Everyone deserves opportunities to have a good life: a quality education that leads to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health. It's hard to succeed at school and work unless you have good health. That's why your contributions to United Way Community Investment supports a safety net of health and human services for all of us.

What we're doing: United Way supports a safety net of services to help ensure that everyone in central and northeastern Connecticut has access to food, shelter and emergency and disaster services. Your contributions to Community Investment support all these things, plus more than 30 respected health charities through United Way's campaign partnership with Community Health Charities of New England.

Results: In 2009, more than 4,000 women received free mammogram screenings. And more than 5,000 local students learned about the dangers of smoking from a visit to the American Lung Association's Breath Express Mobile.