United Global Outreach (UGO) is a not-for-profit organization that focuses on transforming neglected and underprivileged communities by meeting their educational, physical, spiritual and emotional needs by giving a hand-up, unleashing unlimited potential and possibilities. Every resident is treated as a VIP – a core value of UGO efforts.

 

Since 2010, UGO has led the Bithlo Transformation Effort, a grassroots effort to undo many years of poverty and neglect in a town known as “Bithlo So Low” and the “Outcast of Orange County.” 

 

UGO learned about the community's issues during a 2009 “Listen, Learn and Love” tour. Residents, who are now actively engaged in the transformation, cited the following concerns: Education, Transportation, Housing, Health Care, Environment, Basic Needs and Sense of Community. Since then, Economic Opportunity and the Arts have been added to the list.

 

When the First Baptist Church of Bithlo donated its building to UGO in 2009, UGO raised funds to renovate the building and open a private school. That was a first step. Today, with the support of local and national partnerships, real transformation goes on every day.

 

The organization is led by their CEO, Timothy McKinney.