Empowering Community Members pursuit of Financial Stability

We officially kicked off Tax Season at the United Way of Steele County!!  We are an official VITA site which means that all our amazing volunteers are fully trained to provide this extremely valuable service.  We currently have 10 volunteers and 2 staff certified to complete tax returns for households that made $78,000 or less last year, or may have made more last year, and are struggling this year.  We also have one student intern helping us to conduct our intake interviews to ensure a seamless process once you arrive.  You can register by calling our office or going online to our website. 

“The VITA grant program is an IRS initiative designed to support free tax preparation service for the underserved through various partner organizations” (www.irs.gov). This is a 100% matching grant, so we leverage other grants and locally raised funds to support this program in Steele County.  Our goal this year is to complete 400 tax returns and after our first couple weeks, we are well on our way!!  United Way of Steele County is a year around site; however, most of the returns we complete are done during the regular tax season.  We anticipate that at the end of this tax year we would have helped individuals and families get back approx. $500,000, funds that can be used to buy groceries, pay rent, or get caught up on bills.  One client shared, “now I can afford to get my new knee!!”  This is just one-way United Way of Steele County is doing our part to improve lives in Steele County.    

In my next column I am going to share the exciting and innovative work we are doing through United for Childcare, a United Way led collaboration addressing the needs of childcare across Steele County.  Thank you for your continued support of our work, truly showing what it means to LIVE UNITED.  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