United Way of Southwest Georgia held its 2020 Virtual Kickoff on Facebook Live and YouTube on Wednesday, and will hold a campaign parade at the United Way of Southwest Georgia headquarters on today and begins at 10am.

The Kickoff events are the start of United Way’s annual fundraising effort and when United Way team members, partner agencies and volunteers unite to raise awareness and excitement in the community through the testimonials of donors, advocates and recipients. This event also allows attendees to network with hundreds of United Way supporters. 

“It’s wonderful how the community supports the United Way's mission of building stronger lives for everyone in southwest Georgia,” says Shaunae Motley, United Way of Southwest Georgia's President and CEO. “We are so fortunate to live in a community where more than 2,000 donors take part in the campaign each year. People in southwest Georgia understand the value of investing in education, financial stability, healthier lives and basic needs of our neighbors.  They recognize that when they give through United Way, we can solve problems that none of us can solve alone.”

The theme of this year’s community campaign is “REIMAGINE" and celebrates 66 years of fighting for southwest Georgia's most vulnerable residents. In United Way's relief and recovery work, COVID made clear that we as a community need long-term, systemic change to address so many of the crises facing our city and region. We are in a public health crisis, a housing crisis, a utilities crisis, a social justice crisis and so many more- and until we confront these with deep sustainable solutions, we will not be able to reduce these problems through charity alone. 

Various community leaders and corporate supporters will speak at the virtual kickoff-- Marcus Glass, City of Albany; Stribling Stuber, The Jones Center at Ichauway; MetroPower; Tara Foods; Ameris Bank; and UPS. They’ll have strong messages of how the workplace campaign provides opportunities to join with United Way and fight for the health, education and financial stability of every person in our community.

United Way’s annual campaign is a vital part of the organization’s work because the funds raised go to support local programs in the community. Last year, United Way of Southwest Georgia funded twenty-two local agencies focusing on the fundamentals of a good life: health, education, and financial stability. Additionally, United Way greatly impacted COVID-19 relief working with our COVID-19 relief partner agencies during the 2019 campaign season as well.  They also provided 30 nonprofits with grants for emergency relief for their constituents totaling over $455,000 and serving over 80,000 residents in our catchment area through four rounds and a community impact fund for residents for basic health and safety needs, including: food access, rent/mortgage/utility assistance, emergency housing, and childcare.