The programming at Upper House includes a lot of campus-oriented events but the Faith in the Heart of the City series included, last week, a conversation with Renee Moe, a leader in the community as president and CEO of the United Way of Dane County.
Renee is a University of Wisconsin graduate; I’ve known her since she was president of the UW student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Moderator Phil Haslanger, a United Church of Christ minister and former managing editor at The Capital Times I’ve also known for many years as a fellow journalist. So I knew this was going to be a good conversation.
The goal of this series is to explore how faith informs the work of our civic, academic, and marketplace leaders. Renee and her family attend Bethel Lutheran Church. “The thread of stability of faith has always been important to me, through the changes of life,” she said.
But what I found most interesting is what she had to say about the United Way and the faith community. “The United Way is not an agency but a community that comes together to solve problems,” she said, acknowledging that her predecessor and mentor Leslie Howard had made the Dane County United Way one of the most successful in the country.
She noted that the United Way has strong connections with the resources of the business community and that the faith community has strong connections to large numbers of committed volunteers. Organizing more effectively, working together, and mobilizing the strengths of each community would meet the needs of the Madison area. “I believe the resources are out there,” she said.
She noted that the United Way offers training for board members of non-profit agencies, one way to help them become more efficient in responding to their calling. (Next training is February 20, 2018.)
One of the most serious local issues is affordable housing. Renee talked about the progress that is being made helping some of Madison’s neediest citizens by meeting their housing needs first and then dealing with their other issues, instead of vice versa. That’s welcome news. It would be great to see what else could be accomplished if the barriers between United Way agencies and the faith community were minimized to allow each to do what they do best.