Getting stuck in a financial rut is something that happens all too often for many in the Region. Not doing well enough financially for social mobility while doing just too well to qualify for federal aid can be frustrating for the individual and demoralizing for the community. Addressing these concerns is exactly why United Way Northwest Indiana began its Level Up program.
“The creators of the program, former CEO of the Lake Area United Way Lisa Daugherty and Level Up Navigator & Trainer Talisa Rogers-Hall, listened to the community and asked what the needs of the community were,” said Adam O’Doherty, president and CEO of United Way Northwest Indiana. “They were trying to move away from what they've done historically as United Way, which is granting grants to nonprofits; they were trying to find a new way to be impactful in their communities.”
What Daugherty and Rogers-Hall discovered was a need for a support network helping people who were income-constrained.
“If you don't have a job, there's support out there. If you're under the poverty line, there's support out there. But if you're working 40 hours a week, and just over that poverty line? There really wasn't that much support to help these families,” said O’Doherty. “Our clients wanted to work; they wanted to better their lives. They just didn't have support.”
United Way Northwest Indiana introduced its Level Up program to the Region in 2019 and really got it into motion in 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic. Level Up offers clients an individualized approach designed to meet their needs and provides them with support that will be most effective for their situation.
“We really meet the clients where they're at,” said O’Doherty. “We're not a blanket approach program. We are extremely individualized. When clients come into our program, we first want to know more about them. Where are they at in their journey right now? What are the barriers that are stopping them from achieving their dreams?”
Every client meets with a Level Up navigator that helps identify barriers and obstacles that keep clients from progressing on their life and career journey. These barriers can range from the financial, the social, the psychological, and everything in between.
“The meat of the program is where we meet the individuals one-on-one to help overcome those generational poverty barriers,” said O’Doherty. “They might not have the healthiest person in their life. We help them navigate around that. They could have low confidence in themselves because of what society or people in their lives have told them. We help them build them up so they can face challenges and overcome them.”
Financial barriers are some of the most common types keeping people from progressing on their journey. Part of Level Up’s programming involves education on many financial wellness skills, including creating and balancing a budget, but budgeting alone can’t always prepare clients for the additional costs furthering their career may bring. Whether it’s not being able to afford childcare as a working parent or the licensing tests needed to enter many medical fields, Level Up helps to eliminate these burdens with the support of United Way Northwest Indiana’s community partners.
“Any of those financial barriers, we eliminate as part of our program,” said O’Doherty. “The way we do that is to create donors and partnerships. We have a lot of partners in the community who we've worked out great deals with, and that's really the whole key to the program’s success.”
Since the program’s inception, over 300 Region residents have enrolled inLevel Up, and United Way Northwest Indiana’s strategic plan has the program set to graduate 1,000 by the end of 2025. Unlike a college course, Level Up has no set start or end date: clients are in the program for as long as they need to be.
“Some people are in the program for four weeks, some people are in for longer because it takes more time to get a certification or a degree or overcome some of those other challenges in their life,” said O’Doherty. “We don't have a start date or end date like a college. We take people and meet them where they're at and help them on their journey as fast as they want.”
Clients who go through the Level Up program are seeing results as well, and those results are raising the community as a whole.
“We work hard to help a client identify both their dream job and a career that will give them much greater earning power. Sometimes they are earning the certificate that will get them their dream job and wage. Sometimes, Level Up is stepping stone on the way to becoming a registered nurse or family therapist in the future,” said O’Doherty. “Some dreams are about more than careers. Many Level Up clients dream of home ownership, or starting their own business one day. We connect them with the resources that allow them to save money, access down payment assistance or small-business funding, build up credit scores, and learn all about the homebuying or small business ownership processes. High-paying careers, increased homeownership and small business ownership not only help the Level Up clients and their families, these are wins that uplift our entire community.”
In addition to homeownership, negative health outcomes have also decreased for graduates of the Level Up program.
Over 40% of the Region qualifies for the Level Up program, and applying has never been easier. Simply visit unitedwaynwi.org/level-up for the online application or contact the main office at 219-464-3583 to get in touch with a representative for help filling out the application or to get your questions answered.
“We're one organization, and hopefully we can grow more to really identify and address this because it's a huge need,” said O’Doherty. “We see these people every day when we're out shopping, getting our tires changed, any of those things. There's so many people out there that are working paycheck to paycheck. We're just trying to do one thing at a time to help them.”
United Way Northwest Indiana is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals throughout Northwest Indiana. To learn more about the organization, check out the resources it offers, or to get involved, visit unitedwaynwi.org.