Our Emerging Leaders Society kicked off with a bang at Tradition Brewing Company on Monday, July 17^th. We had an outstanding turnout, which made for wonderful company, great networking, and thoughtful conversation. Our panel was comprised of Conway H. Sheild, III, Jones, Blechman, Woltz & Kelly; Debra A. Flores, Sentara Careplex Hospital; and Scott Russell, Ferguson. It was a great night for the community and for the young leaders who are going to make positive change.

This past Tuesday, July 25^th, United Way of the Virginia Peninsula held an informational meeting on our Mission United initiative. We hosted this along with United Way of South Hampton Roads and representatives from Unite US. Every day 20 American veterans are lost to suicide. Nearly 50,000 veterans are homeless. Almost a third of post 9-11 veterans have a service-connected disability. Mission United is a service that connects veterans in need to resources and agencies across the peninsula that can help them.

The state of the merger between United Way of Virginia Peninsula and United Way of Greater Williamsburg is strong. Recently, the board chairs of UWVP and UWGW held a signing ceremony, in which they officially signed the resolution documents that merge the two United Ways. The staff is in the process of merging, and we will hold our 2017/2018 campaign together. Although we have two different Day of Caring’s, we are still one United Way. Going forward, please refer to United Way of the Virginia Peninsula as the standing organization.

September 6 is the day we are kicking off our 2017 Campaign – we plan to make this year’s campaign the most successful one yet! Join in by hosting a workplace campaign – it’s very easy and fun to do, and we are always here to help you out. These campaigns will create the pathways out of poverty that so many people in this area need. They will fund agencies that provide emergency shelter, basic needs, and special services. They create ways for people living in poverty or near poverty to be supported and lifted up out of their troubled situation.

Do you know how to care for the community? Day of Caring is coming up! Anyone can join in by showing acts of kindness and by caring for others all day long on September 6, 2017. Pass it on with social media by using the hashtags #uwonemoment and #dayofcaring. If you would like to volunteer, please sign up for one of the Day of Caring projects on www.volunteerpeninsula.org. You can sign up as an individual or as a team; we encourage you to get your friends and coworkers involved in volunteering as well!

The Community Forum on Pathways Out of Poverty, which was held on June 21, is in its final stages of wrapping up. We recently sent out a document that held the compiled notes from the forum. These notes came from the breakout rooms: each breakout room discussed one of the ten aspirations from the Pathways Out of Poverty Impact Agenda. We wanted everyone to be able to read what was said during these important conversations: these are the ideas and words that will guide us as we work in the community and create a collective impact on those in need.

UWVP envisions a community in 2020 that is a healthy and thriving place for all of its residents to live, learn, work, and raise a family. UWVP along with it's partner agencies are working hard to create this future.We are stronger together!Thank you to our partner agencies for all the good work you do. To learn more about our partner agencies, please visit: www.uwvp.org/partner-agencies.

Can you lend a hand? Day of Caring and our 2017 Campaign are coming up! Anyone can join in by showing acts of kindness and by caring for others all day long on September 6, 2017. Pass it on with social media by using the hashtags #uwonemoment and #dayofcaring. If you would like to volunteer, please sign up for one of the Day of Caring projects on www.volunteerpeninsula.org. You can sign up as an individual or as a team; we encourage you to get your friends and coworkers involved in volunteering as well!

United Way of the Virginia Peninsula is excited to launch the new affinity group, Emerging Leaders Society (ELS). This program is for United Way donors in their 20s and 30s who are the next generation of philanthropic leaders in our community, we welcome you to be a part of it. Join us for our kickoff event at Tradition Brewing Company in Newport News on Monday, July 17th at 5 PM.

The Community Forum on Pathways Out of Poverty was held Wednesday night, on June 21st. Thank you to everyone who came and made the event such a success! There were riveting discussions in each of the breakout rooms and great questions from the audience during the Q & A portion of the evening. Thank you to the facilitators and PEOPLE to PEOPLE for leading the discussions and creating a safe space for people of all backgrounds to come together and discuss how we can make this community even stronger.