Community Opportunity Plan

Community Opportunity Plan

Thank you to our sponsors

As part of its annual Workplace Campaign Kickoff, United Way of the River Cities officially announced a brand-new United Way Community Opportunity Plan initiative.

With the launch of this ambitious economic development effort, United Way is renewing its commitment to its vision of a community where everyone has the tools and opportunities they need to thrive.

PHASE 1: United Way Community Needs Assessment

  1. Secure ALICE zip code-level data (Complete).
  2. Gather community needs data from partner organizations (Complete).
  3. Conduct meta-analysis of all available needs data and publish report (Underway).
    • Analysis to be completed by Dr. Allyson Goodman, Marshall University Journalism/Public Relations professor.
  4. Utilize needs data and ALICE framework to create community wide survey (Fall 2024).
    • Survey to be developed by Dr. Goodman’s Research students.
  5. Conduct community-wide survey (Early Winter 2024).
  6. Conduct analysis of community-wide survey and publish report (December 2024).
    • Analysis to be completed by Dr. Goodman’s Research students.
  7. Gather community leaders at United Way Community Leaders Congress to define data-based goals for addressing most pressing needs (January 2025).
    • Leaders Congress tentatively planned to take place at Marshall University Brad Smith Center for Business. 
    • Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communication students will adopt United Way’s Community Opportunity Plan as their student-run public relations agency project for the semester and will assist in gathering information from the event.
    • Marshall students, under the guidance of Dr. Goodman, will compile data from Leaders Congress and complete a report to be published by United Way.

Phase 2: United Way Community Opportunity Plan

  1. In partnership with community leaders, establish teams to develop action plans for addressing specific needs (January-March 2024).
    • Teams to be established with assistance from Margaret Mary Layne of Layne Consulting.
    • Teams to meet at Marshall Health Network donated facilities.
  2. Combine work of individual teams to form United Way Community Opportunity Plan (UWCOP) (April 2025).
    • Community Opportunity Plan to be completed by Layne.
  3. Utilizing plan and associated data, identify and apply for grant, corporate and government funding opportunities (Over next three years).
    • Funding applications to be facilitated by Layne with assistance from the West Virginia Grant Center at Marshall University and outside consultants.
  4. Once funding is received, utilize United Way grant-making process to advertise and fund innovation grants to non-profit partner agencies that can assist in achieving UWCOP goals.

 

PHASE 3: Grow Community Partnerships to Address Needs

  1. Utilize Unted Way focus areas and internal programming to identify corporate and other potential partners to further achieve Community Opportunity Plan goals.

Phase 4: Evaluation and Reassessment

  1. Evaluate success of UWCOP implementation and re-identify community’s most pressing needs.