When a crisis hits, having somewhere to turn is invaluable. For millions of people, that place is 211.
211 is the only free, confidential, 24/7/365 service that connects Pennsylvanians with all the health and human services in their area that are available to help. It’s the first stop for Pennsylvania residents experiencing housing insecurity. Whether they are seeking help with utility bills, housing assistance, after-school programs for kids or have other requests, dialing 211 will connect them with a local resource specialist for free.
On February 11, United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley will join United Way of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania 211 network to celebrate PA 211 Day to recognize and amplify the important work of this vital resource available statewide.
The economic fall-out of the pandemic continued to impact people in our community—particularly low-income families and those in underrepresented populations. Last year, PA 211 received 31,203 calls for UWGLV’s service area of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties. Of those requests, 72.6% were for housing and utilities.
In a crisis, in a disaster, in a pandemic, 211 is here to help every person in our community find food, pay bills and connect to other essential services. Our 211 is part of a national network, United to help as many people as possible.
To access these resources, dial 211 or text your zip code to 898-211. To chat online with a 211 resource navigator, visit www.pa211.org, start a search for resources, and select the option to chat. PA 211 also features a new chat translation tool at www.pa211.org which allows customers to interact with 211 in 75 different languages.
United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and our Labor partners celebrated TeenWorks™ at our annual dinner. We recognized TeenWorks’ accomplishments, awarded Project of the Year and honored our TeenWorks’ Hero.
In partnership with Lafayette College and Family Connection of Easton, Paxinosa Elementary School, a United Way Community School, opened a food pantry available to all students, families and community members. The pantry offers a large selection of diverse food choices to meet all of their families’ needs. The new collaboration and partnership with Lafayette is called Pax Partners.
The pantry is open once a month to any community member living in Easton—no matter if they have a child that attends school in the district or not. Lafayette raised over $2,000 for Paxinosa to restock their pantry while Family Connection of Easton supports the pantry under the direction of Keela Vincent.
Tocqueville Society celebrated reaching its new membership goal for the 2022 campaign at a lively winter gathering sponsored by Dual Temp Company Inc. on Thursday, January 19 at The Wilbur Mansion in Bethlehem. Approximately 150 members and prospects enjoyed tours of the newly renovated mansion, while receiving campaign updates from campaign co-chair Ashley Russo as well as updates on our healthy aging work from Executive Vice President and Chief Impact Officer, Marci Lesko. Russo shared that Tocqueville Society exceeded its goal of 70 new members for the campaign, while also adding more than 40 new workplace partners overall.
On Wednesday, January 11, the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley (UWGLV) AmeriCorps VISTAs volunteered at the Bethlehem Emergency Shelter as a MLK Day of Service project. The VISTAs prepared and served 70 meals to the shelter guests.
“Helping the guests gave me the opportunity to see the impact of our actions and ensure that low-income individuals get access to fresh food,” shared Rebecca Prisco, Nonprofit Capacity Building VISTA.
Bethlehem Emergency Shelter (BES) is a faith-based partnership that provides a network of care and hospitality, including food services, for the homeless in the community. BES also offers overnight sheltering during the winter season from December to the end of March.
AmeriCorps encourages every VISTA to participate in this day of direct service, benefiting the communities where they serve.
AmeriCorps VISTA is a national service program that builds permanent infrastructure in nonprofit organizations in order to help them more effectively bring individuals and communities out of poverty.
United Way Tocqueville Society is an alliance of nearly 350 successful business and philanthropic leaders and their families who share a strong commitment and passion for investing in our local community. Paul Farr, past United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley (UWGLV) board member and 2013 campaign chair, and his wife Kym have been giving their time and investments to United Way for over 30 years. They’re deeply committed to UWGLV because of the real and lasting impact that is made in the community they call home.
“Our family strongly believes in the power of coordinated action and recognizes Tocqueville’s significant contributions toward achieving United Way’s community goals. We have been supporting United Way since 1990 and have gradually increased our involvement with the organization, its nonprofit partners, actively volunteering in Allentown schools and Day of Caring events.”
As an executive with PPL and Talen for 20 years, Paul, now retired, and his teams were involved in United Way Community School programs, Day of Caring, volunteering and mentoring at schools in Allentown and held a number of board roles with partner agencies. Paul is extremely proud to have played a leading role in increasing PPL’s employee and retiree United Way giving commitments during his tenure.
Currently, Paul is a board member of the Cay Galgon Life House, a United Way partner agency, and the Belmont Child Care Association, and Kym has been involved in several projects supporting partner agencies’ donation efforts and programs.
Paul and Kym reside in Center Valley and have six children: Caleb, Ivy, Jade, Jacob, Lily and Noah.
Santa rang in the holidays early this year with a gift delivery to Roosevelt and Sheridan elementary schools, Community Schools in the Allentown School District. For the past 2 years, TeenWorks™, an affinity group of United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley (UWGLV), had a gift-wrapping party to wrap the donated gifts for their 3 adopted autistic support classes at Roosevelt. Santa (and his helpers) loaded, delivered and unpacked those gifts plus over 4,000 more and other goodies for students during the third annual Lehigh Valley Labor Council Toy Drive on Friday, December 16.
Santa, aka Allentown Mayor-elect Matt Tuerk with IronPigs’ FeRROUS
Capital Blue Cross, local labor unions and dozens of volunteers met at Capital Blue Cross on Hamilton Blvd in Allentown to prepare Santa’s “sleighs,” which included a Teamster Local 773 trailer, a fire engine and a LANta bus for the big holiday delivery. The vehicles filled with gifts paraded down to Roosevelt Elementary where they met the students, along with surprise guests Santa, aka Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, IronPigs’ FeRRous and Lehigh Valley Phantom’s meLVin.
