75 Years of Building Community & Changing Lives: United Way Ottawa’s Story
1970s / SELF-EVALUATION: While the economy is relatively stable, with the average family income around $18,000 and unemployment under six per cent, the city undergoes dramatic social changes as a result of demographic pressures. For the first time, more women join the workforce, divorce rates escalate and single-parent households increase dramatically.
In Ottawa, where the population hovers near 480,000, social services expansion continues and new agencies form to meet the demand. In light of increased government funding for all sorts of organizations, both the Social Planning Council and UW/CO (name changes to United Way of Ottawa-Carleton in 1973) start to talk about their respective roles in the community and their relationship to one another. At this point, the Council is supplying the bulk of administrative support to UW/CO and in turn UW/CO is providing a large amount of the Council’s funding.
The result of this renewed evaluation is that Council becomes more involved in outreach programs, research and public consultations, and community development initiatives. While UW/CO keeps pace with its support, providing 54 per cent of the Council’s funds by the end of the decade, it becomes apparent that UW/CO needs to develop a new role in relation to agencies, government and the community. Out of this discussion it is also determined in 1974 that UW/CO needs to revamp its funding allocation process (until then, 15 priority criteria were being used to gauge agency performance).
Throughout this evaluation period, UW/CO continues to fund agencies that provide programs and services to youth, as well as supports outreach programs to help newcomers and francophones, such as the Community Information Centre, Citizen Advocacy, Tel-Aide Outaouais and Service d’entraide communautaire.
UW/CO's reach during the decade: • establishes priorities and directs efforts to determining which service categories require the most funding assistance
• hires staff member to research new federal legislation that provides greater financial assistance to charitable organizations in an effort to help member agencies achieve self-sufficiency
“UW/CO, in a move intended to reaffirm its commitment to member agencies, set its 1975 goal almost 20 per cent higher than last year’s — the highest increase in history.”
