Speaker: Joanna Maxwell, Manager, Economic Mobility
Introduce yourself and tell us why fighting poverty and expanding opportunity is
so important to our region.
Joanna Maxwell: Hello, my name is Joanna Maxwell and i'm the Manager of Economic Mobility here at United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. And some of the reasons why I fight poverty is because reducing poverty can increase consumer spending, It can lead to upward mobility, it can attract businesses... Reducing poverty also reduces the burden on our health care systems and improves the general well being of a person. ...and expanding opportunities such as job training, educational programs, leads to a more skilled workforce... attracting more businesses, increasing entrepreneurship, fostering economic growth. Economic stability can also reduce stress and mental health issues in any individual leading to just an overall general well being of the community.
Describe how a gift to United Way helps people and families build the skills and support they need to rise above the poverty line.
Joanna Maxwell: A gift to United Way means that you care and it means that you care about your neighborhood, that you care about your community, that you care about your region. And one of the ways we use your gifts is we fund well-known local grassroots even larger nonprofits to do the great work that they do for free and having free services like emergency assistance, free application prep to benefits and services and free tax prep. That all makes such a big difference to a person who is in crisis. So your gift goes directly to people who are in need, who are on the poverty line and who just need the assistance and support of another person to get through the most difficult times of their life.
Share a story of a person whose life was positively impacted or an example of a solution made possible through donors' support.
Joanna Maxwell: One story that I love sharing about the impact that we have here and who we choose to fund is a story about a small workforce development program focused on youth and how that program chooses local youth to participate and has a whole training program on leadership and workforce development and to see kind of the transformation and hear their stories of how they came into the program as a shy individual that had no public speaking skills to seeing them as a person who is confident and with such grace speaks so eloquently about, you know, their journey and how they arrive to where they're at and how much confidence they have because of the program. And that is really the reason why I do the work I do.
