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Volunteering is a great way to meet neighbors and build community connections.

Courtesy United Way of Utah County

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United Way of Utah County has programs that help children get ready for and succeed in school.

Courtesy United Way of Utah County

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Every three years, United Way of Utah County leads a community assessment to identify our community’s strengths as well as potential challenges our neighbors may be facing. Each time we complete a community assessment, it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the wonderful community we live in.

Utah County is an amazing community with many unique strengths. We pride ourselves on being one of the youngest counties in the nation, having incredibly high rates of volunteerism, and being a community that genuinely cares about each other. I see time and time again the wonderful members of our community rally around people and issues that affect all of us.

While this year’s community assessment once again confirmed the wonderful aspects of our community that we all appreciate, it also revealed some striking trends that I feel are important to note.

Data on kindergarten readiness in Utah County has raised some alarms for us at United Way. As high as 33% of kindergarteners are behind reading benchmarks. For first-graders, the numbers are even worse: as many as 40% of these children can’t read at the level they should. Additionally, the growing population of kids learning English as a second language in Utah County faces extra hurdles to school success.

Mental health concerns also aren’t improving the way we’d hoped for. About one out of four adults in Utah County has been diagnosed with depression. More than half of us have someone in our household that has been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

Sadly, our kids are struggling, too. In Utah County, 30% of adolescents reported they had felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing some activities they usually enjoy. Nearly 20% say that in the past seven days, they have often felt left out or felt isolated from others.

While adults are feeling more attached to their neighborhoods, our teenagers are feeling less connected. About 31% of students in Utah County report having low neighborhood attachment.

We know these things affect the ability of our amazing community and its members to flourish. When students are struggling in school, mental health is declining and people feel disconnected in their neighborhoods, the whole community suffers. Because we have been facing these issues for a long time, people may feel discouraged about our ability to solve them. But we know it’s possible to create change if we show up for each other. It provides us with a great opportunity to tackle these challenges together.

United Way is determined to address these worrying trends and integrate solutions into all of our programs by championing literacy, supporting caring adults and building connections through our many great programs and opportunities for volunteering.

Getting kids ready to learn

United Way is focused on increasing literacy and school readiness for our children. Our Welcome Baby and Help Me Grow programs support parents of young children to make literacy and education a part of their everyday lives. Our community centers provide Summer Learning Programs, book donations and homework and reading help. All of these programs rely heavily on volunteers, which is helping to create those connections in our neighborhoods that are so helpful.

Supporting parents and families

In addition to our Help Me Grow program, EveryDay Strong helps parents gain new tools to support their kids’ mental health and build resilience.

Building connections

Connections can be built in so many simple ways. Volunteering is a great way to meet your neighbors and improve those connections right where you live. United Way has many volunteer opportunities available across the county in many of our different programs. At our EveryDay Strong or Digital Literacy classes, our community builds connections with each other as we build new skills. Our programs such as Sub for Santa and VITA also offer wonderful opportunities to meet community members we may not otherwise interact with.

Utah County is full of people who care about their neighbors and want to be connected to each other. We invite our wonderful community members to join us in our work to build a stronger, more united community by helping us address kindergarten readiness, mental health and community connections. To learn more about how you can get involved and support our efforts, please visit unitedwayuc.org.

Bill Hulterstrom is president and CEO of United Way of Utah County.