Full Circle: Why My United Way Experience Is Personal
When I accepted the opportunity to serve as a Loaned Executive with Valley of the Sun United Way through my employer, Arizona Public Service (APS), I knew it would be a chance to step outside of my everyday role, learn more about our community and hopefully make a difference.
What I didn’t expect was how much the experience would make me think about my own story.
I was raised by a single mother. When she found herself alone with two children under the age of four, she also had to figure out how to navigate a life she hadn’t planned for.
There was Section 8 housing, welfare, food stamps and trips to the Department of Children & Family Services office. There was finding a job while raising two small children and figuring out how to make what we had stretch far enough.
It wasn’t a perfect story. My mom wasn’t perfect. Our life wasn’t always easy, and she didn’t always have everything figured out.
But somehow, we kept moving forward.
We lived in a Section 8 apartment and relied on public assistance and food stamps. Maybe we didn’t always have what we wanted, but we had enough.
I spoke with my mom recently and asked her something I had never really thought to ask before: How did you know where to go for help?
She told me she would read the newspaper and find places offering food boxes to supplement what we had.
That stayed with me.
As a child, I didn’t really understand what any of it meant.
I knew we had a home. I went to school. There was food on the table. I didn’t understand the systems my mom was navigating or the people and organizations behind the help we received.
Looking back now, I realize there was a community supporting our family before I even knew I needed one.
That’s something I’ve thought about a lot during my time with Valley of the Sun United Way.
When we talk about giving, it’s easy to talk about dollars, campaigns and goals.
But the people on the other side of those dollars aren’t perfect success stories waiting to happen. They’re people going through complicated seasons of life, trying to figure out what comes next.
Sometimes help looks like a food box.
Sometimes it’s assistance that keeps a roof over a family’s head.
And sometimes it’s simply giving someone enough stability to get through today so they have a chance to build something different tomorrow.
That’s what happened for us.
It didn’t happen overnight. It wasn’t a straight line. But eventually, my mom made her way out of that cycle.
And so did I.
I went to school. I built a career. I became self-sufficient. And eventually, I found myself in a position where I could give back to the community that had once helped my family.
I am that child.
That’s what makes this Loaned Executive experience so personal for me.
I think about the children in our community today who may be living their own version of my story. They probably don’t know who donated the food they’re eating or who helped fund the program their family depends on. They don’t know the names of the people who decided to give a few dollars from a paycheck or volunteer a few hours of their time.
I certainly didn’t.
But I am living proof that what happens in those years matters.
Giving a family some stability doesn’t guarantee a perfect outcome. What it can do is create breathing room. It can give a parent another chance to figure things out. It can give a child a safe place to live, the nourishment they need to learn and grow, and the opportunity to imagine a future beyond their current circumstances.
My experience as a Loaned Executive has taught me a lot about United Way and our community. But maybe the biggest realization has been that my connection to this work started long before I knew what United Way was.
It started with a little girl, her brother and a mom who was doing the best she could with the life in front of her.
Our community helped us when we needed it.
We eventually found our way forward.
Now I get to be there for someone else.
And that feels pretty full circle.
By Rhonda Snider, Loaned Executive from Arizona Public Service
