United Way hosts Community Support Network to plan ahead of school year

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - The United Way of Greater St. Joseph held it's monthly Community Support Network with multiple local organizations in attendance.

This month's meeting was specifically geared towards review and planning for the 2026-2027 school year. Among the main items discussed included vaccination polices and procedures along with upcoming school supplies and clothing events.

"I refer to this meeting as the time of equipping our local helpers with information," United Way President Kylee Strough said. "The clients we work with are embedded in multiple aspects of the community like head start families, the school district, and healthcare facilities. They're connected with different households and families who sometimes need different resources. The goal of today was to equip those helpers with the information about the common questions and scenarios related to students going back to school."

While the upcoming school year will be slightly different than year's past because of multiple schools undergoing transition, Strough believes most of the questions or concerns expressed by families will remain the same.

"I think for families their might be questions about what school their child will be attending, but otherwise most of what we talked about is exactly the same as past years," Strough said. "Their might be some instances of redistricting going on and families not sure of what boundary they live in. The main focuses will be enrollment, vaccination records, school supplies, clothing and shoes. Theirs a need for information in those areas every single year."

Part of preparing local organizations for the school year also included playing out scenarios based on what families have expressed or questioned in the past.

"Most of the those questions are rooted in what we've been asked at some point and we had a moment where we've thought ‘I've never been asked that before, let me find out'," Strough said. "At times some of them are a little complicated. The documentation's not where you expected it to be, records being destroyed or misplayed it's things of that nature we've seen pop up."

For more information about United Way and the services provided visit their website.

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