BUILDING FINANCIAL STABILITY AND INDEPENDENCE FOR FAMILIES

WHAT MATTERS: A PATH TO SUCCESS FOR OUT-OF-SCHOOL YOUTH

• In Southeastern Pennsylvania, more than 70,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are neither in school nor employed.
  
  
• Currently, workplace internships and other opportunities to gain job skills and experience are available to only a fraction of these young people.
  
  
• Employers have a critical role to play in developing and expanding effective efforts to connect out-of-school youth with jobs.
  
  

UNITED WAY IN ACTION

United Way and its partners are working to:

• Develop1000 apprenticeships in fields likely to offer future employment.
  
  
• Engage 100 additional corporate partners in offering structured work experiences and training that result in employment opportunities.
  
  
• Recruit and train 500 members of the business community to serve as mentors for young people new to the workplace.
  
  

WHAT MATTERS: JOBS THAT PAY FOR WORKING FAMILIES

• The annual cost of supporting a family of four without government assistance in the counties served by United Way ranges from $46,000 to $57,000, yet more than a quarter of area households have annual incomes below $25,000.
  
  
• A college education is the key to moving into the economic middle-class, but only 7 of every 100 lower income high school graduates go on to obtain college degrees. Over 80,000 Philadelphia adults aged 25 to 45 have attempted but not completed college.
  
  
• Many job training programs are too general to prepare participants for specific skilled jobs in industries that need workers.
  
  

UNITED WAY IN ACTION

United Way and its partners are working to:

• Bring employers, unions, and workforce development agencies together to establish programs that train participants for real, skilled jobs, and then connect program graduates to those jobs.
  
  
• Work with businesses to structure in-house career ladders that will enable lower-wage employees to work their way up to better paying jobs.
  
  
• Provide practical assistance, on-line and in-person, to help adults considering a return to college understand their options and overcome financial, transportation, child care, and other obstacles to completing their degrees.
  
  

WHAT MATTERS: SAVING FOR A BRIGHTER FUTURE

• Families move towards long-term independence when they are not only meeting their basic needs but also building savings they can use to obtain assets.
  
  
• Research indicates that families with their own homes or other assets are more likely to overcome financial crises, to plan for the future, and even to enjoy improved social and psychological well-being.
  
  
• Tens of thousands of individuals and families in our region lack the practical money-management skills and knowledge they need to manage their debt and avoid financial arrangements and products that erode their hard-earned gains.
  
  

UNITED WAY IN ACTION

United Way and its partners are working to:

• Get dollars into the hands of working families that can be put towards savings goals, by increasing the number of households filing for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and other tax credits and refunds they have earned. United Way recruits and coordinates volunteer tax preparers as a partner in the Campaign for Working Families, which secured more than $20 million in refunds for 12,000 households last year.
  
  
• Help more workers buy a home, obtain a post-secondary education, or start a small business, by expanding the United Way C.A.S.H. Initiative. C.A.S.H., which stands for “Creating Assets, Savings, and Hope,” multiplies workers’ savings towards these goals by matching each dollar saved, up to the initiative’s limit, with up to four additional dollars.
  
  
• Determine the best methods for providing effective financial education, invest in promising, innovative approaches, and increase the number of working households participating in high quality financial education programs.