UWNNS Community Listening Tour Summary 2019

Message from Michael Brazier, UWNNS CEO and President:

Listening to the community is critical to accomplishing our mission at United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra (UWNNS) across our 13 county service area and the Lake Tahoe basin. We pride ourselves on being led by the community every step of the way as we work toward solving our community's most pressing issues. First, we ask the community what the most pressing issue is, and then we engage the community to raise funds to address the problem. Next, it is the community volunteers that serve on UWNNS committees and the Board of Directors that make funding decisions for direct programs to solve community issues. 

We are excited to share the 2019 Community Listening Tour Summary that captures the input from over 200 community members over five months. The purpose of the 2019 tour was to check in with the community after our 2014 Community Listening Tour that led to UWNNS focusing on northern Nevada's early literacy crisis. It was important for us to circle back with the community to make sure they still felt that education, specifically early literacy, remains one of the more significant issues facing northern Nevada. The process was made up of community conversations and a community-wide survey that was available in English and Spanish.

The results showed that education was still a significant concern for our community, and an overwhelming majority of respondents of the survey felt that UWNNS should continue to focus on early childhood learning. These results will continue to influence and guide our work as we develop our three-year strategic plan for UWNNS.