WV211 is a collaborative project of the United Ways of West Virginia, offering a health and human service hotline staffed by call specialist who can make referrals to community agencies. Last year, more than 1,000 referrals were made to area agencies.

Reading is a cornerstone of early education, and Dolly Parton's Imagination Library mails one age-appropriate book per month to children ages birth-5 in Mon and Preston counties. There are more than 2,000 children currently enrolled for the program in Mon County. 

The No. 1 need at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was food, and with that in mind, Helpful Harvest was born. The program gets fresh produce, local meats and dairy items, and nonperishables to 40-plus area pantries and programs thanks to great partnerships in this community.

Advancing the common good is less about helping one person at a time and more about changing systems to help all of us. We are all connected and interdependent. We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, when people are healthy.