United Way Launches Disaster Preparedness Centers 

It’s been almost a year since deadly floods swept through Marion County. 

Now the Tygart Valley United Way and United Way of Central West Virginia are launching United We Prepare, a statewide initiative to ensure communities are prepared to meet basic needs for food, shelter and power during disasters.  

“Verizon partnered with United Way Worldwide last year to launch the program in 14 communities around the country, and then this year they’ve added an additional four to the program, and so we’re really thrilled that West Virginia is one of those,” Tygart Valley United Way CEO Brett White said. “We know how critical preparedness and resilience is really to our entire state and so I’m thrilled that we’re able to partner with the United Way in Charleston to bring the program to everyone in West Virginia and to start preparing people for disasters and a little bit of different thinking than we had before.” 

Key aspects of United We Prepare include: 

• Establishment of two regional resiliency centers serving West Virginia 
  

• Statewide preparedness and resiliency workshops hosted in partnership with local United Ways and community organizations 
  

• Training and technical assistance for nonprofits and community partners 
  

• Development of stronger communication and coordination systems among organizations during emergencies 
  

• Resource sharing and collaborative planning opportunities 
  

• A statewide preparedness conference focused on strengthening community resilience 
  

White said the first step is the series of resiliency workshops – with an eye toward handling a broad range of disasters. 

“We’re going to partner with the other 10 United Ways that are across West Virginia to bring these resiliency workshops to pretty much every corner of West Virginia,” White said. “And not necessarily always thinking of disasters as only floods and extreme heat, but also for man-made disasters, when we have problems like we did with the SNAP benefit crisis last year.” 

Both White and Margaret O’Neal, president of United Way of Central West Virginia said they are concerned about the impact of Medicaid changes set to go into effect in January 2027. 

“We’re wanting to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make sure that individuals who are experiencing all of these changes in these drastic shifts in benefits are going to be prepared and ready for those,” White said. “I think that’s going to be a major issue when we get to January 1, and there’s those changes. I think again we’re talking about man-made and nature disasters, so we want to think about those from both ends.” 

Two resiliency centers, one each in Fairmont and Charleston, will serve all 55 counties.