Cole: How clear is your vision for what the future of community responsibility should look like at Mile High United Way? Kerr: At Mile High United Way, we believe that we all have a responsibility for our community. My vision is clear. It is a collective effort that is linked through collaborative effective results. No one organization or person can address everything happening in our community. I believe we must work together. Our organization has historically and will continue to bring people together to address our community’s most pressing needs. This includes working with legislators, other nonprofit organizations, elected officials, businesses and, of course, the community we serve to learn what they want and need. It takes all of us and I believe we can do this together. Cole: In what direction does Mile High United Way see itself going? Kerr: Mile High United Way continues to be an innovative non-profit organization that addresses needs as we see gaps in our community. A good example is our new Early Childhood Education (ECE) Center that will open in Spring 2024. This center will be only the second employer sponsored childcare in Downtown Denver. We realized after the pandemic that we could do more to serve our community through the space in our building. As a result, we remodeled our first floor to make room for the new ECE Center that will accommodate almost 60 children (infants to 5 year olds). This will be a center for the community and most of the slots are designed for those who need quality affordable childcare. Construction is almost complete and our partner, Mile High Early Learning, will open the center in just a few weeks. This is the type of innovation we are demonstrating in our community and we hope other employers will consider how they use their space to potentially serve their employees and our community. Our vision is to continue looking for opportunities to do things differently while making a meaningful impact on those we serve.
mentored me and showed me how to navigate the corporate world. I also learned that as a leader, my role is to support my team and ensure they have everything they need to be successful. Sometimes it has been tough but it has also been rewarding. I would say that I’ve had more rewarding times than tough times. Some of the people who were supportive didn’t look like me and then there were others who did. I have seen a lot and experienced a lot, but I try to learn from each experience. Cole: What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the nonprofit world today, and how do you see Mile High United Way overcoming them? Kerr: This will come as no surprise but we just don’t have enough resources to address all the needs we see on a daily basis. Mile High United Way is a large non-profit organization in Denver. We impacted over 180,000+ lives and there is still more work to do. We believe it takes a collaborative effort with measurable impact to broaden our scope in the community. This is why we have thousands of partners who work with us and serve as resources for our 211 Help Center. We have six direct service programs that align with our community priorities of Giving All Children a Strong Start, Supporting Education & Academic Success and Creating Economic Opportunity for All. We serve the community directly and measure our progress along the way to ensure we are delivering the type of impact that changes peoples lives for the better. We must continue to increase our resources and we are thankful for those in our community who support our work through donations of time and money. We can overcome the challenges in our community if we continue to work together.
18 The Acumen
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