United Way of the Wine Country Newsletters
May 20th 2025
The Seed for Community Resilience and Transformation
Dear Beloved Community,
In our last newsletter, we explored the theme of cultivating courage. Each day brings new challenges that call us to lead with courage, curiosity, kindness, and compassion—and to actively create spaces where inclusive belonging can take root. This deep, intentional work is the foundation of resilience and transformation, guiding our community—and United Way—toward who we are truly meant to become.
Today, we’re sharing a video that explores what it truly takes to engage in meaningful conversations—because we are all, in some way, impacted by the big decisions shaping our world. Now more than ever, we’re being called to show up differently—for the hard conversations at home, in our neighborhoods, and in our workplaces. It means choosing to listen deeply, and being open to real, human-to-human connection—with honesty, humility, and heart.
The full version of this video along with smaller clips are available on our LEARN WITH US page.
Because of the nature of this video message, United Way is currently unable to share it through our usual digital channels. That’s why we’re turning to you—our trusted community—to help spread the word. If you know someone who would connect with this message or want to be part of this growing movement, please share it with them.
Thank you for making a difference—by supporting, listening deeply, and helping United Way grow a community built on trust.
You can help tackle the root causes of social and financial inequities in our community. If this message resonates with you, we invite you to get active with us—reach out to connect and click below to take meaningful action.
Warmly,
Lisa
4 Ways to Show Up and Make an Impact
Fuel the Movement – Support the work that’s driving real change in our community.
Drop the Link – Know someone who needs help? Share 211 Sonoma—it’s fast, free, and full of resources.
Get That Refund – Our EKS Tax Clinics offer free, legit help to get your money back.
Grow Your Mindset – Learn with us. Explore what it means to build a more just, connected world—together.
February 25th 2025
Cultivating Courage
Dear Beloved Community,
With the new presidential administration and Congress in place, the public policy landscape is rapidly shifting. Driven by compassion and concern, many community members have reached out, asking, "How can I help?" Read on for some answers!
I’m grateful for our growing community-centric movement at United Way of the Wine Country and your place in the loving community that we’re building together. I am also grateful for the opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the inspiration, resilience, and creative power of our Black and African American community over more than 400 years.
Maya Angelou once said: “Courage is the most important of all virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue.”
Asking for help is a courageous act because we can never be sure how that request will be met. We might ask ourselves, “Will I get what I need? Will I be judged? What if I fail?”
In 2024, United Way’s 211 Sonoma answered over 82,000 requests for help from all corners of our community. These ranged from disaster and emergency information to resources for struggling households seeking housing, food, utilities, health, legal advice, and other urgently needed support. 211 Sonoma is a free, 24/7, no-judgment zone that connects community members with the culturally relevant resources they need when they need it.
This frosty, rainy winter, as thousands of our neighbors reach out to 211 for help, here’s what they are discovering:
A warmer home: A single mom called 211 worried about overdue energy bills and keeping her children fed and warm during these frosty days. She connected with a local organizations to access nutritious food, winter coats, and blankets and enrolled in a program that helps pay heating bills, ensuring her family stays nurtured and warm throughout the winter.
Support with caring for elders: A Petaluma grandmother recently became the primary caregiver for her own elderly mom. Overwhelmed and isolated, 211 connected her with a caregiver support group, respite care options, and financial assistance programs. She discovered she is not alone -- resources and a community are ready to support her!
Shelter and more in the storm: Recent storms, flooding, and power outages have displaced many of our neighbors. With 211 case coordination, households were connected with shelter, food, emergency supplies, and other resources to meet their access and functional needs.
Legal advice and safe haven: While her husband puts his agricultural knowledge and skills to work for a local vineyard management company, a mother of three young children reached out to 211 Sonoma to learn about setting up guardianship and protecting their family’s assets in case of deportation while they await approval for their asylum petition.
Dr. Angelou noted that we aren’t born with courage, but we are born with potential. Asking for help doesn't make us weak or a failure. In fact, it shows strength and a willingness to grow. Everyone needs help sometimes, and seeking it in this season of extreme weather, political and economic uncertainty, and the confusion that naturally arises from everything all at once, is a sign of vast self-awareness and courage.
Hope springs from having a plan and the courage to act on it. The real importance of 211 Sonoma is that it connects people who are bravely asking for help with the resources they need now. United is the way forward!
Warmly,
Lisa
January 20th 2025
United is our way forward!
Happy 2025!
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday is celebrated, the enduring legacy of his work and the efforts of civil rights champions throughout history continue to resonate profoundly. So do the wildfires burning in Los Angeles. Domestic and global news headlines often seem to inspire more uncertainty than hope. We may be left may be wondering, “What’s next?”
Shortly before he was assassinated, Dr. King advised, “We must accept finite disappointment but never lose hope.” Even in the face of setbacks, hope inspires. Jamil Zaki, author of Hope for Cynics, notes:
“Hope is not optimism. Optimism is the belief that the future will turn out well. Hope is an acceptance of uncertainty.”
