Dina Sears-Graves, the new president and CEO of the United Way of Southeastern Connecticut, said she's in this line of work to give back to the community she loves.
"I love New London County, so for me this is about 'how do we provide the most opportunities for people in our community?'" said Sears-Graves. "I'm proud to be part of this community, and so what drives me is I'm part of it and I want to be part of the solution. I want to help."
Sears-Graves, a lifelong resident of southeastern Connecticut, has worked at the agency for the past 12 years and is now at the helm as the region works to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
She previously served as the vice president of community impact at United Way. In that position, she managed the Gemma E. Moran United Way/Labor Food Center and oversaw the annual community fund, collective impact initiatives and community work. Sears-Graves became president and CEO after Virginia L. Mason, president and CEO for the past 11 years, retired in February.
Sears-Graves, who lives in Norwich with her family, has worked in nonprofits her entire career. Much of that work centered around youth, including running a teen pregnancy prevention program for the New London health department for 15 years and serving as executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Connecticut.
When she saw an opening at the United Way 12 years ago, she was excited for the opportunity to focus on the community and help people in the region where she grew up and continues to live.
Now she has stepped up to lead the entire agency with immediate goals to raise awareness about the work the United Way is doing in the community and to determine how the agency can be more responsive as the region comes out of the pandemic.
The United Way had shifted quickly to respond to needs arising in the community from the pandemic, including distributing food and hand sanitizer, face masks and cleaning supplies, and helping with vaccination efforts and then rental and utilities assistance through the UniteCT van.
"It was amazing to see, and it was amazing to be in the middle of it and helping to do that work," Sears-Graves said.
Mobilizing during the pandemic
When the pandemic first hit, and feelings of panic about food shortages arose in the community, staff at the United Way immediately mobilized to figure out how to distribute food equally throughout New London County.
"The staff just rallied behind: How are we going to make that possible and do it safely?" she said.
Agency staff ensured food pantries had enough food and helped spread the word to residents about sites where they could pick up food. United Way partnered with entities that don't typically run pantries — such as senior housing and apartment complexes — to ensure residents had access to food.
"We would literally map it each week and look at the county and say, 'Where do we need to go to make sure there's access to food?' and 'Who do we know, or who can we really connect with to help us with this work?'" she explained.
The United Way further helped get food to residents through the Farmers to Families Food Box program.
People also stepped up to volunteer and ask how they could help, so the United Way matched volunteers to agencies in need, filling a critical need, since many of the volunteers the agencies typically relied on tended to be older, retired people who were at high risk for COVID-19.
Sears-Graves said the people stepping up to volunteer were not thinking of themselves but focused on how they could help their community, because they knew people were of a higher risk than them.
Looking back on the work the United Way of Southeastern Connecticut has done throughout the pandemic, she gave a lot of credit to her staff for coming together to help the community and the new partnerships that were forged.
"We all had the same vision and mission to get food out into this community so people had access," she said. "It's about stabilizing our community and just how important that was."
The United Way also provided cash cards to people in the category Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) before the pandemic and either lost their job, were furloughed or impacted by COVID-19.
Then as the COVID-19 vaccine rolled out, United Way removed barriers to vaccination by arranging transportation to vaccination sites and helping register people for appointments, she said.
Thinking outside the box
As the region comes out of the pandemic, the agency will be refocusing on how best to respond to community needs and assist people, who may have been furloughed or lost their job to make up the ground they lost. About 30% of the population already had been struggling to meet basic needs prior, and then may have been out of work for a time during the pandemic, she explained.
That's why the United Way is trying to get the word out about assistance programs, such as the UniteCT van to help people apply for rental and utilities assistance, she said. There is also a lot of advocacy efforts for homelessness prevention.
The pandemic forced the agency to "think outside of the box" and "to reexamine every single thing we did and how we did it." The agency will continue to try to find ways to innovate as it looks to the future, she said.
"Things have changed," she said. "Technology's probably here to stay. How do you use technology? How do we make a better experience for people?"
Sears-Graves, who has played many parts in her time at the United Way, is taking a big picture view in her new role to see how all the pieces fit together and how all the different segments of the agency work together.
"That togetherness is what makes us so strong," she said.
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