BANGOR – Jeff Wahlstrom, president of United Way of Eastern Maine, emphasized the organization’s strategy of “surrounding issues,” or relying on the resources of the community, rather than just United Way funding to resolve regional issues at the organization’s annual meeting recently. Nearly 60 community leaders, donors and staff gathered at Bangor Theological Seminary to honor the organization’s accomplishments over the past year and to face the challenges of next year.

“United Way is at an exciting moment in the development of the organization and our work in the community,” said Mike Shea, United Way of Eastern Maine’s board chairman and president of Webber Energy Fuels, in his opening comments. “We have determined that we can be even more effective in improving the lives of people in Eastern Maine by using the relationships that we have with so many individuals and organizations to mobilize our community into action.”

Over the past year, United Way of Eastern Maine utilized nearly $4 million in donations, grants and gifts-in-kind. Those funds helped support a wide variety of health and human service programs that aid children, seniors and families. United Way was able to send almost 1,000 Bangor area children to summer camp. The agency received $274,000 of donated goods that were distributed to people and nonprofit programs in need last year.

“We are proud that United Way dollars touch so many lives every day, yet we want to do even more,” Wahlstrom said. “We want to tackle some of the region’s most difficult issues, things like poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, or the challenges faced by our aging population. These are thorny community issues that can’t be overcome by a nonprofit working on its own.”

Wahlstrom said that increasing staffing and overhead at the organization would not be effective ways to solve those community issues. Wahlstrom outlined United Way’s plan to mobilize the community by engaging volunteers and securing other sources of funding such as grants, as well as working to shape public policy.

“We need to build new partnerships that bring to the table organizations that United Way has not worked with in the past, like the faith community, and city and town governments,” Wahlstrom said.

Wahlstrom said United Way of Eastern Maine has narrowed its focus to three “impact areas” identified by the community: Children and families, seniors, basic needs, and self-sufficiency. To determine where the organization will have the greatest impact with its resources within those distinct areas, three impact councils were formed, chaired by Nichi Farnham, Marshall Maglothin and Nelson Durgin.

Wahlstrom stressed that each year the needs of the community are greater than the funds that are raised. “We can’t meet every need,” he said, “so we must make choices, tough choices, and work hard to ensure that the end result is dramatic and measurable change in people’s lives and the community.”