What is the Little Black Dress Campaign?
The week of Sept. 17-20, Women United and friends lead a poverty awareness campaign, Little Black Dress, with more than two hundred women each wearing a black dress or outfit for four days, along with a goal to raise $250 each and a team goal of $1,500.
The funds raised are used to fund the education initiative of the United Way and focused on keeping families in their homes, making sure kids are able to get to school and learn, as well as finding mentors for these students.
Interested in sponsoring the Little Black Dress, click here or contact Amber Ruzicka at the United Way Office, 701.255.3601.Sign up your team today! Click here. Already registered? Create your donation page by clicking here!
Little Black Dress Celebration Event (Open to the Public) - Sept. 20 - Purchase Tickets TODAY!
Following the campaign, we invite the community to join in on the celebration and attend the Little Black Dress Celebration Event on Thursday, Sept. 20. The event will be held at the BSC's National Energy Center of Excellce Building from 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Tickets to the Little Black Dress Celebration Social are $40, with $25 sponsoring a child in the United Way Dolly Parton Imagination Library. We hope you can join us for appetizers, beer tasting and a silent auction to celebrate this important (and fun) event!
The last three years, United Way's Women United has raised almost $250,000 through the LIttle Black Dress Campaign. Funds support United Way's Education Initiative helping women and children to overcome the barriers of poverty so they are successful in school and in life. The participants have also donated over 250 business outfits to the Abused Adult Resource Center's Career Closet.
What does the $250,000 raised by this amazing group of ladies do?
Allows struggling readers in Kindergarten through Third Grade to get intensive, research-based tutoring.
Ensures children get a designated mentor that meets with them for an hour each week.
Provides a case manager to work with hundreds of children to de-escalate conflict and develop the personal skills necessary to reduce inter-personal conflict in the future.
Helps caring case workers spend thousands of hours addressing the barriers to a good education and a stable family caused by poverty, mental illness, unemployment, homelessness, and more.
Low income students working with United Way's Education Initiative were 20% more likely to be able to read at grade level, 27% more likely to be meeting math benchmarks and 18% more likely to be meeting reading benchmarks than low income students without these services.
One in five people living in Bismarck-Mandan do not have enough money to meet their basic needs. That means they're <200% of the poverty level.
Only 35 percent of youth in Bismarck-Mandan feel they have a positive adult role model.
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