The United Way of Chelan and Douglas counties has embarked on an effort to discover the most important issues that are confronting our communities and how the organization can evolve to meet those needs. They’ve started holding a series of focus group conversations throughout the two counties to understand the opportunities.

Alan Walker, executive director of United Way, said the organization needs to shift from simply raising and distributing money to “convening and solving problems.” That means being more strategic about how it uses its resources. Understanding what issues the community feels are most important is an important first step.

Walker says other United Way agencies have used this approach to target specific goals and have been successful in making progress towards those goals.

After just the first two community conversations, Walker reports that some familiar themes have emerged, such as a need to improve awareness in the community about programs and services that are available, developing a better early education system, improving parenting education and creating mentoring programs.

During the session I sat in on last week at Eastmont Junior High School, a couple of the groups talked at length about the need to build on the strengths we have in our communities. In some circles it’s referred to as asset mapping.

Philosophically, I like the notion that if you want to build a stronger community that the best place to begin is to understand what’s really working well and why. If you build on those strengths rather than just focusing on fixing problems, you have a far better chance of making a difference.

If at the end of this process it provides United Way with a better way to target its time and resources, our communities would reap the benefits for years to come.