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If you thought our program Hands On Central Texas has been outstanding in its community engagement efforts over the past two years, wait until you see what it can do with a three-year grant from Hands On Network and The Corporation for National and Community Service. The three-year grant, valued at $82,497 per year, for a total of $247,491, was awarded after a comprehensive review process, is going to make it possible for Hands On to work some real magic in our community. Mando tells us that “this award will allow us to increase the momentum around creating real community engagement and change. We will be able to continue to innovate, educate, inspire and engage more people. Develop more volunteer leaders from within different communities and provide real solutions that ultimately help more Central Texans have the opportunity to succeed in life.” In 2009, get ready for more of the projects and programs you know and love, and then some! Check back at the Hands On site often for: Days of Service – large volunteer impact days Volunteer Project Leader Training – equipping volunteers to organize and lead neighborhood projects Hands On Innovation Workshops – workshops and classes about new trends and techniques that accelerate social change Skills-based Volunteer Program – match volunteers to opportunities based on specific skills & interests Live United Film Series – increase awareness and understanding of social issues via film (documentaries) followed by community discussion Natural Leaders – environmentally focused education and volunteer project skill […]

On this rainy Tuesday morning hundreds of child advocates, as well as nearly 600 pre-school children, descended upon the Texas State Capitol to encourage lawmakers to support early childhood education by expanding Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) programs for the youngest and most vulnerable Texans. Pre-K, a state-funded program for four-year-olds, provides free education and free or reduced lunch to those children who live in poverty, who are in the foster care system, who are English-language learners, and whose parents serve in the military. Research shows that children who attend Pre-K programs exhibit the developmental and educational benefits of the program throughout adolescence. During the 81st Legislative Session, advocates will be pushing for the passage of Senate Bill 21 and House Bill 130 which will give school districts the option of expanding their Pre-K programs to a full day, reduce class sizes by increasing the number of classes, and will require that school districts form partnerships with Head Start programs and/or community child care centers to deliver quality Pre-K programs. TECEC (Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition), the organizer of Pre-K Lobby Day, has worked tirelessly to gain bi-partisan support for this legislation. Before visiting the Capitol, the Women’s Giving Network/Women’s Leadership Society members attended a networking reception at the Austin Club hosted by the United Ways of Texas and members of United Way of San Antonio/Bexar County. In addition to being briefed on the issue of Pre-K and tips on meeting with legislative representatives, several guests including Speaker of the House Representative Strauss, […]

We know that many of you are unable to attend Pre-K Day at the Capitol this morning. However, we want to give you an opportunity to participate from a distance, and make an impact. The following is a link that the Texas Early Childhood Education Coalition (TECEC) sent out to its members today, asking them to contact their state representatives. By clicking on “Email your legislators and ask them to participate in Pre-K Day” you will be sent directly to TECEC’s website where you can send a pre-written letter to your representatives. This takes only a few minutes and can make a huge impact! Email your legislators and ask them to participate in Pre-K Day

On February 11, 2-1-1 Central Texas will be celebrating National 2-1-1 Day, and their seventh year of serving the community. 2-1-1 Central Texas have taken more than 840,000 calls since 2002, and with the worsening economy, now answer on average 16,000/month. In 2008, in partnership with the Health and Human Services Commission, 2-1-1 Texas, United Way Capital Area handled more than 190,000 calls. Reflecting a national economic crisis, 2-1-1 UWCA responded to a: 19% increase in demand for basic needs from 2007, most significantly for: emergency food – 34% utility bill assistance – 19% housing payment assistance – 14% Click here to learn more about the work 2-1-1 Texas does, including its disaster response role during Hurricane Ike.

The Central Texas FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournament was held in Leander on Saturday, January 10th. A national nonprofit, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) pairs adult mentors such as National Instruments engineers with teams of students as they participate in an international robotics competition. Students, ages 9-14 are given a themed challenge and have 10 weeks to work as a team to research and develop an engineering solution, all while demonstrating core values such as teamwork, friendly sportsmanship, what is discovered is more important than winning, having fun, and “gracious professionalism”.Listen, as Ray Almgren, National Instruments’ Vice President of Marketing and Academic Relations, explains FIRST LEGO League goals and benefits. The tournament and the entire 2008-2009 Central Texas FLL Season are made possible through generous support of fellow United Way corporate partners, National Instruments, and Silicon Labs. National Instruments, by supporting employees taking work time to mentor students through FLL, is making a strategic impact on the educational success of Central Texas students. Research indicates that students who receive consistent, personal guidance from an adult mentor are significantly more likely to finish school, improve grades, and have more positive relationships. This is a key reason why United Way has evolved its work to focus on middle school students and launch its “Youth Education” initiative. With efforts targeted at middle school, where it is critical to ensure that all students are prepared for the transition to high school, United Way is making a long lasting impact at […]

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. The following Q&A we had with her, one that we think you’ll find interesting and provocative, appears in our upcoming e-newsletter, Community Matters. To subscribe to our e-newsletter, click here. 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 […]

Thanks to College Forward for sharing with us their photos from their 2009 MLK Day of Service project, the Copperfield Nature Trails cleanup. You can click here to check out the slideshow of their project. They write: Thanks to the United Way for sponsoring Saturday’s MLK Day of Service! We had great success here at Copperfield Nature Trails. With all the College Forward volunteer help, we planted trees, extended trails, and moved a ton of trash out of the greenbelt.

Let the City of Austin know how you think an estimated $69 million in federal housing and community development funds should be spent over the next five years. The City of Austin is seeking input on its Five Year Consolidated Plan for FY 2009-2014. Share your input at public hearings and through an on-line survey. Visit the City’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development website for more information.

State Representative Dawnna Dukes, one of the speakers at our 2009 MLK Day of Service kickoff event, talks about the history of the annual MLK Boulevard Cleanup, and why it was started. This is the 10th anniversary year of the annual cleanup. Representative Dukes also shares with us her thoughts on why community service is so important, and what this historic week means to her.

A big thank you to Dr. Leonard Moore, Vice-President, UT Diversity & Community Engagement, for his keynote address: “The Dream Realized”, at our 2009 MLK Day of Service, and for this inspiring interview about what giving back means to him.