Join Us for a Summer of Impact

This has been an exciting month for United Way and the communities we serve!  We kicked off the month with the United Ways of Minnesota Summer Conference in Downtown Owatonna, where we hosted 35 United Way leaders from across the state.  This was an opportunity for us to share best practices, learn new techniques for serving our communities, and just come together to support each other in this purposeful work.  A huge thank you to the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce for their support in coordinating this conference, to Torey’s for hosting us, to Federated Insurance, Mayo, Lakeside Foods, and United Way of Central MN for sponsoring the event, and to our fabulous keynote speaker Jason Hunt with Eye Squared, to our DEI trainer Kevin Skwira-Brown with Cultural Fluency Associations, LLP, to our grant writing trainer Tanya Paley with TCP Consulting, and to our marketing trainer Karen Hale with Mineral Springs Marketing!  Thank you to Tess Brown for the beautiful headshots!  Thank you to our United Way leaders that lead sessions throughout the conference!  And last but certainly not least, thank you to Inside Swing, the Art Center, the Steele County Historical Society, and our downtown food establishments for providing recreational opportunities for everyone during our down times!

We followed up this phenomenal conference with the 11th Annual Power of the Purse where Women United blew their fundraising goal out of the water…by how much, watch for the press release with final numbers!  This group of compassionate, philanthropic woman came together to raise funds for Early Childhood Literacy and Development, while building awareness of the needs throughout Steele County.  Together we will ensure that every child 0-5 in Steele County has access to books, that families will have access to educational age-appropriate activities and information on local resources for their children 0-11, and the entire community has access to outdoor trails that promote natural learning opportunities and physical health.  Thank you to the Power of the Purse Committee led by Debbie Ensley, thank you to our business and individual donors, and thank you to everyone that participated in this event and made sure that we not only met our goal but exceeded it!

We conducted our quarterly Landlord Summit, bringing landlords together to be a part of the housing shortage in Steele County.  This summit was led by Karina Schmitz and Ghassan Madkour, thank you for your leadership! Thank you to our landlords for your dedication to reaching a solution that helps to create sustainable housing solutions for our community!

Through our Steele County Coalition for Healthy Youth, we have conducted Naloxone Kit Training and Distribution events for several agencies across the county.  These events are conducted at no charge to the agency and ensures that multiple people across our county have access to Naloxone and are trained in the role they could play in saving a person’s life.  We also conducted Youth Mental Health First Aid training and officially have 13 newly certified Youth Mental Health First Aiders in Steele County!!  This was a significant commitment by these trainees, so thank you for taking the time to better equip yourselves with the tools to best support our youth experiencing mental health challenges.

June also officially kicked off our community events.  This donation is used to promote Early Childhood Literacy and Development programming throughout Steele County, via community events, including Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Bright by Text, and Born Learning Trails.  Thank you to Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation for your donation of over 700 books!!             

As you can see it has already been an exciting start to the summer and its just getting started!!  How can we better serve you?  How would you like to get involved?  It takes every single one of us to make a positive impact on our community.  Join us and help create a lasting legacy of unity in our communities.  Engaging Communities, Connecting People.  We’re YOUR United Way!     

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Annette Duncan is President of United Way of Steele County.  She can be reached at 507-455-1180 or via email by president@unitedwaysteelecounty.org. Our website is www.unitedwaysteelecounty.org