United Way of McMinn & Meigs Counties

Mission: To unite our community’s resources to give everyone in McMinn and Meigs counties the opportunity for a good quality of life through the pillars of Education, Financial Stability and Health.

In 1887, a Denver priest, two ministers and a rabbi recognized the need for cooperative action to address their city’s welfare problems. The Rev. Myron W. Reed, Msgr. William J.O’Ryan, Dean H. Martyn Hart and Rabbi William S. Friedman put their heads together to plan the first united campaign for ten health and welfare agencies. They created an organization to serve as an agent to collect funds for local charities, as well as to coordinate relief services, counsel and refer clients to cooperating agencies, and make emergency assistance grants in cases which could not be referred.  That year, Denver raised $21,700 and created a movement that would spread throughout the country to become the United Way. Over 118 years later, United Way is still focused on mobilizing the caring power of communities and making a difference in people’s lives.

United Way of McMinn and Meigs Counties seeks to achieve the following goals:

• Improve education with all children being ready to succeed in school.
• Help people achieve financial stability, — half the number of lower-income families who are financially unstable — on the road to economic independence.
• Promote healthy lives, and increase the number of youth and adults who are healthy and avoid risky behaviors.

These goals are ambitious, but with your help we can achieve them.