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| In the Spotlight |
Grant Will Build Behavioral Skills in Young Children
UWCA is challenging the community to help match a $1 million grant from the Buena Vista Foundation for the Success By Six (SB6) program. The funds will go toward working with preschool children on behavioral issues such as aggression, listening and paying attention with the goal of making classrooms more conducive to learning. In addition to the SB6 program, which focuses on early childhood education, UWCA also focuses on youth education, income and health issues to build and strengthen the community as a whole. The gift is structured as a matching grant of $200,000 for each of the next four years that will be received when donors contribute that amount. The Buena Vista Foundation also pledged an additional $50,000 donation each year, which is given outright to UWCA. Read more here.
Donate today and your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar through this grant.
Focus on Middle Schools Aims to Increase Graduation Rates
With the goal of keeping students on track to graduate high school, UWCA and 16 nonprofit partners will roll out intensive support services at three high need middle schools next school year - Mendez and Webb in the Austin Independent School District (AISD), and Decker Middle School in the Manor Independent School District (Manor ISD). Applied Materials, Inc., The Applied Materials Foundation and IBM also are focusing a part of their philanthropic efforts in these areas to ensure middle school students are successful.
UWCA is investing more than $1 million in the initiative to fund the 22 programs that are part of the youth education initiative Middle School Matters. UWCA and its nonprofit partners will deliver a wide-range of support services at the middle schools, including mentoring, tutoring, behavioral health, parent education and quality afterschool programs to students at the three schools. Read more here.
Spring DAYS of Caring Celebrates National Volunteer Week
More than 1,000 volunteers dedicated their time to nearly 30 community organizations through the UWCA Spring Days of Caring last week. Volunteers helped in a variety of ways, including:
- Completed site improvements such as painting, gardening and carpentry
- Installed a Born Learning Trail at the Pan Am Cantu Recreation Center
- Assisted with fundraising events for organizations such as Colin’s Hope and Capital Area Food Bank
- And much more!
Staff from Walgreen’s stores participated in their fourth Day of Caring on Friday at Scooter’s Learning Center by completing tasks from painting and building shelves to organizing classrooms and installing canopies on the playground. The group provided a total of 150 hours in one day!
“Not all companies are able to let their employees go and do something like this. We don’t get to work with each other this close very often because we’re all in our separate stores. Our district manager is out back painting,” said Brenda De La Garza. “I see how hard (the center’s director) works and all the stuff she has to do and I’m just glad we can come out here and help.”
Many thanks to our sponsors for helping to make these days a success.
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Getting Connected
Free Financial Education Classes Offered
Financial Fitness Greater Austin (FFGA), an initiative of UWCA, will provide free financial education workshops throughout Austin during Financial Fitness Week April 25-30. Open financial education classes are still available! Visit financialfitnessaustin.org.
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Your Local United Way in Action
Grant to Aid Youth Work
UWCA received a United Way Worldwide Out-of-School Time Community Pilot Grant Award of $20,000 to work with community partners to develop an out-of-school time action agenda. The grant is designed to help local United Ways to work in partnership with others so that out-of-school time programs become a critical component of supporting youth success and improving high school graduation rates.
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Friends and Partners
UWCA Remembers Thierno Diallo
Dedicated UWCA volunteer Thierno Diallo, 70, passed away in late March. Thierno was active with UWCA serving on the President’s Cabinet and volunteering as an HR manager. Before his retirement, Thierno worked for 3M for 27 years in quality and reliability engineering, retiring as a Quality Manager. After his retirement, Thierno remained active by volunteering with the Austin Capital City Lions Club, the Round Rock Baca Senior Center Tax Preparation Center and the Census Bureau. Thierno touched many lives not only through his dedicated service, but through his joy, laughter, energy and gentle smile. He was an integral member of the UWCA team and will be dearly missed.
KLRU and UWCA Visit “Play and Learn”
Many thanks to KLRU and Mary Alice Appleman for facilitating a trip to San Antonio for Sue Carpenter, UWCA Sr. Director of Education, and Beth Tracy, Success By 6 Leadership Council Vice-Chair and Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Affairs Manager, IBM. The trio visited the nationally renowned San Antonio Play and Learn program, which was developed by KLRN, the San Antonio PBS station. “Play and Learn” is an innovative early learning strategy for families who are not likely to access traditional preschool settings such as Head Start. UWCA Success By 6 has piloted a Play and Learn model in Austin, and the trip provided an opportunity to share best practices between our communities. UWCA is planning a bilingual Play and Learn program in Central Texas to meet the needs of our rapidly growing population.
Cha-Ching Fling a Success with Help of Sponsors
UWCA’s Young Leader's Society (YLS) hosted the first Cha-Ching Fling on April 7, 2011 at Umlauf Sculpture Garden. All proceeds from silent auction and ticket sales benefitted Bank on Central Texas. Many thanks to Jack Allen's Kitchen, Tito's Vodka, Treaty Oak Rum, and Thirsty Planet for providing food and drinks and Gold Beach for providing the wonderful music. Thanks to all the YLS members who attended and the many businesses and individuals who provided silent auction items.
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In this issue
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Living United
“Spring Day of Caring is a company event at Freescale and it allows me to meet a lot of people I wouldn’t get to work with normally so it’s a good way to build a camaraderie and meet other people that work at Freescale. It’s great that our company can partner with United Way to do that. I think the YouthLaunch Urban Roots Farm is a good cause and sustainable agriculture is something I’m passionate about and just learning, and this is a great way to experience it.”
- Mario Centeno
Marketing Strategist
Freescale
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Your Impact
More than 175 community volunteers reviewed applications and made recommendations on which programs would receive competitive Community Investment Grants. UWCA awarded grants to 69 programs representing 49 nonprofit partners, including 18 new and all current UWCA partners. These partners will share $3.4 million in total grant funding. UWCA is investing more than $1 million in the initiative to fund 22 programs that are part of the youth education initiative Middle School Matters. Funding will also be directed toward early childhood education, income and health initiatives. View our partners here: www.unitedwaycapitalarea.org/CIG/.
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By the Numbers
The UWCA Helpline recently published its 2010 Community Needs and Trends Report, which includes data gathered from calls made to 2-1-1 Texas and the Central Health Customer Service Line.
Highlights of the report include:
- The Helpline took more than 326,000 calls in 2010, a 22 percent increase from 2009.
- Top caller needs related to health and dental care (44%) and housing/shelter/utilities (40%).
- The top three increases in calls were:
o Adult State/Local Health Insurance Programs (up 65%)
o Community Clinics (up 40%)
o General Legal Aid (up 40%)
- Helpline staff handled more than 100,000 Central Health Customer Service (CHCS) calls since beginning to take calls in October 2009. CHCS call volume tripled in the first six months of the program.
Download the report here.
Ask Debbie
Why is UWCA adding programs to focus on middle school?
“Today, only 81 percent of Central Texas students graduate on-time from high school. This shows that youth need our time and commitment to ensure that the next generation of community leaders is successful. By saturating three high need middle schools with services customized specifically for the students’ needs, we will reach a tipping point and ultimately increase the number of students who graduate from high school. It will take all of us – the business community, nonprofit partners and volunteers – to reach our goal of 95 percent of students graduating from high school by 2015.”
- Debbie Bresette, President,
United Way Capital Area
Let me know what's on your mind.
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