“The traditional model for decades and decades was the workplace campaign — you’d go in and ask people to give money from payroll deductions, and that was really the bread and butter of United Way,” said Julie Mallard, executive director of United Way of Delta County. “We’d go and raise money from the community, and then we’d have partner agencies, and we would give grants to partner agencies every year. We’d be raising money and then giving it away in an annual grant to a list of non-profits, all good causes.”

But Gary Goscenski of Perspectives Consulting of Kalamazoo, who has worked with different United Way organizations for decades, told Mallard that approach was less than ideal.

“He described it as ‘We’re a mile wide and an inch deep,’ so we’re trying to give to lots of different kinds of causes, but we’re not able to give very much money,” Mallard said.

So United Way of Delta County decided to focus on one issue: School readiness. Preparing children to enter preschool and kindergarten, Mallard said, puts them on the right path for adulthood.

United Way of Delta County has used an issue-focused approach for the past two years to get Delta County children prepared for school. Julie Mallard, executive director, encouraged children and their families to sign up for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library at a community event. (Courtesy photo)

“It’s support for the child and the family but also supports the school and making sure the community understands why this is important. If we give (children) a strong start, then there’s a better chance that they’re going to be successful going forward in their life. These are people who are someday going to be our business leaders and our community leaders and the people taking care of you in the nursing home,” Mallard explained.

School readiness includes equipping children with the skills necessary to enter a formal learning environment, improving social-emotional development — the period when children learn how to understand and express their emotions appropriately — and making sure every child has what they need physically, such as shoes, backpacks and meals.

After extensively researching school readiness, United Way of Delta County had its first summit in April 2023 where they invited teachers, daycare providers and health care workers to discuss how to better prepare children for school.

United Way of Delta County has now had seven such summits to brainstorm school readiness. They continue to discuss what is going well and what gaps need to be filled.

“The child needs to be ready for school, but also, the school needs to be ready for children. They need to be equipped. The community and family need to provide an optimal environment for child development. We kind of took that as our three buckets of school readiness,” Mallard said.

Julie Mallard, executive director of United Way of Delta County, is focused on getting the children of Delta County ready for school. The organization has committed its efforts toward the issue of school readiness. Here, Mallard assists children at a Literary Party in Manistique earlier this year. (Courtesy photo)

United Way of Delta County also participates in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which has allowed the organization to mail more than 9,000 free books to children throughout the community.

“That is my favorite thing that I have ever done in my career,” Mallard noted.

She added, “We’ve also done preschool mini-grants — supporting social-emotional development in local preschool classrooms — and have a PreK Readiness event in the early planning stages for next year.”

The community has come together to fundraise for important local causes over the past eight decades, even before United Way was established in Delta County.

“The community movement to join together happened way back in the ’40s when there was the war effort,” Mallard said. “Each community kind of had people going around doing collections for different things, and some people finally got together and said ‘Hey, why don’t we have one fundraising drive and then everybody can tap into that?’ Over time, it changed into United Way.”

United Way of Delta County had office space in the Ludington Center, 1100 Ludington St, but closed that physical location during the COVID-19 pandemic in fall 2021. Mallard now coordinates the organization out of her home. While Mallard had a part-time assistant in the beginning of her career at United Way, she is now the only staff member.

But it has a board as well to make decisions and oversees the organization: President Michele Chenier, UP Michigan Works; Vice President Laurie Mold, Delta-Schoolcraft Great Start; Secretary Tammra Houseman, Bay College; and Treasurer Stephen Nolde, UP State Bank Financial Services. Board members volunteer their time.

Mallard celebrated her 20th year with the organization Sept. 12.

“People trust us. We’ve proven to be community minded and everything we do is for the betterment of our community, so I think it makes sense for United Way to be the ones to lead this work,” she said.

The local organization has served the community since 1965. The worldwide organization dates back to 1887 in Denver, Colo., and now has more than 1,100 locations.

“So, we’re all part of the worldwide network, and there are standards that we have to achieve in order to be allowed to be a United Way,” Mallard said. “Every decision is made locally. I have a board of directors who are all local volunteers, and they govern United Way of Delta County.”

The board and consultant met three weeks ago to decide what will come in the next three years, as they near the end of the first three-year strategic plan.

“If you keep trying to do the thing that you’ve always done forever that isn’t really working as well as it used to, that’s not a recipe for success,” Mallard said. “You have to kind of be adaptable, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Sophie Vogelmann can be reached at 906-786-2021 or svogelmann@dailypress.net.