Use Your Voice to End poverty
Advocacy is more than speaking up — it’s creating change. Speak up. Be heard. United is the Way.
Why Advocacy Matters
Be a Voice for Change
Every day, decisions are made that affect people experiencing poverty in our community. United Way of Greater Greensboro believes ending poverty requires more than just programs—it takes awareness, alignment, and advocacy.
That’s why we raise our voice alongside others working to build stronger communities and create opportunities for all.
Ending poverty takes more than programs and funding. It takes a shift in how our city sees and responds to poverty. By advocating, you help break down myths, challenge harmful narratives, and move leaders and neighbors alike toward solutions. By becoming a Poverty Disruptor, you can educate, influence policy, and spark collective actions that reshape our community.
Your Advocacy Can Take Many Forms
Educate & Inform
Share facts, bust myths, and help your community understand what poverty truly looks like in Greensboro.
Champion Policy Change
Join calls to action, write letters, or speak to leaders about issues like affordable housing, education, and healthcare.
Mobilize Your Network
Host events, lead awareness campaigns, and invite your network to join the United Way Bold Goal movement.
Our Top Priorities & Policy Reform
Self Sufficiency Standard
Many families are struggling to stretch their wages to meet the costs of basic necessities. Though often not deemed “poor” by the official poverty measure, these families lack enough income to meet the rising costs of essentials such as food, housing, transportation, and health care. The 2020 Self-Sufficiency Standard meets the need for a measure of income adequacy that more accurately tracks and measures the true cost of living that families face today.
Two Generation Approach
UWGG’s Family Success Centers partner with families to support their transition from poverty into financial stability. The FSC model was built on four main principles: 2-generational, place-based, one-stop-shop, and long-term case management. A unique component of this approach is the provision of transportation assistance and high-quality child development services, free to FSC members participating in on-site programming, in order to remove the top participation barriers.
Affordable Housing
High levels of residential segregation are intertwined with inequality and lack of access to opportunity. Increased concentrations of poverty and segregation are often in the same neighborhoods that face unequal access to jobs, education, and other services, limiting fair housing choice. Understanding the City of Greensboro’s 2019-2024 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, we advocate for policies and programs that increase supply and improve conditions for all families to secure safe and affordable housing.
A Job Verses a Career
We believe that members of our community don’t just need a job, but they need a good job and career. We encourage local companies to offer equitable career opportunities and we partner with as many companies as possible to offer employment to Family Success Center members.
Tax Benefits for Working Families
We support the reauthorization of federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Child Tax Credit improvements and the expansion of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
Benefits Cliff
Advocacy Starts with Understanding
We support efforts that shed light on the real cost of living in our community and work to expand opportunity for all.
As a proud member of United Way of North Carolina, we align with their advocacy priorities, including:
- Advancing access to quality childcare and early education
- Supporting economic mobility for working families
- Promoting community health and financial stability
UWNC also leads the way in bringing ALICE data (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) to our state—revealing how nearly half of all households in Guilford County struggle to afford life’s essentials, despite working.
Our Local Focus
In Greensboro, we are using ALICE data to expand stakeholder understanding of poverty—which occurs at a much higher threshold than the federal poverty line. By elevating this information locally, we can:
- Inform community conversations
- Engage public and private leaders
- Shape future advocacy efforts that reflect real household needs
This work will guide how we advocate for—and with—our neighbors.
Champion a New Initiative
Turn your passion into action and champion a cause that’s important to you.
Looking to do more? United Way of Greater Greensboro recognizes that to achieve our goal of breaking the cycle of poverty, we must activate champions like you to speak out. What issues are important to you? Let’s turn your passions into action. We encourage you to reach out to your elected officials, wear your United is the Way t-shirt, and show your support in the community.
Speak out in Guilford County:
Meet Blanche
Because of Advocates giving back like Blanche, wealth policies (and lives) are being rewritten.
Become a Poverty Disruptor
Change Begins When You Speak Out.
1
Get Equipped to Speak Up.
2
Join Special Events, Poverty Summits, & Campaigns.
