The Montgomery Area United Way held its annual meeting on Jan. 27 at the Montgomery City Public Library Community Room with several agencies and United Way board members in attendance.

Montgomery Area Literacy Council, Montgomery County Cares, Turning Point Advocacy Services, Montgomery County Senior Center Director, Birthright, Youth In Need, NRG Packs, Montgomery County Health Department, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and NECAC were among the agencies in attendance. All of the agencies are funded by the United Way. Lunch was served before all of the attendees spoke about their agencies.

New Senior Center director Amy Bourne participated in her first United Way meeting. She talked about all of the services the Senior Center provides to the Montgomery County community.

“We provide so much more for our community than just the nutritious meals that we try to serve them,” said Bourne, who took over director duties in November. “We provide fellowship for them to come and see people face to face. A lot of people don’t have that contact, being alone all of the time.”

Montgomery County Cares, which is headed by Jim Ohrberg and Jim Guffie, is in its ninth year of operation. It has assisted residents with rent, utility, pharmaceutical and/or medical, emergency housing and transportation payments of over $160,000.

“We share an office space with St. Vincent de Paul,” Guffie said. “They have been gracious enough to let Jim come in and meet with clients who need help. We do referrals back and forth with each other. So we’re not overlapping services. We also work with local churches, which also help with financial needs. This past year, we served 150 families and we supplied things like emergency shelters.”

The Montgomery County Literacy Council offers classes to any adult (age 16 and up) seeking to complete their high school equivalency degree.

Clinetta Weinrich was the Literacy Council’s representative. She said the agency’s programs have been moved to Reach Community Church and funds from the United Way helped the agency open up classes on Monday and Wednesday.

“I have found personally that there are a lot of roadblocks that stand in the way of people getting their high school diplomas,” Weinrich said. “They’re adults now. They’re trying to make a living at a minimum wage job. They have kids and there is sickness.”

Youth In Need is an early learning center in Montgomery City that has 39 children.

“They come to us about 30 hours a week,” center manager Casey Henry said. “While they’re with us, we provide all of the diapers, formula and all of the food and everything they need. There’s no cost to the families.”

Bethany Wilemon of Birthright shared the organization’s annual report at the meeting. Birthright had 17 new babies in 2024 and is currently serving 44 mothers and 39 babies/children.

“The whole purpose of the organization is just to make having a baby easier for mom,” Wilemon said. “We can take some of that stress of having to purchase diapers.”