To make sure children are prepared for school and life, parents need a variety of tools from the time they learn about their bundle of joy right through kindergarten and beyond. But parents are busy and information about how to prepare children is often hard to access, which is why United Way for Greater Austin (UWATX) Success By 6 is championing two initiatives leveraging mobile technology to educate parents as they become their child’s first teacher. We’re partnering with Text4baby, a health literacy initiative where mothers receive weekly text messages, and Ready Rosie, a bilingual video curriculum that teaches parents how to incorporate early learning into daily activities. To sign up for Text4baby, women text “BABY” (or “BEBE” for Spanish) to 511411 and then receive three texts per week on topics like immunization, nutrition, baby’s development and safe sleep practices. The messages are timed to the mother’s due date or their baby’s birth date and go from pregnancy until the baby’s first birthday. Text4baby has enrolled more than 600,000 U.S moms since its February 2011 launch. Locally, UWATX has promoted Text4baby to low-income mothers at community health fairs with posters like the one on the right and included it as a resource at WIC clinics – and it worked: we increased use in Travis County by 70 percent from 2012. Services like Text4baby are critical as low-income children under six are our fastest growing demographic. Prepared parents are a key first step in helping children get on the right path […]
Read MoreRain or shine – our volunteers are committed to giving back!
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
Despite the stormy weather, we still had a fantastic turnout for Fall Day of Caring on Friday – one of the annual volunteering days we manage through our Hands On Central Texas program. More than 900 volunteers attended and worked on 30+ projects to make Austin greater! Local employers, including ABC Home & Commercial, H-E-B, Kerbey Lane and IBM lent a hand as their employees spent Friday giving back to Greater Austin. Volunteers contributed to many projects, including preparing afterschool program materials, making soup bowls from clay and numerous beautification projects. Through their work, volunteers completed an estimated 2,700 hours of service, the equivalent of $60,939 in labor costs. Here’s what you guys are saying about the experience: Our volunteers stuck it out through the rain – enjoying the appreciation lunch with local food and music, and keeping high spirits. Thanks to everyone who came out and all the great local organizations and businesses that helped us make Austin greater! Check out the photos on Facebook! See all our pictures on Flickr.
Read More[VIDEO] Bobby Jenkins on the value of philanthropy
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
![[VIDEO] Bobby Jenkins on the value of philanthropy](https://www.unitedwayaustin.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Video_BobbyPhil-02-1.png)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h9bKDe5JJc[/youtube] “Austin is on a trajectory to grow, and it’s up to all of us to decide how we’re going to manage that growth in a way that’s positive.” – Bobby Jenkins, President of ABC Home & Commercial Services Our mission at United Way for Greater Austin is to build philanthropy and to invest those gifts of time, dollars and talent to help our community thrive. We believe that when we give back, we are all made richer, and that everyone in our community who earns a paycheck should have the opportunity to give back. Since last year, Bobby Jenkins, President of ABC Home & Commercial Services, has served as our Employee Giving Campaign Co-Chair, spreading our shared message about the importance of philanthropy to companies and individuals throughout Greater Austin. For us, it’s been an inspiring journey to see his commitment to philanthropy. We hope his words will move you too.
Read MoreAn ambitious challenge: doubling the number of low-income children in high-quality care
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
We are proud to announce our new United Way for Greater Austin (UWATX) Success By 6 Center Project – an ambitious initiative to help 14 child care centers serving low-income populations meet and keep high-quality ratings. Our goal is to double the number of low-income children in the kind of care that changes lives. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu_uTm5SeIM[/youtube] Center were selected based different criteria, including the number of low-income children they serve, and ratings from our Women”s Leadership Council. Our partners are: For a child to thrive, they need quality support in their life. That’s why UWATX is focusing on providing child care centers the key benefits that will truly make a difference in children’s lives. From a strong relationship with parents to supportive teachers and well-prepared child care directors, children depend on adults to help them thrive in the critical early years and our research shows that teachers are interested in increasing their education. UWATX is supporting continuing professional development for teachers and funding a mentorship program for center directors. We are also recruiting and training individuals to act as substitutes so that staff members can attend professional development opportunities while maintaining a high standard of care for children. Children also need safe facilities, engaging toys and books and educational materials. To fit these needs, UWATX is leveraging in-kind support through our networks to collect materials. We are also casino online providing tools like the High Scope math curriculum to build a strong foundation in math and kickstart children’s STEM education. […]
Read MoreTop ten things to look for when choosing child care
Posted on by Sue Carpenter
At United Way for Greater Austin (UWATX), we work to ensure every child is ready for kindergarten with our Success By 6 program—and an important part of that is making sure children enjoy quality care early on in life. To help parents make sure they’re making the right choice for their child, we’ve compiled a top ten list of things to look for: 1. Safe and Secure Safety and security is obviously a parent’s top concern. Look to see if the building and equipment are in good repair. A security system is key—this way only authorized people can come and go, and all entry and exit activity is monitored. 2. Clean and Healthy Cleanliness is also a high priority. Caregivers should encourage children to wash their hands often, especially after using the restroom and before eating. Caregivers should lead by example and follow the same procedures, including after diapering. 3. Warm and Responsive You want to make sure your child is in a kind, loving environment and know that someone is dedicated to attending to your child’s needs. Listen for laughter and conversation between children and teachers. It is important that teachers talk to the children kindly and with respect. Also, look to see if teachers make an effort to talk to the children at eye-level. Infants should be held both lovingly and often. 4. Stimulating and Dynamic Children should be engaged in active learning through play. It is important that the children have interesting things with which to explore, […]
Read MorePhilanthropic women make Austin greater
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
One of the most committed groups supporting UWATX is the UWATX Women’s Leadership Council, co-chaired by Jennifer Foster, Dell (who voices the presentation below), and Lauren Hammonds, Blackbaud. Their commitment to early childhood brought in $400K last year for our youngest and most vulnerable children. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD0Nnowtfn8[/youtube] The WLC is a committed, diverse group of women who donate $1,200 annually, volunteer their time and spread the word about UWATX Success By 6, our work in early childhood. At UWATX, we focus on early childhood because the first few years are critical and, in our community, children are not getting off to the best start. Across Central Texas, only 50 percent of children are ready for school when they get there – and in low-income communities, that drops to 13 percent. UWATX makes a difference – 90 percent of children in our Success By 6 program are on-track to be ready for school. WLC members support Austin’s future, our youngest children, by giving back in flexible ways. At the same time, they can network with peers and connect to women in different industries and from different backgrounds. Last year, the WLC included 200 women representing 55 businesses. Besides giving $400,000 to support young children, advocacy spearheaded by UWATX Success By 6 and the WLC restored half a million dollars in City of Austin funding for young children. Learn more about these philanthropic women and check out photos from their latest event.
