By Bridget Manley, publisher
United Way of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County announced on Tuesday their plans to expand services and operations to include Staunton, Augusta County and Waynesboro.
The expansion will encompass the areas that lost their United Way last November, when the United Way of Staunton, Augusta County, and Waynesboro abruptly closed operations, citing “increasing costs and declining revenues.”
The Harrisonburg-Rockingham organization will concentrate on helping ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) households achieve financial stability. After a strategic shift in 2023, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham chapter “refined its mission” to center its work on serving ALICE households, said UWHR Board Chair Braydon Hoover.
“The care and intentionality with which we underwent our strategic plan is the same we utilized in the decision to help cover S.A.W. in this decision,” Hoover said. “I used to think that our shift from charitable clearinghouse to strategic community consultant was the most significant evolution in our history. But today, I stand corrected.”
The organization will maintain its main office in Harrisonburg with satellite locations in the three localities and will hire additional staff for the expansion. The organization’s name will change, as well, and that new name is in the pipeline for approval within the United Way system. The name change will become public once the United Way approves it.
United Way leaders announced the expansion at a press conference at the Grottoes Town Hall, which was ceremoniously chosen for its location. The town of Grottoes spans both Rockingham and Augusta County.
Amanda Leech, United Way of Harrisonburg-Rockingham executive director, said the staff and board of directors had been working over the last five months following the closure of the Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro chapter to ensure they could expand while still serving the populations in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.
“This expansion is about more than just geography,” Leech said. “It is about meeting ALICE households where they are. It’s about building partnerships, strengthening support systems, and ensuring that working households in Staunton, Augusta and Waynesboro have access to the resources they need to thrive while building upon the resilient foundation we have built in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.”
The Harrisonburg-Rockingham chapter has helped more than 400 households by providing $54,000 in emergency assistance since 2023, serving families who are above the federal poverty level but still struggle to afford necessities like childcare, housing, and transportation.
UWHR’s keystone programs will continue in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County during the expansion.
Leech said the full expansion will take 3-5 years to implement.
“It takes time to build new programs, to expand programs that we have, to get staff up and trained,” Leech said. “It takes time to do that work really, really well.”
The organization’s staff will conduct listening sessions in the Staunton, Augusta and Waynesboro areas, meeting with stakeholders such as elected officials, business owners, non-profit leaders, community leaders, as well as those who serve the ALICE population.
The Staunton News-Leader reported this week that several non-profits that the Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro office had served held a public meeting to ask for the community’s support in volunteering and donations.
The Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro chapter had made $175,000 in grant commitments, but following the abrupt closure, the group left the non-profits with an unpaid balance of just over $141,000.
Leech said they are engaging in conversations with the non-profit community in those areas and are seeking to partner with organizations that serve the ALICE population.
“We made the really hard decision two and half years ago to reduce our grant funding because it wasn’t sustainable,” Leech said. “As we continue to evolve, what we are really looking to bring is a hybrid model that pairs grant funding with direct service programming to best meet those needs with the ALICE population. At this point in time, we don’t know what that will look like for those non-profit organizations.”
After the Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro chapter’s closure, the Augusta Free Press reported that its former CEO, Kristi Williams, was under investigation by the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office due to board members questioning transactions exceeding $20,000 in direct deposits to her personal bank account.
Angela DeBoskey, executive director for the United Way of Virginia, was on hand Tuesday for the announcement. She said that while change can be uncomfortable, it becomes necessary to serve each community best.
“We have to be relevant. We have to be sustainable, we have to have our eye on the community and the community’s needs,” DeBoskey said. “That is exactly the target and the vision that this organization has.”
DeBoskey said United Way has been expanding and merging across the country, which includes 49 mergers and expansions in the last five years.
DeBoskey commended the Harrisonburg-Rockingham board and leadership for their enthusiastic involvement.
For Leech, the work is personal. As a military child who moved a lot during her youth, she said that when the Harrisonburg-Rockingham chapter began to focus its resources and energy on the ALICE population, the work became even more meaningful.
“This work is so important to me,” Leech said. “When we introduced the ALICE framework seven years ago, it all finally clicked in my mind. This was so much of my childhood; this was so many of my family members throughout my life who were struggling to make ends meet and didn’t have the resources to remain stable.”
That has become even more urgent in recent years as inflation and housing prices went up.
“As the cost of living rises, more families are struggling to make ends meet,” Leech continued. “More families are choosing to live in one community and work in another, and more families are one crisis away from poverty…Those are people who United Way showed up for in the last year.”
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