FACE YOUR FEARS. So our community's most vulnerable don't have to.

EVENT DATE: September 7th, 2019
LOCATION: The Oxford Hotel

10 NW Minnesota Ave, Bend, OR 97703

A number of brave Edgers will have the opportunity to rappel down the Oxford Hotel, in exchange for donations back to  United Way of Deschutes County.

How do I participate?

1. Sign up now to become an Edger. Cost = $85.
2. Easily set up your personal fundraising page
3. Reach our $1,000 FUNDRAISING MINIMUM
4. Experience the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rappel down  the Oxford Hotel!

Kids can rappel, too! And, for a reduced fundraising goal of only $850. Kids just need a guardian's permission and to weigh at least 100 pounds. 

Our Community Faces Real Challenges

64% of adults faced at least 1 traumatic circumstance as a child

10% of adults experienced 5 or more traumatic circumstances

40% of Central Oregonians are already living below the federal poverty level or are one unexpected expense away from financial crisis

Together WE Have Made a Difference

31% of Central Oregonians served by a United Way funded program

1,700 individuals trained in resilience and trauma-informed care

21 United Way grant-funded nonprofit programs

80+ agency and individual partners convened through our TRACEs initiative

$309,000 in grants awarded to local nonprofits last year

About United Way of Deschutes County

At United Way of Deschutes County, we fight for the HEALTH, EDUCATION, FINANCIAL STABILITY, and RESILIENCE of EVERY person in our Central Oregon community.

We’re more than fundraisers. We’re changemakers.

Since 1953, United Way of Deschutes County has been strengthening communities in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties and investing locally in our community’s most needed programs and services while simultaneously strengthening our community.

For 66 years, we’ve focused on HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND FINANCIAL STABILITY as the foundation of well-being and opportunity, along with basic needs like food, safety, and shelter.

As we continue to focus on these causes, we are also working upstream to tackle CHILDHOOD TRAUMA: the root cause of many challenges currently faced by so many in our community.

And, we’ve taken on RESILIENCE – the ability to manage hardship, cope with stress, and bounce back from trauma. Resilience is like an inoculation against the impacts of trauma. We work to improve lives and foster a healthier Central Oregon in 4 main ways.

1. We serve as an INCUBATOR for community movements, initiatives, and programs that need to exist in Central Oregon and fill those gaps by making them happen.
2. Through GRANTMAKING, we support local, direct-service nonprofits and programs that focus on a wide range of human health and wellness issues in our region.
3. We conduct NEEDS ASSESSMENT throughout our community. We gather data on poverty, financial hardship, basic needs gaps, resilience and more.
4. We offer PHILANTHROPIC opportunities. From individual community members to businesses and employers, everyone can give back to our community by giving to or through United Way.

We are investing in future solutions to the challenges that we have historically addressed through funding, such as basic needs, safety net, and prevention. While we will continue to address issues that are happening right now, we are simultaneously moving upstream to address the root causes of issues that are immediate today, so that they don’t exist tomorrow. Funding the immediate is necessary, but not sufficient.

Building on tradition and assuming a strong role in convening and collaborating with our Central Oregon community allows us to address these root causes of critical issues affecting our community. We remain focused on our community’s human and social service needs to improve lives and create measurable, sustained change in our community.

United Way of Deschutes County belongs to OUR Central Oregon community.

Sign up now or make a donation!

We Work Together With Our Partners

"United Way of Deschutes County continues to be instrumental in helping Friends of the Children Central OR implement an evidence-based model to build resilience in children who are facing the highest levels of trauma. Together we are breaking the cycle of generational poverty."

-Friends of the Children - Central Oregon
providing paid, professional mentors to high-risk children from Kindergarten through high school graduation

"United Way of Deschutes County helps ensure that children impacted by child abuse receive child-friendly evaluations, family support, and therapy, at no cost, so
that all a family has to worry about is their child’s healing. These services are vital to restoring health, happiness, and resiliency for children and their families so that they can live their life to their fullest potential."

-KIDS Center
a child abuse intervention center

"United Way of Deschutes County has been invaluable to the TRACEs work as a convener, collaborator, and catalyst for change. Serving as the collective impact backbone, the nonprofit has aided in bringing together 80+ TRACEs partners, served as fiscal agent, secured funds, and aligned its Community Impact Partner grant funding process with TRACEs. Engaged in bettering the lives of individual community members while simultaneously changing community conditions, United Way nurtures resilience - formally within the TRACEs movement and alongside through related efforts."

-TRACEs
building resilience in individuals, families, and the Central Oregon community