Grand Valley faculty and staff will have the opportunity to give to United Way during the annual campaign, which this year runs October 3-14. By giving, Grand Valley employees will help touch the lives of a wide variety of people throughout the community, as the stories of a couple of Grand Valley employees show.
Sue Sloop was hired earlier this year as Grand Valley's first Work Life consultant. Prior to coming to the university, she worked for Spectrum Health for 20 years and spent part of that time as a medical social worker. In that position, she did a lot of discharge planning had contact with many community agencies.
"If someone needed to go home and they had no services available at home to help them out, my job would be to make sure that those services were in place, because Spectrum Health practices a continuum of care philosophy," Sloop said. "So, when a person left the hospital we weren't done, we wanted to make sure they were being cared for at home."
In those cases, Sloop frequently found herself turning to organizations like the Area Agency on Aging, Community Mental Health and Cornerstone to line up service. She frequently gave patients referrals to area clinics for free medical care.
Even Grand Valley employees have contact with United Way-funded agencies. The university has partnered with the YMCA to provide wellness initiatives by providing free joining fees for Grand Valley faculty and staff and access to several fitness programs. "That's been a great partnership. It's this domino effect in how it effects everybody," Sloop said.
James Edwards, director of field education in the School of Social Work, sits on the board of Arbor Circle, a United Way-funded organization that provides a variety of services to families and individuals. The services provided relate to substance abuse recovery, mental health counseling and child welfare. The organization also runs a runaway shelter and a program for homeless youth.
Without United Way funding, there would be a huge gap in services, particularly for youth and families, as well as addiction services, Edwards said.
"Of course there would be other agencies that would step up and do it, but not with the breadth of experience that Arbor Circle has," Edwards said.
"The agency is very innovative in its approach to services and is willing to change methodologies to serve clients," Edwards said. "The United Way funding that Arbor Circle receives helps them to provide where there are gaps in other funding sources."
Sometimes other funding sources help fund specific programs or outreach services, and there are often stipulations that limit the duration a particular service can be offered to a client. "In this time of limited funding and managed care principles, the United Way funding is essential to bridge those gaps," Edwards said.
