PRESS RELEASE

June 23, 2009

Re: United Way allocation/cuts to agencies
Contact: William Hall, President 704 523-8027 ext 14

United Way has released its allocation decisions and we have found out that we will receive a reduction of 30.8% compared to what we received this fiscal year (08-09). Our proposed budget, effective July 1, assumed a 40% reduction. Fortunately, the Allocation Panel was impressed with our proposals, all of the changes we implemented and our plans for the rest of the year. They were very complimentary. But the amount of money is still restricted. The totals (not including our designations from donors of $13,222) are as follows:

08-09 allocation	09-10 allocation	Reduction	Amount requested
$444,213	$293,975	$150,238	$440,056

United Way support this year was 30.7% of our total budget, next year UW support will drop to 23.2% of our projected budget starting on July 1, 2009.

While these reductions are significant we hope that sound business practices as well as support from the community will allow us to minimize the effect on services to those in need. That support can come from direct donations and volunteering as well as patronage. Each hearing aid we sell and every speech-therapy session we receive payment for allows us to serve a child or senior in need.

Without that support we will have no choice but to further reduce the number of hearing aids we give away to low-income children and seniors, we are already down from over 100 last year to approximately 60 next year. We will also have to limit our financial assistance to low-income families in need of speech-language services and curtail our free screenings to preschoolers who are at risk of becoming part of the achievement gap plaguing our community.

I am impressed and relieved that the cuts were not greater and I am grateful for the support from the Older Adult Wellness & Disabilities Council. The staff at United Way: Chris Jackson, Rene Berkley and Jeremy Lamb helped us prepare our new proposals, placed us on a new panel, and educated the panel on what we do. They were instrumental in ensuring that we continue to receive funding. Without United Way, we would have a much greater challenge to maintain our services to the community. We are thankful to Carlos Evans, Mac Everett, and United Way volunteers for their leadership in this challenging time and look ahead to better times.