Valley United Way is always looking for enhanced ways to communicate with its constituents in the Valley and it is now heavily involved with three of the trendiest electronic communication tools - Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. We will also be adding our own blog in the next week! This is part of United Way of America's new "Live United" campaign to involve people in giving, advocating and volunteering to improve their communities. As part of the new campaign Valley United Way is actively reaching out to the younger generation through these newer on-line tools. 

However, Valley United Way has been a pioneer and a leader in using the Internet. It was the very first United Way in Connecticut to have a presence on the Internet, and its website was named the best in the country for its size by United Way of America. Valley United Way was a leader in developing the Electronic Valley the Internet website for the entire Valley area which grew out of United Way's website. It was also the second United Way in the state to offer the innovative on-line volunteer matching service - Volunteer Solutions. It also offers on-line electronic campaigning for area companies wanting a paperless system for conduction their United Way campaign. Valley United Way is also in the midst of changing its allocations and outcomes measurement process to a web based system having piloted the process in 2007.

Facebook allows those who are connected to access up to the second information about calendar events, network information, profile updates, wall-to-wall posts, press releases, and photo albums.  To better reach the younger technologically savvy population otherwise known as generation Y, Valley United Way’s appearance on Facebook attempts to increase volunteerism and enhance their involvement within the Valley community.

Facebook viewers can obtain readily accessible information regarding 2-1-1 infoline, ongoing events, and volunteer opportunities throughout the Valley community.  The data also directly connects viewers with Valley United Way’s Volunteer Center and provides the appropriate contact information and an online hour-logging database so volunteers can digitally keep a record of their donated time.

In addition to providing community information, another goal of establishing a presence on Facebook is to build and strengthen relationships with the Valley United Way Youth Leaders, both past and present.       

To obtain a Facebook account and set up a user profile visit http://www.facebook.com/.  Once a basic profile is set up we can be found by simply clicking in the search box on the upper left hand site and entering “Valley United Way”.  Valley United Way’s profile thumbnail will show up in the search results where we can be “friended”.  When added as a friend we will confirm, making our profile visible and accessible. 

To visit our public Facebook page visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/Valley-United-Way/18999996612.

Valley United Way is also a very active member of YouTube. Valley United Way has had video on its site since 1998, but has recently switched much of its video over to YouTube. You can view many of the videos on United Way's website, or subscribe to our YouTube service at http://www.youtube.com/valleyuw.

We're also experimenting with Twitter to provide you with very brief text announcements about all that is going on, and you can subscribe to our fees at http://twitter.com/valleyuw!

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