United Way Windsor-Essex is hoping to raise $7.5-million in its 2017 campaign.
That's $2.5-million above last year's goal.
But CEO Lorraine Goddard says it's a very strategic number.
"It was really grounded in, what would it take to really help lift up the kids who are growing up economically disadvantage. Create opportunities for them to be able to have that upward mobility," says Goddard.
The latest Statistics Canada data released this week states that Windsor has the highest rate of children living in low income households across the country.
Many of the program supported by the United Way campaign are aimed at lifting youth and families out of the cycle of poverty.