Read MoreCampaign Image Library
Posted on by Lindsey Tyner
Download everything you need to create united way materials for your workplace campaign. If you can’t find what you are looking for, email your request here.
Read More32 dedicated summer VISTAs gave 9K+ hours of service this summer to make Austin greater
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
This summer, 32 AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associates joined UWATX to gather data, bolster services & increase outreach. Three months later, they’ve given more than nine thousand hours of service and accomplished quite a bit: 9K+ Hours of services our 32 AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associates gave to our community this summer Implemented research-based math curriculum in 17 preschool classrooms reaching over 230 preschool children Assessed over 270 preschool children’s receptive language skills to establish baseline for on-going data collection Translated more than 100 popular children’s titles to increase the Austin Public Library‘s bilingual youth collection Facilitated over 20 youth programming events for the Austin Public Libraries Assisted with bilingual preschool storytimes for more than 500 families Expanded the Out-of-School-Time Mapping Study by surveying 133 for-profit and nonprofit agencies Collected information about family resource centers and rural service providers to expand 2-1-1’s resource database From working with our youngest and most vulnerable children to reaching out to rural counties to provide education about available services, the story of what our AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associates did this summer goes well beyond numbers: “After one event, I was approached by a parent and her young child. She expressed concern about not knowing how to provide a good book for her child who was starting first grade next year because she was not able to speak or read in English. I recommended some books and tried to provide some sense of encouragement. She was very grateful. The VISTA member in me, felt an even greater sense […]
Read More[VIDEO] Target Graduation – a package of services to help students succeed
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
![[VIDEO] Target Graduation – a package of services to help students succeed](https://www.unitedwayaustin.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/DigImages_BM_Aug2013_MSM_feat-03-1.png)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEnvD33LSdM[/youtube] In our mission to help individuals overcome barriers to economic opportunity, we focus on middle school years – a critical tipping point where many students begin to fall behind. Through our Target Graduation program, we work on broad, system-wide interventions to positively impact not just individual student performance but the culture of learning in schools and programs. The program develops and coordinates systems, which emphasize collaboration to prepare students for success in college, work and life. Part of this program is our Middle School Matters initiative: At Webb, Mendez and Decker, UWATX coordinates a wide array of evidence-based services and provides campuses with a system for ensuring these services are available to meet the specific needs of students. While services have historically been available on these campuses, the coordinated system that Middle School Matters brings facilitates a relationship between the campus and service providers to more efficiently use them for greater impact. Working closely with campus administration and local nonprofit agencies, we’ve invested $1 million annually to not only improve outcomes for individual students, but to promote a campus-wide culture of success. Special thanks to Robert Peters (Manor ISD) for participating in this video and to Sneaky Giants for putting this video together.
Read MoreOur own UWATX Employee Campaign reaches 98 percent participation
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
At UWATX, we work with more than 400 companies locally helping them run Employee Giving Campaigns – giving employees the opportunity to invest a portion of every paycheck in the community. Each August, we put our money where our mouth is and run our very own campaign. The UWATX Employee Campaign is different every year, but we work to model the best practices that we encourage in our business partners: Recruit a cross-functional team: Our team included 4 staff members representing our fundraising, finance, IT and strategic programs teams Define your timeline: Our campaign ran for a week from Aug. 12 through the 16. Since our staff is ramping up for our busiest season, a short campaign works best for our needs. Plan volunteer events: We kicked off our campaign with a volunteer project at Webb Middle School! Have fun with activities that fit your culture: At the start of campaign, each employee was greeted with a hand-written note welcoming them and half-way through, we held a UWATX Spirit Day where employees wore UWATX colors to show off their spirit. Engage different teams in the way that works for them: Our Employee Campaign team coordinate a rally or meeting for each department, including five for our Navigation Center staff who have less flexibility because they stay on the phones all day connecting callers to community resources. We also incorporated both an electronic and paper pledge system to accommodate more ways to give. Consider your wrap up: On Friday, gift cards, […]
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