Community Impact - The heart of the matter

In 2003, the United Way movement across Canada  approved a new focus which launched the organization on a profound journey. United Way of Fort McMurray voted to follow this philosophy in 2006.  While continuing to support the work of our member agencies, we are moving in this direction.  At its core, this transformation is about a fundamental shift from being known just as a very successful umbrella fundraising organization to a Movement focused on community impact. We’re often asked what this means, and how it’s different from "what we used to do".

Community Impact is about achieving meaningful, long-term improvements to quality of life in Canadian communities—addressing not just the symptoms of problems but also getting at the root causes. It’s about making fundamental changes to community conditions.

As members of a movement committed to Community Impact, United Ways  all across Canada are working together and with others to amass the collective strength needed for real change to happen. Our goals are many — to:

•Influence public attitudes, systems and policies
•Focus on underlying causes of social issues
•Strengthen the network of services and the capacity of nonprofits and the community
•Engage the community’s financial resources, influence, time, knowledge and action

By combining community engagement with priority-setting and collaborative action at multiple levels, together communities and Canada’s United Way movement can achieve—and are achieving—lasting, measurable change.