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As a part of Public Service Recognition Week, the Capital Area State Employee Charitable Campaign was recognized on May 7th with HCR 121 honoring their extraordinary success in raising $2.1 million for local, national and international charities during the 2008 campaign. The Capital Area State Employee Charitable Campaign is managed by United Way Capital Area. Despite these challenging economic times, some 8,000 state and higher education employees throughout Bastrop, Bell, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays, Lampasas, Lee, Llano, Mason, San Saba, Travis, and Williamson Counties donated to more than 600 charities statewide during the 2008 campaign. The resolution is authored by Representatives Maldonado and Senator Watson and is co-authored by Representatives Kleinschmidt, Rodriguez, Dukes, Strama, Aycock, Bolton, Gattis, Donna Howard, Naishtat and Rose. The Capital Area Local Employee Committee was in attendance when the resolution was passed. Congratulations Capital Area state and higher education employees for a job well done! For video of the House and Senate readings, click here– http://www.house.state.tx.us/media/chamber/81.htm See session 05/07/09 10:00 a.m.- 11:57 p.m. (on playback clock from 45:20 to 48:00).http://www.senate.state.tx.us/avarchive/ See session May 07 Senate Session (Part II) (on playback clock at 13:25 to 14:46).

Our friends at Austin Interfaith are working hard as advocates this legislative session to get bills passed and signed that will help keep our economy here in Central Texas strong. We’ve written several times about one of our important funded programs, Capital IDEA, which is a proven program to train workers in fields that are in-demand now, and in the future. Programs like Capital IDEA, on average, triple the earnings of low-income adults to $30,718 with benefits and a career path. Job retention rates average 92.8%. More than 9,000 adults have been placed in jobs through these projects throughout the state of Texas. The three bills that would create the “Jobs for Education for Texas” (JET) Fund are: HB1935 (Representative Villarreal), SB1313 (Senator Shapiro) and HB2812 (Representative Swinford). Passage and signing of these bills will fund proven programs like Capital IDEA through a $10 million competitive state grant program, to be administered by the Comptroller’s office. The Network of Texas IAF Organizations will hold a press conference on Tuesday, May 12th at 12:30pm to call on our lawmakers to pass and sign this important legislation. To learn more about the advocacy work of Austin Interfaith, visit their website.

From our friends at TECEC: Your hard work has helped HB 130–full day high-quality pre-k–move forward in the Texas Legislative process. On Saturday, this critical legislation was placed on the General State Calendar, meaning that there is a strong probability that the House will bring it to a floor vote sometime this week. However, the more legislators hear from you on this subject the more likely the bill will come up for a vote quickly. The clock is ticking in the 81st Legislative Session, so pre-k advocates must do all they can to let their Representatives know how important HB 130 is to them. It is now absolutely critical that your Representative in the Texas House hears from you on HB 130 today. Click here to take action now.

United Way and Hands On Central Texas Spring 2009 Day of Caring from unitedwaycapitalarea on Vimeo.

The Summer Food Program is funded through the US Department of Agriculture and run by the Texas Department of Agriculture. During the summer students who normally receive free or reduced lunch are able to go to select sites to attain a free meal. In some cases, a child can receive lunch and breakfast. AISD provides flexible guidelines for who can qualify for the program. In some cases, parents can participate for a small fee, and sometimes younger, non-school-aged children can get a meal as well. AISD operates the Summer Food Program at approximately 50 to 60 locations. To locate the location nearest to your home (as not all sites are relative to where your child attends school), call 2-1-1.

2009 United Way Spring Day of Caring in Review United Way’s Spring Day of Caring on Friday, April 24th was a huge success! It’s wonderful to see corporate and community volunteers “Live United” by advocating, volunteering and giving all in one day! Austin Mayoral Candidates The day started with breakfast tacos, photo ops, background music from Mix 94.7, and messages from the dynamic Mayoral candidates Brewster McCracken, Carole Keeton-Strayhorn and Lee Leffingwell’s campaign managers, who highlighted the tangible contribution that volunteering makes to changing and improving the services that organizations and corporate companies can provide to the Austin community. Carole Keeton-Strayhorn & Debbie Bresette Nordstrom State Farm You made a difference in the community, which included 18 companies and 350 corporate and community volunteers at 21 local nonprofit organizations that tackled meaningful volunteer projects throughout Austin. Your impact at the end of the day was nothing less than impressive. Volunteers put in an estimated dollar value of $36,400 of volunteer hours in the Austin community in one day! Reagan High School- Flextronics Wooten Elementary School- 3M Capital Area Food Bank – Freescale Participating sponsors and donors who also made the 2009 Spring Day of Caring possible: Freecale Coca-cola HEB City of Austin Pro-Graphix Kevin Greenblat – photographer The following companies supported United Way and our community by committing employee time to participate: Amplify Applied Materials Dell Emerson Flextronics Four Season’s Freescale HEB Intel Merchant’s Bonding Navigators Nordstrom Sage State Farm Insurance St. Edwards University Texas Gas TD Industries Team Qwest […]

Mayoral Candidates Brewster McCracken and Carole Keeton Strayhorn, along with Team Leffingwell, were the keynote speakers at our 2009 Spring Day of Caring. A big thank you to them and all of our volunteers who helped clean up graffiti, stock food pantries, beautify child care centers and volunteer at several other locations around Austin. Also, thank you to Mix 94.7 for providing the music and Kevin Greenblat for his professional photography. …also, check out the Day of Caring in the News! Mayoral candidates clarify positions (KXAN) United Way Launches Day of Caring (Fox 7)