As 2024 closes and 2025 begins to unfold, United Way of the Wine Country wants to express our deepest gratitude to you for your partnership with us. Together, we are fostering hope and achieving great things:
We are helping to transform philanthropy and how the nonprofit sector addresses race, economic, and social inequities by activating a Community Centric Community of Practice that is consciously centering communities of color, LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, and people with disabilities.
We are strengthening and modernizing 211 Sonoma, moving beyond an information and referral hub toward developing a networked digital engagement platform that is helping to link clients in need with local service providers through coordinated support and resource delivery.
Through the Earn It! Keep It! $ave It! Free Tax Assistance Coalition, we are increasing economic security among thousands of low- and moderate income earners with the support of hundreds of volunteers and community partners, so far putting over $100 million into local households and our regional economy.
By cultivating a regional network for collaboration, solidarity, and just nonprofit management and fundraising practices, we are collectively empowering our community to create real and enduring change.
We are not the United Way we were in 1967 when we were founded by Henry Trione and local business leaders at the time. Nor in 2017 after the Sonoma Complex wildfires. Nor in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. And, while 2025 will no doubt present its challenges for all of us, particularly with a shifting political landscape at the federal level, our organization remains strong, committed to learning and growing with you, and committed to serving the most vulnerable communities in Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt and Del Norte counties – always centering compassion, dignity, and fairness in all of our work.
In Hope for Cynics, Jamil Zaki’s further reflections on hope go like this:
“We don't know the future. We don't know what's going to happen. In that uncertainty, there is still room for our actions to matter.”
We are hopeful because we know the actions United Way is taking with our partners truly matter. We are hopeful because we are focusing on the root causes of struggle and hardship in our community. And, we invite you to be hopeful with us. United is our way forward!
Warmly,
Lisa
November 25th 2024
It’s Been a While! We Have a Lot to Share.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I know it’s been a while since you’ve heard from us. My purpose in writing today is to begin to make amends, reconnect with you, and invite you to join an intimate conversation with our Community Board and CEO, Lisa Carreño, on Thursday, December 12, from 10:30 to 12:00 pm at the United Way of the Wine Country office. This will be the first in a series of small gatherings like this, to rebuild our connections with supporters like you, listen and learn from your lived experiences over the past several years, and chart the course for the United Way that we are becoming.
We recognize that our community and country are undergoing changes. We are relaunching this newsletter and inviting our supporters to insider conversations like the one on December 12th to begin building understanding about what these changes mean here, especially after a long period of challenges and transformation and in anticipation of ongoing uncertainty and change, and how we can respond to them to nurture healing, resilience, and belonging building across our region.
So much has changed within United Way since we last reached out! I’m proud and excited to share that, after an intensive period of organizational evolution, United Way is reemerging and strongly rooting our work in our shared values and principles - Equity, Inclusion, Integrity, Accountability, Transparency, and Collaboration. We are committed to standing for these values and principles, both for our organization and our whole community. From this foundation, United Way is leveraging our role as a convener, policy advocate, and trusted partner in philanthropy to generate and accelerate community solutions and enduring change. One of the ways we are doing this work is by collaboratively incubating a Community Centric Fundraising Community of Practice with over 80 nonprofit, philanthropic, neighborhood, business, and public sector leaders.
Why does this matter? Over the past several years, United Way has come to recognize that racism, social injustice, and unfair economic systems create deep inequities in our community, impacting everyone. We also now acknowledge our own past involvement in these systems and practices, and we are committed to addressing and rectifying harm. If you didn’t know that historic and current philanthropic processes are considered unfair, you’re not alone! The journey to seeing, understanding, and reckoning with how some elements of our nonprofit and philanthropy management systems can be harmful – especially when we’re just trying to do good – is complex and challenging. It’s a journey that I invite you to take along with us. Learn more with us at our website.
This work is especially important to me because I grew up in Mendocino County, the descendant of generations of Pomo and Mexican people who helped shape the beauty and vitality of this region. I am raising my daughter here now. And, my personal, professional, and community roles have revealed that the policies and practices of the past have created unfair systems and access to resources – and, unchecked, they will continue to shape the opportunities and wellbeing of this and future generations. Working with our United Way community, I want to be a part of collective action to transform systems and cultures in an equitable and sustainable way. United is our way forward!
We have a lot more to share about who we’re becoming and why! Stories about the people in our community who are inspiring our work and how strategic community centered action is manifesting real, enduring change.
Speaking of enduring – thank you for your enduring support. United is the way forward for our community, and your support enables our transformation. Thank you for your generosity and belief in our work.
We would also like to hear from you! Please share your feedback, ask questions, and let us know what’s important to you.
Together, we are united for good.
Roseanne Ibarra, Chair, Community Board
United Way of the Wine Country