Surviving and thriving aren’t rooted in strength or intelligence. They depend on the ability to change.

That’s as true for communities as it is for individuals and organizations. While being smart and strong are great assets, they can’t guarantee success by themselves. We must be able to adapt.

As a community member devoted to making lives better, United Way understands the crucial value of change. In fact, our history is rich with it. When we first came on the local scene nearly 100 years ago, our job was to be a one-stop fundraiser; we gathered donations and distributed them to local agencies. While that’s still part of our purpose, our mission has changed dramatically.

Today our role is more strategic, more focused. United Way leads shared efforts that engage diverse people, ideas and resources to transform our community in meaningful, lasting ways. We build partnerships to tackle specific needs in education, financial stability, health and basic needs. We work alongside those who suffer because of inequitable systems and persistent prejudice. And we measure our impact so we can make sure we do the right things in the right ways—and change when change is needed.

COVID-19 brought to United Way an unprecedented time of change. And as always, we adapted. We engaged our Disaster Relief Fund, raising and investing more than $1.72 million to address huge demand for food, shelter and basic needs. We partnered with agencies across the region to strengthen the social safety net of critical services. When asked to collaborate to help small businesses, the economic lifeblood of our communities, we worked with government, foundations and others to lead a loan program and provide grants to micro-enterprises, many of them run by people of color. And we still managed to invest nearly $5.6 million in 95 programs moving our region toward long-term goals in education, financial stability and health.

The pandemic is still with us. We continue to lead a lot of the work in response. At the same time, United Way is turning more of its energies toward recovery and rebuilding. And change remains a powerful driver.

Today, we wrap our annual Impact Week. It’s an opportunity to share with you the progress we’ve made and where the path forward is leading. As we look at the effects of COVID-19 and the economic downturn on our region, it’s clear that more change is coming.

We are looking at ways to better support individuals and families in financial need, whether in poverty or ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). We’re also engaging more deeply and intentionally with communities of color, working with them to address the unique barriers caused by systemic racism. And we continue to access our strengths so we can partner and lead to impact the most people in the most positive way.

I invite you to dive deep into the blogs, videos and other ways we’ve shared our impact this week. I also invite you to be part of this critical work. Every dollar given, every hour spent volunteering, every voice advocating for the most vulnerable makes a difference. Together, we change the story.

Chris Sargent is President & CEO of United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region.