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.

The boards of United Way of Greater Williamsburg and United Way of the Virginia Peninsula voted to merge their organizations. They will now serve the counties of Gloucester, New Kent, James City, Mathews, and York and the Cities of Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson, and Williamsburg together. The newly reimagined organization is uniquely positioned to work with community leaders, businesses, policymakers, nonprofits and individuals to affect change on a scale that neither organization can achieve on its own.