CORRECTION: If you tried to contact Meredith via email from our last communication, and haven't gotten a response, please note there was a typo in the email address. Please call Meredith at 512-382-8598 or try emailing her again if you RSVP'd and didn't receive a response: meredith.cohen@unitedwaycapitalarea.org

Please note the exciting changes to our Pre-K Day activities:

WGN members are invited to network with members of the Women's Leadership groups from San Antonio and other communities. Join us for a reception that includes a brief training with helpful tips for discussing the importance of quality early childhood education with legislators. Joe Straus, the new Speaker of the House, will also be addressing the group.

Co-hosted by: United Ways of Texas and United Way San Antonio/Bexar County

If your schedule permits, after the Reception we will walk to the Capitol's South Steps to take part in the Pre-K Day Press Conference at 11:00 AM.

The Press Conference will conclude our group actives for the day. Please RSVP by Friday, February 13th to Meredith Cohen at meredith.cohen@unitedwaycapitalarea.org or 512-382-8598. There is a full day schedule of Pre-K Day activities if you would like to participate. The schedule can be found at: http://www.tecec.org/pages.php/prek_day.html

Unfortunately, the winter weather forced us to cancel the January volunteer project at Sammy's House.

We have rescheduled the project for February 18, from 5:15 PM to 8 PM. We hope you can make the new date!

Sammy's House is a non-profit organization that provides services for children who are medically fragile and/or developmentally delayed. Sammy's House operates a child development center, a respite care program and a therapy equipment loaning program.

We will be doing cleaning and organizing (no back breaking work!) but if you would like, it's recommended to bring gloves to protect your hands.

Sammy's House is located at 2415 Twin Oaks Drive, 78757 (north of 2222 just off of Burnet Road.)

The group will meet at Sammy's House and dinner will be provided!

Please email meredith.cohen@unitedwaycapitalarea.org to RSVP by 2/16.

Dear Friends:

2009 has started with a bang. I wrote last month about how the economic downturn is impacting everyone in our community. And while the economy has created worry and uncertainty for all, it is also forcing us to evaluate how we go about our work. This presents an opportunity for innovation and an opportunity to consider new ways to solve to old problems.

Right now, real people need real help, but we have to go beyond just meeting people's needs. By focusing on solving and preventing problems, not just managing them, we are leveraging our supporters dollars to provide answers to those problems. To provide hope, out of a bad situation. People understand that and are responding to this approach.

With those thoughts in mind, I was inspired by our MLK Day of Service in January. Four years ago we were supported by approximately fifty people in celebrating the legacy of Dr. King. This year, on a cold January morning, more than 700 people showed up for the kick-off and volunteer projects.

Not only is this a testament to our fantastic, hard-working staff, but to those of you who chose to Live United. Our LIVE UNITED invitation to GIVE/ ADVOCATE/VOLUNTEER is a way for Central Texans to not only involve themselves in effective community solutions, but find out about the issues that matter to us and our families. Thank you again to all who made this day a powerful reminder of what can be achieved if we come together as a community.

I'm also happy that we have a guest Q&A this month with Nell Edgington, formerly of KLRU and now President of Social Velocity. Nell has some interesting ideas about how to create and accelerate social innovation and change. I hope you enjoy her viewpoint.

Thank you again for your support and a happy and prosperous 2009 to all of you.

Regards,
David W. Balch
President & Chief Professional Officer
United Way Capital Area

A big thank you to the 700 Central Texans who joined us for this year's MLK Day of Service. We hope the volunteer projects and activities inspired you to Live United and continue to use Dr. King's blueprint for civic and social activism and affect social change in our community.

Mando Rayo, David Balch, MLK Peace Bench Artist Solomon Perry, State Representative Dawnna Dukes, and Dr. Leonard Moore pose with the commemorative 10th Annual MLK Cleanup Peace Bench, which was presented to Dukes in honor of the event.


MLK Peace Bench volunteers show off their artistic skills


The Mt. Sinai Baptist Missionary Church Children's Choir

To see more pictures and watch videos from our Day of Service, click here.

Looking to stay in shape while helping United Way? If you join local gym Anytime Fitness® of Austin or Bee Cave and mention United Way, you’ll have a great facility to help you reach your fitness goals...and the best part is, Anytime Fitness will then donate 5% of your dues to United Way right off the top. So you’ll help fund local programs that benefit Central Texans year-round. Win-Win for everyone. Many thanks to owners Glen Langford & Karl Duvall.

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Pre-K Day at the Texas Capitol
When: February 17, all day.

We would like encourage each of you to Google search 81R2369 CAE-F House Bill 130 and read the details or click here. But, in short the overall goal of the bill is to move prekindergarten classes from a half day to a full day of quality care and teaching.

Your support of this bill is critical as it would radically change how these students are prepared to enter school. Also, we would like you to join us join us at the state Capitol on February 17, where there will be a mock class set-up.

Contact meredith.cohen@unitedwaycapitalarea.org to get the details for this event.

Nell Edgington is President of Social Velocity, and has been involved in the nonprofit world for most of her career. Her organization is devoted to providing thought leadership and accelerating social innovation around system-changing ideas that solve existing public challenges. Here's a recent Q&A we had with her, that we think you'll find interesting and provocative.

Your bio says you've been in the social sector for over 13 years. Tell us what things were like for you when you first got involved with the non-profit world. How were they different from today's imperative to develop entrepreneurial models in the nonprofit sector?
I don't know that things were fundamentally all that different when I got started. Nonprofits have always been entrepreneurial, if you think about it. They are created because someone sees a disequilibrium, or "market opportunity" (inadequate schools, poor housing, lack of cultural arts) so they create an organization, with great risk and few resources, to fix that disequilibrium. This is not so different from a business entrepreneur, aside from the social motive versus profit motive.

I think what has changed over the past decade or so is a convergence among the public, private and nonprofit sectors. A decade or so ago the three sectors remained relatively separate. A nonprofit might receive corporate philanthropic dollars or federal dollars, or government might contract with a nonprofit to provide public services, but the three sectors stayed separate and had their own unique characteristics. Now you see a merging of the three sectors into what some call a "fourth sector." Some private businesses now include a social mission in their business model (a solar energy company), nonprofits are using business models to create sustainable organizations, the federal government is thinking about an office of social innovation. The old, separate sectors are being swept aside by a new idea that each sector has something to offer and by borrowing the best from each we can move towards solving the mounting problems we face.

Read the rest here.

A team of 60 volunteers from ACE Hardware, led by Ace's "Helpful Hardware Man" and nationally recognized DIY expert, Lou Manfredini, joined forces with United Ways Success By 6 and Hands on Central Texas programs to improve PromiseLand Preschool in Austin.

The group renovated different areas of the organization's facility, including: landscaping the grounds, creating a playground and picnic area outside, painting and installing shelving, cabinets and windows.

Check out more photos here and media coverage here.