Over the past several months, your United Way has engaged with our community to best understand how we can deliver on our charitable mission “to improve lives and build communities”. The result of this consultation process is a new three-year strategic plan: YOUR Community, YOUR United Way. 

This plan builds upon identified areas of success, while focusing on some new ways that United Way Simcoe Muskoka can support social inclusion efforts and poverty reduction strategies across the communities we serve. Like all United Ways across Canada, we remain committed to the following priorities:

• • Transitioning people from poverty to possibility
  • Inspiring kids to be all that they can be
  • Advocating for healthy people and strong communities

To support these three priorities, over the next three years your United Way will focus its efforts and resources on the following strategic themes: 

1. 1. Build our own internal capacity so that we can meet the needs of the community
   2. Increase awareness of United Way Simcoe Muskoka’s impact on the communities we serve
   3. Strengthen communities through strategic funding and partnership opportunities
   4. Affect long-term systemic change through advocacy and education.

While this is not a dramatic reset of organizational priorities, it is our belief that by focusing on the above, your United Way will show up differently in our community.

We will not shy away from joining challenging community conversations.

More than just a funding agency, we will be a committed partner of the organizations we work with. 

We will amplify the voices of those with lived and living experience. 

We will increase our investment in the communities we serve. 

I would like to thank all our community partners, donors, staff, and board members who contributed to this Strategic Plan. By focusing on the priorities identified in YOUR Community, YOUR United Way, we will contribute to building communities where everyone can reach their full potential. 

To read our full Strategic Plan click here 

Sincerely, 

Brian Shelley
Chief Executive & Philanthropy Officer
United Way Simcoe Muskoka