United Way Raising Red Flag on Social Issues

None by KCPW

2007 Community Assessment Shows Little Progress in Three Years

(KCPW News) According to a new study commissioned by United Way of Salt Lake, the four core causes of social problems along the Wasatch Front are insufficient income, people lacking life skills, barriers to education and inadequate opportunities for child and youth development. With this information in hand, United Way CEO and President Deborah Bayle Nielsen says the community can begin to collaborate on solutions:

"What is actually causing people to have these problems, and what can we as a community do to work on solutions to some of these underlying issues so that people don't have to access [social] services, that they won't have all these other problems, and that they can be more self-sufficient."

United Way released its 2007 Community Assessment this morning during a Report to the Community breakfast meeting attended by business and civic leaders, as well as social service providers. The study compares similar data gathered by the non-profit three years ago. Nielsen notes that no significant improvement has been made in 17 priority problem areas first identified in 2004, and that in fact three areas - income, health care and affordable housing - have gotten worse:

"That's why we're raising the red flag, because we think that it's very important for the community as a whole to really understand that these problems are getting worse, that we as a community really need to start to tackle them, and because it's impacting all of us - not just low income people."

To hear more from Neilsen on the 2007 Community Assessment, listen to today's Midday Metro podcast.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2008 KCPW