United Way’s Family Empowerment Initiative is a real-time solution powered by The Siemer Institute for Family Stability. Currently, there are six partner agencies involved in providing services through this initiative.
The goal of the initiative is to keep children stabilized in their school environment. Children with families who have a history of housing instability have a higher risk of adverse outcomes in their social-emotional and physical health, as well as their academic performance. Case workers pair with families to identify their needs and come up with a plan to keep them stable and housed.
In November, Siemer Institute president and national executive director Kimberly Habash Dorniden visited Kansas City to get a ground-level view of how the organization’s grant funding is making an impact in local communities.
The first stop on the visit was to United Way of Greater Kansas City Impact 100 partner Community Services League in Independence, Mo. The organization has built strong relationships with five neighboring school districts and housing developments. At any given time, more than 250 families are being served through a combination of family stability and financial coaching programs.
“It’s really served as a springboard to so many other great things—investments from funders and community relationship building,” said Lynn Rose, CSL Chief Program Officer. “We see families that are unstably housed, on the brink of eviction, and we’re really connecting deeply with these families and getting them on a more firm footing.”
The next visit was to Impact 100 partner Avenue of Life in Kansas City, Kan. It serves more than 500 families through family stability work, along with hundreds of homeless students in the KCK School District who qualify for services under the McKinney-Vento Act.
“We’re seeing people at our doors now who have never been homeless. Their budget worked and now it doesn’t, due to inflation,” said Avenue of Life founder and CEO Desiree Monize. “It’s not just the housing. It’s the food. It’s the cost of insurance. It’s literally everything. It’s all gone up. And wages are very stagnant. So that’s the challenge. We’re working with middle class individuals, not just our McKinney-Vento.”
From there, the visit moved to Impact 100 partner Metro Lutheran Ministry, at Brookwood at Antioch, a new mixed-income housing development where MLM is providing on-site case management and financial coaching for families.
“At this particular location, we have a lot of large families, a lot of immigrant families. We’re providing them with employment services, case management and coaching, connecting their kids with therapy services if needed,” said Becky Poitras, MLM vice president and assistant executive director. “It’s making a tangible difference.”
“I’m just really moved by the breadth and the scope of what each of these partners are doing in the community. They’re really in tune with the whole continuum of care around prevention into sustainability,” Habash Dorniden with the Siemer Institute said. “Being able to hear first-hand, it does really leave me feeling so grateful to be part of the larger picture, connected with these incredible partnerships because of what United Way has done here. Now I’ll talk about what I’ve seen here in other communities.”
In 2024, through our partners, United Way’s Family Empowerment Initiative served 1,123 families, including 2,308 school-aged children. More than 93-percent remained in school and avoided a disruptive move.