How we got here
The Challenge and the Response
The Challenge
The capacity of southeast Michigan's health and human service providers to serve a larger population of struggling individuals and families with declining resources is a growing challenge in our region. While public, private and non-profit agencies do heroic work in meeting metro Detroiter’s immediate needs, few efforts address the larger, community-wide conditions that give rise to those needs in the first place. This is the only way to make sustainable change.
Our Response
United Way understands that lasting community change is possible when individuals and groups come together to collectively tackle social issues that address both short-term needs and long-term challenges. Success depends not only on the ability of our region’s human service agencies to help those in need, but on the reduction in the population of individuals who are dependent on those service providers. This can be accomplished by confronting the underlying causes of the community’s most critical social issues to prevent problems from occurring in the first place.
Building on its strength as a convener, United Way is working on an action plan called the Agenda for Change which will leverage funding, professional expertise, talent and other resources from public and private sectors throughout Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, to achieve substantive results.
Through the Agenda for Change, United Way’s approach to improving lives and building stronger communities is evolving.
Regional Aspiration Identified
United Way for Southeastern Michigan is currently in
the second of a three-phase transformation process.
This work began in fall 2005 with an unparalleled community
engagement and visioning effort, bringing in over 6,500
metro residents to share their voice. Now, United Way
is focusing performing data analysis and issue identification
to select the vital few areas we can make lasting change
on in our region.
Community Change Timeline
United Way envisions a three-phase transition to create
lasting change for children, families, neighborhoods
and health. In that time, we will engage the community
in developing an agenda that provides long-lasting results.
At the moment we are in the "Planning Together"
Phase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Research and Tools
United Way for Southeastern Michigan CST & IST
Leaving the Mucky Middle & Finding
Traction with Impact
Download
Powerpoint 
Great Rivers Conference, February 2006
Crain's Detroit Business
Special Report: Regional Leadership
Mark Friedman, et al.
The Results and Performance Accountability Implementation
Guide: Questions and answers about
how to do the work
This document - which fills
a large three-ring binder if you print it out -
presents a clear guide to understanding the whole issue
of "accountability" in all its complexity.
Compiled with support from five foundations (including
The Annie E. Casey Foundation), the study cuts through
the jargon and abstraction that too often shroud this
topic, and champions the use of plain language to discuss
social change. The question-and-answer format reflects
the reality of the non-profit manager who needs to know
how to measure what is measurable, call the bluff of
those who demand world peace in return for a $25,000
grant, and avoid the temptation of promising too much.
This is a great resource, and best of all - it's
free.
United Way of America
Impact Transformation Diagnostic (ITD)
The ITD provides an
assessment of the local United Way's status with
regard to specific Standards of Excellence that
are key to the United Way's transformation to
community impact, and helps the local United Way identify
next steps to accelerate its progress.
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