facing our residents the answer was loud and clear- working households struggling to cover basic living expenses. In York County, 1 in 4 households falls into this category. These are our neighbors and friends who work one, two, and sometimes three jobs and are still struggling to make ends meet. Many of these households face a support cliff- they earn too much to receive most of the government assistance but don’t make enough to cover all their bills at the end of the month. They are one financial emergency- a car breaking down, an unexpected medical emergency- away from falling into poverty.

Together, our community can help these households become financially stable.

Convening the Community in One Direction

We are convening the entire community to work on this goal together. We can only achieve this through collaboration across our community. We will convene every organization in our community working on our issue to ensure that we’re not duplicating efforts, that we’re scaling successful programs, and that we’re identifying gaps in services that need to be created. We want to convene the major funders in our community to ensure that all the needed programs are being funded.  Working collaboratively as a community, we can create transformative change. 

Everyone deserves opportunities to have a good life. Advancing the common good is less about helping one person at a time and more about changing systems to help all of us. We are all connected and interdependent. United Way of York County believes financial stability is vital not only for a family to succeed but for our community to rise.
 

Making Tough Choices

Working folks across York County are making impossible choices every day.

• Which would you choose? Spend 80% of your salary on high-quality daycare, or 30% on low-quality daycare?
• What would you do if? Your engine blew and it costs $1500 to replace? Do you pay for a new engine or pay your rent?
• What would you do if? Your child is sick and needs to be picked up from daycare but the bus won't come for another two hours. Do you pay for a rideshare with the money you budgeted for your water bill?

These are not hypothetical situations. These are real decisions that working people in York County are having to make every day. 

This is not a wage issue. It is an accessibility issue. Our community needs to remove barriers to financial stability.