United Way to begins annual campaign

Published 8:42 pm Sunday, October 3, 2021

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

United Way to give away car to a donor of the campaign

 WINSTON-SALEM — The United Way of Forsyth County kicked off its annual campaign on Friday, Oct. 1. The goal of the campaign, which is being chaired by Forsyth Tech Community College President Dr. Janet Spriggs, is $10.75 million.

United Way has four goals that campaign funds will be used to support:

  • Advance 2,500 local households, in terms of improved economic mobility, to become self-efficient by 2025
  • Improve economic mobility and secure jobs for 1,000 individuals through skills retraining by 2025
  • Reduce rent burden of 500 households to no more than 30% of monthly income by 2025
  • Increase third grade reading proficiency from 39% to 90% by closing the educational equity gap by 2025, resulting in a 90% graduation rate

 “Today we face challenges to ensure that the needs of every person in our community are met,” Spriggs said. “Once again, we need to combine forces to confront these problems head on. Working together, we must concentrate on creating thriving neighborhoods and communities by focusing on improving access to opportunities, economic mobility, and childhood and student success.”

The mission of United Way of Forsyth County is to bring the community and its resources together to solve problems no one organization can address alone. “We know that the problems we face require integrated solutions from various partners across all sectors. Building a better tomorrow means we must work together, and we must start today,” United Way of Forsyth County President and CEO Cindy Gordineer said.

 

Cindy Gordineer, United Way of Forsyth County president and CEO

“It has been widely reported that Forsyth County ranked third worst out of 2,478 counties across the country in helping poor children climb up the income ladder. We need make changes, so they have hope for a brighter future,” Gordineer said. “There are similar stunning statistics related to education — prior to the pandemic, only 52% of third grade students in Forsyth County were reading on a third grade reading level. We know that number has slipped further due to the effects of COVID on education.”

As part of the annual campaign, the United Way is holding its “Driving Forward Together Car Giveaway” again this year. Under the Driving Forward initiative, the United Way will randomly select 10 finalists who made a gift of $100 or more to the United Way’s annual campaign from now until April 15, 2022. The finalists will participate in a draw down and the last person standing will receive a brand-new car valued up to $25,000 from any one of the local participating car dealers.

United Way thanks the local car dealers participating in the Driving Forward program including: Bob King Hyundai, Bob King Kia, Bob King Mazda, Bob Neill Mercedes, Crossroads Ford of Kernersville, Flow BMW-Mini, Flow Chevrolet-Buick-GMC-Cadillac, Flow Honda, Flow Lexus, Flow VW-Audi-Subaru, Kernersville Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Modern Chevrolet, Modern Infiniti of Winston-Salem, Modern Nissan, Modern Toyota, NorthPoint Chrysler Dodge FIAT Jeep Ram, Parks Buick GMC, Parks Chevrolet (Kernersville) Parkway Ford and Volvo of Winston-Salem.

“The dollars invested in the United Way stay right here in Forsyth County and make a big difference in the lives of our neighbors and colleagues in need,” Spriggs added. “Please join me in supporting the United Way of Forsyth County.”