United Way of the Bay Area
For 80 years, the United Way of the Bay Area (UWBA) has supported low-wage workers and their families, providing essential resources and guidance to empower them to move forward and achieve lasting financial stability. UWBA ambitiously declared in 2010 to cut poverty in the Bay Area in half by 2020, and it has been working hard to reach this goal.
One of the most effective components of UWBA has been their Earn it! Keep it! Save it! (EKS) Coalition. Comprised of over 250 organizations, EKS provides free tax preparation for low-to-moderate income households in the Bay Area. During the 2011 tax season, EKS members prepared 60,000 tax returns, an achievement made possible through 3,617 volunteers and 212 tax sites. Since its founding in 2003, EKS has prepared over 270,000 returns in total.
EKS began in Alameda County with 14 VITA sites as a result of the IRS and Congresswoman Barbara Lee urging UWBA to join the VITA field. UWBA saw the value in free tax preparation, the EITC and the important connection that can be established to asset building and financial education.
Helping families gain financial security through the tax preparation process, EKS is expanding their capacity to serve the needs of their community in more meaningful ways. Their VITA sites are actively venturing into the world of ITIN application assistance, as it has become a growing need over the last several years. Last tax season, they had 13 Certifying Acceptance Agents in their coalition.
UWBA has also been striving to establish SparkPoint Centers across the Bay Area. Today, they have secured 9 centers throughout their 7 counties. The centers are a one-stop location for a full-range of services including personalized financial coaching, as well as programs that help families move up the career ladder, build assets and manage their credit. Across the Bay Area they hope to serve 12,500 families over the next five years. The centers work with each family for up to three years to achieve their goals.
UWBA and their EKS Coalition understand the impact and value in the financial services they offer to their community. Their efforts thus far are clear demonstrations that they are on the right track to cutting poverty in half. Achieving their goal will be no easy endeavor, and just figuring out the plan to achieve such a goal is an obstacle in itself. However, UWBA is ready to tackle it head on, and their efforts have shown great success so far.
