MDUR Working Our Assets Off
The Little Black Dress Campaign is a poverty awareness event led by United Way's Women United. During the week of September 19-22, we will be wearing one black outfit to illustrate the effects poverty can have on one’s access to resources, confidence, and ability to obtain employment, while raising funds for women and children in our community.
Why is Little Black Dress such an important campaign in our community?
- Allows struggling readers in Kindergarten through Third Grade to get intensive, research-based tutoring.
- Ensures children get a designated mentor that meets with them for an hour each week.
- Provides a case manager to work with hundreds of children to de-escalate conflict and develop the personal skills necessary to reduce inter-personal conflict in the future.
- Helps caring case workers spend thousands of hours addressing the barriers to a good education and a stable family caused by poverty, mental illness, unemployment, homelessness, and more.
Low income students working with United Way’s Education Initiative were 20% more likely to be able to read at grade level, 27% more likely to be meeting math benchmarks and 18% more likely to be meeting reading benchmarks than low income students without these services.
What are the problems that Little Black Dress is raising awareness for?
- One in five people living in Bismarck-Mandan do not have enough money to meet their basic needs. That means they're <200% of the poverty level.
- Every student who does not complete high school costs our society an estimated $260,000 in lost earnings, taxes and productivity.
- Only 35 percent of youth in Bismarck-Mandan feel they have a positive adult role model.
How can you help?
Please consider donating to our team. The funds raised are used to fund the education initiative of the United Way and are focused on keeping families in their homes, making sure kids are able to get to school and learn, as well as finding mentors for these students