Be Connected, Be Well: Dakota Communities announced as United Way Partner 3.15.2010
We are pleased to announce that Greater Twin Cities United Way recently awarded a $78,750 grant to Dakota Communities to expand the scope and strengthen the evaluation of Be Connected, Be Well, our innovative health and wellness initiative supporting people with developmental disabilities.
As part of United Way’s open and competitive grant-making process, Dakota Communities is excited to be one of the new United Way partners this year.
We’ve been working to transform the traditional system of care for our clients in the areas of physical exercise, good nutrition, stress management and social support. We are seeing remarkable results with the people we serve! People like the eight individuals who live at our group home in Burnsville, who have collectively lost eighty-six pounds in the last year. Their weight loss translates into healthier hearts and lower medical bills. Continue reading here
Our goal at Dakota Communities is to develop Be Connected, Be Well into a model of best practices that can be replicated nationally. It addresses the immediate and long-range need to stabilize and reduce health costs for persons with developmental disabilities.
While we are excited about this opportunity to develop a system-wide, long term solution, we remain very concerned about the immediate challenges we face with the state’s budget deficit. We have made every effort to reduce expenses and create efficiencies with funding cuts in five of the last six years.
Just as we are investing in the lives of the people we support through our Be Connected, Be Well initiative, your investments through advocacy efforts, volunteerism, and financial gifts make a difference.
Thank you for your ongoing partnership!
Questions about giving to Dakota Communities? Contact Mary Harty, Chief Development Officer, at 651-688-8808 x16 or mharty@dakcom.org.
Learn about our wellness successes in the Annual Report.