“This is a special day; you can see in everyone’s face that this is truly a labor of love,” mentioned John Werkheiser, Labor Liaison at UWGLV.
“This is an opportunity for us to show kids in Allentown that we care about them and love them,” shared Mayor Matt Tuerk. “Roosevelt has a large Latino population, so a favorite moment for me is when I speak to a student in Spanish for the first time and see the shock on their face. They can’t believe Santa speaks their language and I’m so happy to spread that joy,” he added.
“We are here for the long-haul, just to see the smiles from the students. Even though the weather is not great this year, no one’s complaining. We want to support these kids for as long as possible,” stated Gregg Potter, Capital Blue Cross Senior Labor Relations Consultant and TeenWorks™ Board Member.
TeenWorks is made up of a diverse group of local middle and high school students and local members of organized labor. This organization, which operates solely in the Lehigh Valley, began in 1999 as a partnership with the labor community and United Way. The group meets monthly and helps to fund community service projects throughout the Lehigh Valley from various youth groups. Over 500 organizations have received grants of up to $1,000.00 for their projects. In addition to funding projects, TeenWorks board members have a strong group of volunteers who can be counted on to do anything from building shelves to distributing mulch.
TeenWorks and Capital Blue Cross have shared the financial support for Roosevelt for the past 5 years. TeenWorks and Capital Blue Cross entered into this unique relationship over twenty years ago and have produced significant results.
Special thanks to the groups who provided donations/financial support for this year’s toy drive:
Allentown Education Association Allentown Fire Department Allentown Police Department Berks County Labor Council CWA Local 13500 Capital Blue Cross Carpenters Local 167 Dickson Crane Company Fran Loughney IATSE Local 200 IBEW Local 375 JANESCO LANTA Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong Lehigh County Sheriff’s Department Lehigh Valley Cops & Kids Lehigh Valley Labor Council Lehigh Valley Phantoms Lehigh Valley Print Center Lehigh Vally Iron Pigs Muhlenberg Magical Memories Operating Engineers Local 542 Plumbers Local 690 Rotary Club Emmaus Chapter SEIU Local 668 Steamfitters Local 420 Teamsters Local 773 Teamsters Local 773 TeenWorks™ The law office of Cohen Feeley Altemose & Rambo United Auto Workers Local 677 United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley Workers United among others
Photo credit: Marco Calderon Photography and United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley
On November 22, students from The Swain School, a private elementary school in Allentown, partnered with local nonprofit, Joyful Giving, to pack necessity bags for fellow community members. The event was made possible in part through a United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley TeenWorksTM grant of $1,000 secured by Sophia Brancato and Lia Nnenkwo.
Joyful Giving’s mission is to package essential items in an aesthetic way, to bring joy to recipients. These necessity bags, also known as Joy Maker bags, include items such as socks, shampoo, body wash and lip balm. Every bag also includes a piece of chocolate and is tied with a ribbon to mimic the look of a present. Child-focused Joy Maker bags include stickers, fidgets, crayons and a coloring book.
“A Day of Joyful Giving,” is a collaboration between Hannah Votta Coleman, the founder of Joyful Giving, and Darah Donaher, an instructor at Swain School and former TeenWorks member. The two began their partnership in February of 2022 when Darah led Community Service Elective students in creating Joy Maker bags. The pair sought to do a similar event, but by engaging all Swain students in the project this time, and thus held A Day of Joyful Giving on Swain’s Harvest Feast Day.
Students from pre-k to eighth grade lent a hand to their community members by learning the importance of the Joy Maker bags and how to create them.
”The objective of the event was clear—simply to create joy, because that’s the mission behind Joyful Giving,” shared Hannah. “Seeing the students actively engaged while building the bags was priceless.”
“I like being part of Joyful Giving because I love the idea of giving to those who don’t have what I have, and I like to know I’m helping them feel happy,” said Lia, current TeenWorks member.
The students packaged nearly 1,000 bags which will be distributed to Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, Operation Address the Homeless, New Bethany Ministries, Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital and Community Services for Children.
Meet Nikki, AmeriCorps member representing United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley (UWGLV) at Sixth Street Shelter in Allentown. Nikki works as a Family Resource Center (FRC) Mentor and builds the monthly programming calendar and curriculum for the shelter. Shelter guests can take advantage of the FRC’s amenities during their stay which include computer access, classes, workshops, special events and more.
“Volunteering puts me in different environments and allows me to teach useful skills that our residents may not have access to otherwise,” Nikki shared. “I always wanted to volunteer for an organization that aligns with my personal values and Sixth Street Shelter is just that.”
AmeriCorps is a national service program administered by PennSERVE (Pennsylvania’s State Service Commission), enrolling individuals in national community service positions. AmeriCorps members represent the best of America, tirelessly serving people and communities across the country.
UWGLV is proud to have AmeriCorps members serve in various positions to gain professional experience. Members work closely with United Way staff and assignments are based in the UWGLV office, school districts and nonprofit organizations throughout the Greater Lehigh Valley.
On November 16, Panther Valley Elementary School, a new United Way Community School and the first in Carbon County, held a special Thanksgiving Food Pantry. The pantry provided 260 families with Thanksgiving meal essentials such as turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, corn, potatoes, lettuce, stuffing, Cornish hens and more.
Thanks to funds contributed to the Community Health Department at St. Luke’s University Health Network, Panther Valley was able to purchase hams from Boyer’s Food Market in Tamaqua, PA. Turkeys were donated from private donors and handed out to selected families. Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania helped provide and deliver all Thanksgiving essentials to ensure that all families had what they needed to have a Happy Thanksgiving.
