The campus of Fairmont State University served as the location for Tygart Valley United Way’s annual Leadership Breakfast on Thursday, August 6, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Business and community leaders from across the Tygart Valley region joined United Way staff and partners for breakfast and an advance look at the organization’s 2027 Community Campaign and new Bold Goals.
The Leadership Breakfast is an annual summer event that brings together leaders from across the region ahead of the fall United Way campaign season. The event is hosted by Fairmont State University, with guests welcomed by Fairmont State President Michael Davis.
Designed for individuals and organizations in a position to help shape the future of the region, the Leadership Breakfast provides an opportunity for United Way to share emerging community needs, highlight progress, and invite local leaders to play an active role in creating lasting change.
This year’s event marked an important milestone for Tygart Valley United Way as the organization publicly unveiled its new Bold Goals for the first time. The goals were developed through the organization’s Thriving Community Plan, a months long process that included community conversations, focus groups, partner input, local data, and a community survey that generated 345 responses.
The process identified several recurring challenges across the region, including mental health and access to care, childcare and youth supports, transportation barriers, housing instability, financial hardship, and the need for stronger coordination among nonprofits, businesses, government, schools, healthcare providers, and community partners.
The resulting Bold Goals will guide how Tygart Valley United Way invests resources, builds partnerships, operates programs, measures progress, and mobilizes the community in the years ahead.
The four Bold Goals are:
• Community Resiliency: Build a resilient region where every community is prepared and equipped to respond to challenges and thrive through change.
• Youth Opportunity: Ensure every young person has the relationships, skills, and opportunities they need to reach their full potential.
• Financial Security: Reduce financial hardship and create pathways to financial security for all people across our region.
• Healthy Community: Improve community health and wellbeing by expanding access to care and prevention services.
Brett White, Chief Executive Officer of Tygart Valley United Way, also officially launched the organization’s 2027 Community Campaign and introduced this year’s campaign theme, “Be Bold.”
The campaign reflects a new approach to United Way’s community impact work, connecting charitable giving more directly to the Bold Goals and the priorities identified through the Thriving Community Plan. Donors will be able to support the Greatest Needs Fund, which allows United Way to respond to emerging needs and invest strategically across the region, or direct their investment toward one of the four Bold Goal focus areas.
“Today is not the end of a planning process. It is the beginning of the work,” said White. “These Bold Goals do not belong to United Way alone. They belong to our entire community. Achieving them will require businesses, nonprofits, government, schools, healthcare, donors, volunteers, and community leaders working together around a shared vision for our region.”
Tygart Valley United Way serves Marion, Randolph, Taylor, Barbour, and Tucker counties and works throughout the region to strategically fund programs, lead community collaboration, mobilize people and resources, and measure progress toward lasting community change.
The annual campaign supports United Way’s network of 26 community partners as well as initiatives including West Virginia 211, United We Prepare Resiliency Centers, VITA free tax preparation, United for Kids, THRIVE AmeriCorps, Packing for Impact, opioid street outreach, food pantry delivery, and other efforts aligned with the organization’s Bold Goals.