United Way of Deschutes County kicked off its annual fundraising campaign during the first week in September. This year, the agency hopes to raise $1.2 million, money that will go to nonprofits around Deschutes County.

There’s a theme to the list of United Way’s Community Impact Partners, recipients of United Way grants. In one way or another they work with individuals and families to prevent the sorts of things that can cause serious problems later on. In modern social work terms that’s called building resilience, and it makes sense. Research shows that in children, those who are short on resilience tend to be sick more, attend school less, be more likely to become involved in crime, and so on.

Thus, Grandma’s House of Central Oregon trains its staff and volunteers to, in the words of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, “recognize and respond to the impact of traumatic stress” on the young women and their babies who live there, in addition to providing a safe and nurturing place for them to live.

Grandma’s House is a United Way grant recipient. Other grant recipients this year include the Council on Aging’s Meals on Wheels program, the Central Oregon 2-1-1 Info service that works to connect callers to the services they need, Back Door Cafe, Bethlehem Inn, Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Oregon, Camp Fire of Central Oregon, CASA Central Oregon, Central Oregon Veterans Ranch, Central Oregon Council on Aging and the Family Resource of Central Oregon.

In addition, grants go to Friends of the Children, Healing Reins Therapeutic Riding Center, Healthy Beginnings, Heart of Oregon Corps, J Bar J Ranch, including Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Cascade Youth & Family Center.

Finally, KIDS Center, LaPine Community Kitchen, Latino Community Association, MountainStar Family Relief Nursery, NeighborImpact Food and NeighborImpact Housing, Saving Grace, Oregon Children’s Foundation-SMART and Thrive Central Oregon all receive United Way grants.

Your gifts to United Way of Deschutes County help all those agencies, or, if you prefer, you can specify that your gift go to only a single agency. Either way, donations to United Way help make Deschutes County a better place to live.