United Way of Moore County is transitioning from the broad mission that has guided the organization since 1968 to a sharper one aimed squarely at helping local families achieve lasting financial stability.
The organization’s new mission, “Empowering families to thrive by building pathways to lasting stability,” replaces “Working to advance the common good of the lives in our communities,” language United Way of Moore County adopted in an era when local United Ways operated more like general community chests, funding a wide range of causes across many sectors. The organization’s new tagline is “The path forward starts here. Together we rise.”
“Two community summits, dozens of partner agencies and a lot of honest conversation all pointed us toward the same conclusion,” said Linda Pearson, president of United Way of Moore County, in a press release. “Moore County doesn’t need us to do a little bit of everything. It needs us to help families reach financial stability, and it needs to see that our work is actually moving the needle.”
Officials say the change follows two community summits that brought together dozens of Moore County nonprofits, agencies and service providers working on financial stress and stability, and reflects data showing that a significant share of working Moore County households struggle to cover basic costs, even when someone in the household has a job.
Two summits, one consistent picture
United Way of Moore County convened the summits to hear directly from organizations on the front lines of poverty in the county, including food banks, housing agencies, childcare providers, schools, health clinics, social services, and workforce-training programs. Participants worked in small groups to identify what’s driving financial instability locally, what’s already working, and where resources are most needed.
The picture that emerged was consistent across both sessions: Moore County’s poverty is often hidden behind its image as a golf and retirement destination, obscured by a median household income that masks a wide gap between the county’s wealthier retirees and military families on one end and its working poor on the other.
Housing topped the list of concerns at both summits. Participants cited average home prices near $410,000, rents climbing roughly $200 a year, and a shrinking supply of naturally affordable older housing, a squeeze severe enough that some essential workers have ended up in hotels, cars or tents. New construction and rentals, participants said, increasingly start even higher, at $500,000 or $2,000 a month, pricing entirely outside what local wages support.
Wages were the second major theme. Participants said common local jobs pay $13 to $15 an hour. At the same time,e a basic survival budget for the county runs upward of $32,000 a year for a single adult and more than $86,000 for a family of four, a gap that service and retail jobs, now dominant as manufacturing has declined locally, rarely close.
Participants also pointed to childcare, transportation and fragmented services as persistent barriers. Moore County’s licensed childcare capacity hasn’t grown since 2005, leaving long waitlists even as providers, who often earn $10 to $12 an hour themselves, struggle to retain staff. Limited transit routes, with no evening or weekend service, cut families off from jobs, medical care and school meetings. An estimated 241 Moore County school-age children were living without stable housing, couch surfing or sleeping in cars, participants at the second summit reported, and an estimated 5,000 Moore County residents are projected to lose health care coverage.
Underneath the specifics, both summits pointed to the same structural problem: Moore County’s nonprofits and agencies frequently work in silos, without a shared system to track a family’s needs across housing, childcare, health and food assistance. Families described having to retell their story at every new door they knocked on for help.
Participants also floated a range of possible solutions: help with rent and deposits for families on the edge of losing housing, support to bridge the gap between landing a job and affording the childcare needed to keep it, a shared intake process so families don’t repeat their story at every agency, and staff who could walk alongside a family across multiple systems until they reach stability. United Way of Moore County said it is now reviewing which of those ideas, and others, to pursue.
“What struck me most was how consistent the picture was,” said Jeff Maples, strategic planning chair of United Way of Moore County, who helped lead both summits. “Housing, wages, childcare and transportation came up in nearly every breakout group, at both summits, from agencies that don’t normally sit at the same table. When that many people who work with families every day agree on what’s broken, you have to listen.”
Why the mission is changing
That feedback fed directly into the decision to narrow the mission, organization leaders said. “When everything is a priority, nothing is,” United Way of Moore County said in materials
outlining the change, arguing that a focused mission lets it align every dollar, volunteer hour and partnership around one measurable outcome: families that are stable, capable and connected.
“The board did not take this lightly,” said Andrea Burton, board chair of United Way of Moore County. “A broad mission feels safe because it lets you say yes to almost anything. But we kept coming back to the same question: how do we know if we’re actually helping? A focused mission gives us, and our donors, a real answer to that question.”
The shift also draws on national research showing that communities with the strongest long-term well-being tend to share one trait: stable families. When parents reach economic stability, children tend to perform better in school; better-performing students are positioned for higher-paying jobs; and that combination is what ultimately helps break cycles of generational poverty, the organization said. Families with stable housing and healthcare also rely less on emergency services, with effects that reach schools, employers, and local government.
“The timing reflects the funding landscape as much as local data,” Pearson said. Research shows donors increasingly want evidence that their giving produces lasting change rather than annual relief, corporations want to align with measurable outcomes rather than isolated activities, and government and foundation funders are prioritizing family economic mobility above most other metrics.
Leaders say the summits also reinforced a shift in how United Way of Moore County sees its own role: less a traditional funder providing grants to separate programs, and more a convener that helps connect the county’s service providers. Pearson was careful to note what isn’t changing. “The organization remains a United Way, and its core commitments to compassion, community, and collaboration aren’t going anywhere. What changes is the focus. Future programs, partnerships, and investments will align around family stability, with clearer indicators that the organization can track and report back to donors and the community.”
The ALICE population behind the numbers
United For ALICE, a national research initiative, defines ALICE as Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed: working households that earn more than the federal poverty level but still can’t afford the true cost of living where they live. Locally, the numbers are stark, according to Gerald Galloway, transformation resource development chair of United Way of Moore County.
“Right here in Moore County, 22% of households are ALICE, working families who earn above the poverty line but still can’t afford the basics,” Galloway said. “Add in the 12% living in poverty, and that means one in three Moore County households are struggling just to get by. These are not people who aren’t trying. They show up to work every day. The wages simply don’t stretch far enough.”
The numbers are sobering. A single adult in Moore County needs at least $32,676 a year just to cover the basics, more than double the federal poverty level. A single parent with a child in day care needs over $52,000. A family of four with two young children needs $86,028. That is just surviving, with nothing set aside for an emergency or a child who gets sick. And the hardship is not spread evenly: single mothers face a 72% rate of financial hardship, adults under 25 face 64%, and our seniors face 40%, in every zip code from Robbins to Pinehurst to Southern Pines to Eagle Springs.
“Moore County is a place where people want to live,” Galloway said. “That is exactly why we have to make sure the people who work here can afford to stay here. United Way of Moore County is on the ground every day, working to close that gap. Our partnership with this community helps people who wouldn’t get help otherwise. Your donation supports real programs helping real families build stability right here at home. The need is urgent, the data is clear, and our neighbors cannot afford for us to wait.”
What’s next
United Way of Moore County said the mission shift will guide how it selects partners and measures grants going forward, with family stability, not just program activity, as the outcome it reports back to donors.
The transformation committee is planning a third community summit this fall to build on the first two and continue shaping how it puts the new mission into action.
The organization said it will continue operating as a full United Way, funding partner agencies, supporting NC 2-1-1 and running community-wide initiatives, while looking into ways to strengthen housing stabilization, build a more coordinated referral system among local providers, and pursue other possibilities that came out of the summits.
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Contributed article and photo.
