When we open the newspaper each day, often we confront very discouraging news. Unemployment and poverty are on the rise; schools are challenged to provide quality education that generates positive outcomes; the ongoing health care debate stalls coverage for those who need it most. For more than 90 years, our community has benefited from an organization with its eye on issues like these that affect us all: the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County.

Since its inception, the primary role of United Way has been to raise and distribute funds to local agencies whose programs serve people with substantial needs. Year after year, we have asked our community to entrust United Way with their charitable dollars, and year after year the community has heeded the call to give. For that, we are grateful. In return for that generosity, United Way has recommitted itself to earning our donors’ trust through an intensified focus on relevance, coalition building and accountability.

Just as our community’s needs have evolved over time, so has United Way’s programmatic focus. We are committed to a body of work that seeks to enhance the education, income and health and wellness of every resident of Erie County. United Way will promote and celebrate the dozens of community agencies and programs that carry out this work every day.

Additionally we will enhance our impact in the volunteer services sector so the community receives maximum benefit from a wealth of caring and committed citizens.

United Way has a rich history of convening and building partnerships and collaborations to address complex issues in a coordinated way. We will work to enhance existing collaborations and build new ones that will bring the widest possible range of resources to bear on our most critical needs.

The United Way leadership and board will ensure that the voice of the health and human service community is represented in important conversations on issues including education, poverty and good health.

United Way is not only an advocate for our community’s health and human service needs, but also a steward of our community’s resources. We will rigorously track performance outcomes — both internally and among the programs we fund — and report those results to the community on a regular basis. We are committed to driving efficiency internally, and to fostering further efficiency in our program funding by identifying and implementing proven strategies known to achieve positive results in our focus areas.

The challenges we face are many and complex. Just as our community has always been able to count on United Way, we hope United Way can continue to count on our community’s support to be a world-class fundraising and volunteer service organization in which individuals commit, agencies align and consumers benefit.

Michael Weiner is president of the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County.