United Way Worldwide to unlock youth potential

The President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of United Way Worldwide (UWW), Angela F. Williams, has reiterated her organisation’s commitment to unlock the potential of young ones through entrepreneurship opportunities.

“I see hope and opportunities for this country and UWW, in our small way, will play a role in the future development of Ghana. We want to touch the young people now and open up the door to give them the opportunity to do great things.

“In these challenging times, we need to equip the young ones with skills and support through programmes that will impact lives socially and economically,” she said.

Ms Williams expressed her commitment in a media engagement in Accra last Thursday.

The meeting formed part of activities of her visit to the country.

Strategy

The CEO said she was looking forward to developing a good plan that would spell out how the organisation could continue to impact other African countries just like Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.

“This is what you should expect from me, working alongside my colleagues here in Ghana. One of the things that we want to do is that we want to develop a strategy for how we can continue to grow our impact.

“Not only in the three countries that we are currently in on the continent. We will be taking a look at other countries that we should explore and see how we bring in more corporate support,” she said.

Social initiatives

Commenting on some social initiatives that had been taken up by her outfit, Ms Williams mentioned the “Building Resilient Communities Programme” as a successful one that focused on improving basic education; providing youth with leadership opportunities and soft skills training to enable them to take full advantage of their talent and potential.

The programme, she said, provided adults with literacy training, financial literacy courses or small-scale farming classes to give them financial freedom and independence.

“In view of this, it has improved the lives of over 100,000 individuals in the last three years and I am excited to see what this group does next.

“Right now, we have a goal to increase education access to 38 per cent more students, increase financial stability by 27 per cent and create new and innovative services between now and 2023,” Ms Williams said.

United Way Ghana is a non-profit organisation that unites and connects all sectors of the society – individuals, businesses, non-profit organisations and government - to create long-term social change.

It mobilises the collective caring power of communities to produce healthy, well-educated and financially stable individuals and families.