This summer, as an Upstate Institute Summer Field School Fellow, I had the joyful experience of working with the United Way of Mid Rural New York (UWMRNY), based in Norwich, NY and serving Madison, Chenango, Delaware, and Otsego counties. Its mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities and across a rural four-county region of roughly 225,000 people, that mission shows up in the wide range of programs UWMRNY leads and supports.
Each year, United Way chapters across the world hold annual fundraising campaigns, and the money raised is invested back into the community through local nonprofits and programs working to meet needs across the region. This past year, UWMRNY raised around $600,000, the largest campaign in its history. But funding is only half the story. UWMRNY also designs and runs initiatives of its own, stepping in to fill gaps that exist within the community. It operates a micro loan program that offers a two-year, interest-free loan to cover urgent expenses and avoid predatory lenders, and it runs the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in our region, mailing free books each month to young children to build early literacy. It also leads the regional Dental Task Force, which this year packed 16,000 dental kits for children across the four counties, 4,000 for each. I spent part of my own summer helping pack them, giving me the chance to see just a sliver of the hard work the United Way does. Woven through all of it is the role that would come to define my summer: UWMRNY convenes community impact coalitions, bringing partners together around challenges no single organization can solve alone.
I learned quickly that across the four counties UWMRNY serves, roughly 41.5% of households can't afford the basics of living, even though many of them work, some at multiple jobs. This is the group United Way centers its efforts on: people above the poverty line but still not earning enough to live comfortably. There's a name for them, ALICE, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. These are working families, people with jobs, who still struggle to cover rent, food, and childcare. Often called the working poor, they are easy to miss in the usual measures of hardship, because on paper they appear to be getting by. In reality, these families are often forced into impossible choices, deciding which necessity to go without this month because the budget can't stretch to cover them all.
My work this summer involved two projects, both centered on United Way’s impact coalitions and both tied to the same challenge: helping ALICE families reach support that already exists.
The first was the CA$H Coalition, which provides free, quality tax preparation across the region. The coalition is at a turning point, as a longtime partner steps back from holding the IRS grant that funds much of this work in Otsego County. My research looked at how to move forward, and I recommended two paths: pursuing new partnerships, including bringing Sidney Federal Credit Union on as a partner, and strengthening United Way's role as the coalition's central facilitator, including a centralized four-county website so residents can find free tax help no matter where they live.
The second project focused on the region's hunger coalitions, which work to address food insecurity across the four counties. My assignment shifted over the summer from studying a possible merger between two coalitions to a more realistic question: how to strengthen each one on its own footing and improve the way they communicate. I recommended grounding both coalitions in their role as conveners rather than direct service providers, and closing the information gap around programs like SNAP benefits at farmers markets.
This summer, I didn’t turn in a single, finished product. I was placed in the middle of change, especially with the CA$H Coalition, which is navigating a real transition in how it sustains resources families depend on. My recommendations were built not for the coming weeks, but for the years ahead, and what happens next will unfold long after my fellowship ends. In that sense, my research is a work in progress, and I've come to see that as a strength.
When applying for the summer opportunities Colgate offered, United Way's internship was the only one I filled out. As a sociology and geography major, I've spent much of my time at Colgate studying poverty, inequality, and the ways communities are shaped by the places people live. Working at United Way gave me the chance to see those ideas play out firsthand, in real decisions affecting real families across our four counties. I've always been drawn to work that helps communities, and getting to witness the community-level change UWMRNY drives, and to contribute to it, was the most rewarding part of my summer. I hope the work I completed this summer helps move the needle against the challenges Mid-Rural New York faces. And while my small part of that work is done, the effort continues, carried by the people and partners who make this region what it is.