LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) -- The United Way of Greater Lafayette kicked off their 2018 campaign Wednesday.

The United Way's focus of the campaign is their Cradle to Career commitment. They hope to help improve physical and mental health of the people they serve as well as support their education until the time they start their career.

So far, the campaign has raised nearly $1.5 million of their $5.3 million total.

This year's campaign chair Tom Murtaugh said he is proud that the United Way is helping improve lives in even more ways than before.

"Really the United Way has morphed into something much more than that and that is the convener of of partners to come together to identify problems, to create awareness around problems and to solve those community problems," said Murtaugh.

Even after 20 years of volunteering for the United Way, Murtaugh said being the campaign chair has been enlightening.

"It's a great opportunity to actually visit with our community leaders, our business leaders on a one on one basis to talk about community needs, what they're hearing from their work forces in regard to the United Way work," said Murtaugh.

The campaign runs until mid November.

If you would like to find out more or donate to the United Way, click here.