Advocate
Advancing the Common Good: Creating Opportunities for a Better Life for All
Everyone deserves opportunities to have a good life: a quality education that leads to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health.
That’s why United Way of Santa Cruz County’s work is focused on the building blocks for a good life:
- Youth – Helping Children and Youth Succeed in School and in Life
- Financial Stability – Promoting Financial Stability and Independence for our Families
- Health – Achieving Good Health for All
We are heartened that the governor's budget contains no further cuts to the CalWORKs program, but are concerned about the $30 million cut in child care and early childhood development programs for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. United Way of Santa Cruz County strongly encourages the Legislature and the governor to forgo the cuts to the already underfunded child-care system which have been decimated in the past two budget cycles. Subsidized child care is essential to supporting gainful employment of low-income families. Without it, many families face a horrible choice between quitting work or placing their children in inadequate care situations.
While this budget is by no means ideal for California's most vulnerable populations, it inspires more hope than budgets in recent years, and smartly begins to rebuild our damaged health, education, and human services programs. United Way of Santa Cruz County is committed to working with the governor, Sen. Bill Monning and Assemblyman Mark Stone on a final budget that protects our children and families. Read more
Advancing the common good is less about helping one person at a time and more about changing systems to help all of us. We are all connected and interdependent. We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, when people are healthy.
United Way’s goal is to create long-lasting changes by addressing the underlying causes of these problems. Living united means being a part of the change. It takes everyone in the community working together to create a brighter future.
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