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In the Spotlight
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United Way Capital Area's Strategic Planning Initiative
In January, UWCA began a detailed strategic planning initiative. Like any good business, for-profit or not-for-profit, business planning and strategy are keys to success. This strategic planning initiative encompasses a five-year timeline and is focused strictly on UWCA’s business and operational plans.
This internal plan will guide UWCA to move the organization forward, help create an even stronger business model and drive strategic organizational goals and outcomes.
Staff and volunteers from across the organization will begin working together in the spring of 2011 to create action plans that are aligned with the annual strategies outlined in the Strategic Plan. Additionally, each year the organization will focus on a handful of standards from United Way Worldwide Standards of Excellence to help drive our progress and will use an internal measurement dashboard to track our progress on targets and outcomes.
UWCA would like to thank the volunteer groups, Board of Directors, business groups and staff who participated in our Strategic Planning process by providing guidance, feedback, and wisdom.
In the coming year, UWCA will conduct an environmental scan to enhance our knowledge of the most pressing issues facing the region today, as well as determine where there are gaps in services around these issues. This assessment will inform UWCA’s strategic planning and drive development of new programs and partnerships.
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Getting Connected
UWCA's 2011 Community Impact Review Teams
Looking to make a difference? You can be a critical part of UWCA’s 2011 Community Investment Grant process. UWCA is looking for 300 volunteers to serve on Community Impact Review Teams (CIRTs) and participate in one of two ways:
- 1. Administrative and Fiscal Review:
Volunteers will score and evaluate the financial and administrative composition of an organization. Volunteers will review applications at UWCA during December. A finance/business background is required.
- 2. Programmatic Review:
Volunteers will read, score and evaluate program applications within our focus areas of Education, Income, and Health. They will then participate in group discussions to rank applications and provide feedback. Training will take place in early January, and group discussions are scheduled for early February.
Interested in learning more?
Email CIRT@unitedwaycapitalarea.org
to receive information on signing up to volunteer
Save the Date!!!
HEB Feast of Sharing set for Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010 from 4 p.m. to 8pm at the Palmer Events Center, located at 900 Barton Springs Road, H-E-B's Feast of Sharing will serve a traditional holiday meal to more than 10,000 attendees. UWCA assists with this event by recruiting volunteers. To sign-up, visit www.handsoncentraltexas.org.
UWCA and 2-1-1 Texas are beginning an ongoing series of free trainings on community services. Participants will learn when to use 2-1-1 Texas and how to search the 2-1-1 Texas database to find information about available community resources. The trainings will be held on Friday, Oct. 22 (full) and Friday, Dec. 10 (available) from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. at UWCA 2000 E. MLK Blvd. RSVP to Community Action Network at cristell.laurel@austinisd.org or 414-0323.
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Your Local United Way in Action
Volunteers Turn Out for 2010 Fall Day of Caring
More than 950 volunteers from 28 Austin companies completed more than 40 projects as part of UWCA’s Fall Day of Caring on Sept. 10. Many participated as members of corporate teams as part of a team-building activity. Volunteers impacted the community by building herb gardens, working one-to-one with high school students to teach job search skills, renovating playgrounds, doing arts and crafts activities with the elderly and recycling computers, among many other projects.
Day of Caring volunteers chip
in at Open Door Preschool.
The Day of Caring is an opportunity for people from the community to come together to create change in Central Texas. Volunteers found opportunities to participate in meaningful activities that focused on the education, income, health and environment of our community.
A special thank you to event sponsors: Freescale Semiconductor, The Long Center for the Performing Arts and Coca-Cola. The total volunteer time equated to more than $122,000 in service back to the community. For photos of the event, please visit www.facebook.com/unitedwaycapitalarea.
To read more click here.
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Friends and Partners
Grant from Flextronics to Support Youth Program Quality Initiative
A $5,000 grant from Flextronics will help improve program quality for hundreds of young people in Central Texas. The grant from the Flex Foundation will support the Youth Program Quality Initiative (YPQI) which trains volunteers to conduct youth program assessments. Once a program has been assessed, staff is assisted in developing a quality improvement plan which may include professional development courses. From there, staff incorporates what they have learned into day-to-day operations which lead to long-term improvement.
Research shows that quality programming matters and that as program quality improves, so do important youth outcomes, such as school achievement and pro-social behavior. Youth who attend high-quality programs are more likely to report that they were interested, challenged, and felt a sense of belonging in the activities than youth who attended lower-quality programs. The goal of YPQI is to have 75 percent of afterschool or summer programs serving middle schools with a high concentration of at-risk students to be quality assessed and have improvement plans in place. This means that up to 2,700 youth in Central Texas could benefit from higher quality programs leading to improved life outcomes.
Flex Foundation’s contribution will be used for books, supplies, meeting expenses and to train youth program professionals. The grant also will support the implementation of a critically needed an online data collection and analysis tool.
YPQI is a partnership that includes UWCA, the Austin and Manor Independent School District’s 21st Century program, the Central Texas Afterschool Network, Communities in Schools, and The Boys and Girls Club of the Austin Area.
Best Bet on United Way
Thanks to Intel employees who recently held a Texas Hold ’em Tournament to benefit United Way Capital Area. The tournament raised $2,720, which the Intel Foundation matched dollar for dollar.
As a part of their 2010 United Way Campaign fundraising efforts, participants could buy into the poker tournament for a chance to win a trophy, their name on a plaque, but more importantly, bragging rights for a year.
“It was really fun to play without regard to how much money you have ‘spent’ because it was an up-front donation and going to a good cause,” said participant Marcin Nowicki.
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In this issue
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Living United
Teresa Amador′s story is a successful one. Today, she is a leadership giver with United Way Capital Area (UWCA) and has a great career as a policy management supervisor with Texas Mutual Insurance. It wasn’t always this good, however. Twenty years ago, she started out as a teenage mother struggling to finish high school. As luck would have it, Teresa’s employer had posted a flier from a UWCA partner offering GED assistance and job placement for teens. Within 24 hours, Teresa had made a call that changed her life.
To read the rest of Teresa′s story, and the stories of other who have been helped by UWCA programs, click here.
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Your Impact
One-third of the projects hosted during the recent UWCA Day of Caring were led by trained United Way Capital Area Volunteer Project Leaders. The Volunteer Project Leader training equips participants with the leadership skills and tools they need to make meaningful and lasting change in their communities. For more information on how to become a Volunteer Project Leader, or to have this course offered to your employees on the worksite, please contact Nikki Krueger at 512-386-8211.
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By the Numbers
Consider this: 90 percent of a child's brain development occurs before age 6. Yet for the more than 37,000 Austin children living in poverty, the barriers to learning are immense. Research shows that, for every $1 invested in quality early childhood development, our society saves up to $17 in remedial education, welfare costs and court and prison expenses.
Samsung, which knows a thing or two about wise investments, chose to invest $1 million in the Success By 6 program because it believes that one of the most important jobs in any community is educating children.
Click here to read more.
Ask Debbie
Speak your mind.
“I always want to hear what our friends and partners have to say about the Central Texas community and United Way Capital Area.”
- Debbie Bresette, President,
United Way Capital Area
Let me know what's on your mind.
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