When Jenny Lee became executive director of Rowan County United Way, it was a homecoming.

Lee grew up in Salisbury. She went on to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington to get her bachelor’s degree in social work and to East Carolina University for her master’s in social work.

In September, she found her groove immediately as the United Way’s annual fundraising campaign started and needs-assessment research was complete. Closing out 2018, the United Way announced three priority areas for the county: substance abuse, mental heath and healthy lifestyle behaviors.

All eyes will be on the needs assessment with a change in the United Way’s campaign model. Money raised will primarily be allocated for agencies directly working in the three priority areas.

In order to begin to improve the needs-assessment findings, Lee said the community has to work together to solve these problems.

“Our community has so much work ahead of us in terms of what we’re focusing on, and we just had our needs assessment completed,” Lee said. “It stated those three priorities of substance abuse and mental health and healthy lifestyle behaviors, and I think that we’re really going to have champion.”

Lee knows the work ahead for her and the United Way won’t be easy.

“I think it’s going to take years to put a small dent in it,” Lee said. “That is going to be our biggest challenge but one, as United Way, we are very determined to address.”

Substance abuse is a key concern for Lee, and Rowan County isn’t the only community searching for a solution.

“We have to understand that there are crippling issues that lead to substance abuse, and we have got to implement strong programs to be able to adequately address this,” she said. “I think we have some holes there and areas to fill, whether its long-term services, free services for folks that are low-income. We just don’t have enough of it in Rowan County, and I think that’s what we really need to focus on is how do we bring those services to this county?” 

Substance abuse affects the community as a whole, she said.

“That’s what we really need to focus on, because if we don’t do that then we can’t fill jobs, we can’t live prosperous lives and then the whole community starts to crumble,” Lee said.

— Liz Moomey