Advocate

Anyone can champion the cause. Whether you're speaking out to improve education, income, health and safety, reaching out to our local legislators, or wearing the LIVE UNITED shirt to show your support, you can help inspire hope and create opportunities for a better tomorrow. So go ahead and advocate in a LIVE UNITED world. Do it in public. Be visible. Be loud. Get informed and tell your friends. United Way needs people who are passionate about education, income, health and safety to make some noise!

Join United Way in supporting the following public policy items. Follow the links to learn more about each item and how you can become an active part of making positive changes!

Support Calling for 2-1-1 [S. 211/H.R. 211]
Ask your Members of Congress to cosponsor the Calling for 2-1-1 Act!

2-1-1 is a community response system where people can call those three numbers, speak to a live, certified call specialist, and receive the social services information they need to both make it through crises and everyday life. In addition, 2-1-1 links callers to opportunities to give back to their communities.

The Calling for 2-1-1 Act (S. 211/H.R. 211) would authorize a $700 million matching- grant program over six years to ensure that every American has access to 2-1-1, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. From database and call center development, to call-specialist training and crisis preparedness planning, this money would ensure that every American could cut through the red tape of the health and human services delivery system.

Support The Education Begins at Home Act [S. 667/H.R. 2343]
Advocate on behalf of quality home visitation programs in communities

The Education Begins at Home Act (EBAH) is intended to give many more children a quality early childhood experience with the help of home visitation services. The funds will help states expand quality home visitation programs in communities, and will target some specific groups of children and families for assistance.

Specifically, EBAH will:

Provide $400 million over 3 years to states to expand access to parent education and family support services through quality early childhood home visitation programs;

Provide $50 million over 3 years to fund innovative ideas and partnerships at the local level to expand quality home visitation services to families with English language learners;

Provide $50 million over 3 years to provide home visiting services to families of members of the Armed Forces living on military bases; and

Strengthen the early childhood home visitation components of Early Head Start

Support The Savings for Working Families Act [S. 871/H.R.1514]
Support a tax credit for Individual Development Accounts; expand asset-building opportunity for the nation's working poor.

IDA policies and programs foster partnerships between the public and private sector and stimulate the economy, while expanding opportunities for working families to save earnings and accumulate assets that are necessary to achieve a better quality of life. The Savings for Working Families Act (SWFA) would create a tax credit to support 900,000 Individual Development Accounts. The bill will provide a $1.2 billion tax credit for financial institutions that match the savings of working families and individuals who participate in financial education classes and save for an asset goal. Individual Development Accounts make these opportunities accessible to many American asset-poor families.

Protect Healthy Start [H.R. 3267]

Help ensure that every infant born in the U.S. is born into good health today!

The infant mortality rate in the U.S. shows significant racial and ethnic disparities, with infants of minority twice as likely to suffer death prior to their first birthday. The Healthy Start program provides grants to 100 of the most at-risk communities to help improve health care access and quality for low-income mothers and newborns. Studies show that the Healthy Start Initiative has been successful at reducing infant mortality, reducing low birth weight, improving prenatal care, and reducing barriers to health care for pregnant women and infants. It also is credited with reducing federal expenditures associated with providing more expensive and frequent medical treatment than infants who do not get proper prenatal and postnatal care often require.

Urge your Representative to cosponsor the Healthy Start Reauthorization Act of 2007 to protect this critical program and ensure that every infant born in the U.S. begins life in good health.