The Bateman Team is a group of four Lee University students charged with creating a campaign that runs for the month of February for a specific client. That client this year is United Way of Bradley County, and together, they are promoting the importance of childhood obesity, as well as urging people to become connected with United Way.
Through conducting pre-campaign surveys, the Bateman Team found that almost every single person who took the survey has heard of United Way, but is unsure of what United Way does.
At the core of this global organization, there is a vision, mission and specific goals. United Way Worldwide envisions “a world where all individuals and families achieve their human potential through education, income stability and healthy lives.” With a vision as large and potentially significant as this, they have an answer through their mission of how to make this vision come true; they want to “improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good.”
To carry out their mission, United Way Worldwide set three ambitious goals in 2008 that were designed to be completed in 10 years: Improve education and cut the number of high school dropouts — 1.2 million students, ever year — in half; Help people achieve financial stability, and get 1.9 million working families — half the number of lower-income families who are financially unstable — on the road to economic independence; Promote healthy lives, and increase by one-third the number of youth and adults who are healthy and avoid risky behaviors.
How does this global organization that serves over 45 countries meet these goals in Cleveland/Bradley County? The answer is simple: They connect with organizations (such as the Bateman Team) and nonprofits that are trying to fulfill similar ambitions to improve the community’s education, finances and health.
United Way of Bradley County connects specifically with over 20 agencies in the area and supports them with manpower and fundraising abilities.
The mission of United Way of Bradley County is to be a community-based organization that leads the efforts in identifying community needs, facilitating collaboration, and maximizing resources to positively impact the community and surrounding area.
One of the examples of meeting this mission is the partnership between United Way of Bradley County and FamilyWize. Together, this alliance has saved local residents over $1.2 million in prescription costs in the past five years.
Since joining the FamilyWize prescription discount card program in 2005, United Way of Bradley County and FamilyWize have led nearly 80,000 prescription claims to cost an average of 37 percent less for people in Bradley County who take medications not covered by their plan. United Way of Bradley County provides these cards to anyone in the community, free-of-charge.
This is one of the many examples of United Way of Bradley County’s teamwork with other organizations that strive to benefit our community. United Way of Bradley County cannot pull off these partnerships by themselves; the key to their success is you. There are three ways that you can take action and help United Way: Give, advocate and volunteer.
