AKRON, Ohio — A sold-out crowd of over 900 heard Michele Cerminaro, board chair of the United Way of Summit & Medina, announce an update to the organization's "Bold Goals" for area youths on Wednesday.
"Bold Goals" was first announced by the United Way in 2017 and provide clear and defined goals for education and quality of life in Summit and Medina counties through extensive research and deliberation.
Here is what was announced at John S. Knight Center Wednesday:
- United Way’s Bold Goal 1 remains unchanged: to raise the percentage of Akron Public Schools (APS) third-graders reading at or above grade level to 65 percent.
- To its Bold Goal 2, United Way added an additional target metric. In addition to raising the APS four-year high school graduation rate to 90 percent and the APS college and career readiness rate to 60 percent, United Way will work to ensure that 60 percent of Akron youth are employed or active in extracurricular activities.
- As well as financially empowering 11,000 Summit County residents as its Bold Goal 3, United Way will financially empower 2,500 people in Medina County.
- Following its successful work with Summa Health to pilot and launch the First Step program, which makes medication-assisted addiction treatment available in the emergency room, United Way is shifting its focus to correcting racial inequities in health. In 2019, Summit County’s Black infant mortality rate was 15.4 out of every 1,000 live births, compared to a county average of 6 per 1,000. For its Bold Goal 4, United Way is now working to close that gap by bringing down the Black infant mortality rate to 6 out of every 1,000 births.
“We learned a lot during the pandemic,” said Cerminaro. “United Way developed new and effective ways to directly serve our community – making 211 and our Family Resource Centers central hubs for those seeking assistance and distributing $25 million in rent, mortgage and utility assistance through Summit County Cares. Now, we’re going to take what proved most effective in that moment of crisis and expand it across our community to create lasting change.”
You can learn more about "Bold Goals" here. For additional information, visit uwsummitmedina.org. You can also watch Wednesday's event.
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