In 2012, the Monadnock United Way (MUW) and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation partnered with the NH Center for Public Policy Studies to conduct extensive research with the goal of uncovering gaps in the well-being of people living in the Monadnock Region. The goals of that study were to:
- Identify major trends and community needs in our region
- Identify evidence-based solutions to address those needs
- Explore a systems approach to address the needs at the root cause
Of the many factors that influence a community’s well-being, three foundational areas were identified as high priority for our community to address. In these three areas, our region fell significantly behind other areas of our state. Those include:
- Children—The rate of child abuse and neglect is higher in this region than all but three counties in the state.
- Education—High school students in this region generally scored lower than the top 25% in the rest of the state.
- Financial Stability—The region is losing high-paying jobs and our wages are the second lowest in the state.
These three factors tend to cycle together. On a positive note, when children, education, and financial stability needs are addressed as a whole, they positively affect other areas including substance abuse, hunger and homelessness.
There are several trends that MUW and many United Way offices across the country are experiencing. These challenges include:
- A slow decline in workplace campaign giving
- Difficulty finding and engaging volunteers
- Difficulty meeting annual fundraising goals
- Turnover in donor base, particularly at mid to high giving levels
In addition, we learned that regions across the country—and in New Hampshire—have stronger, more lasting effects when communities come together to address social needs using evidence-based practices in a systems-based approach. Some call this approach Impact, Community Impact, or Collective Impact. For simplicity, we are calling it Impact.