![[INFOGRAPHIC] Philanthropy in Austin](https://www.unitedwayaustin.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/AmplifyATX_blog_feat-1.png)
Download a larger version. Learn more about our impact, Play To Learn, Learn Where You Earn or Middle School Matters or get more informed about philanthropy by looking at some of our sources: Chronicle of Philanthropy: philanthropy.com Corporation for National and Community Service: volunteeringinamerica.gov The Daily Beast: thedailybeast.com Global Impact: givingpartner.charity.org UWATX Impact Calculator: uwatx.org/impact Independant Sector: independentsector.org Association of Fundraising Professionals: afpnet.org
Read MoreCelebrate America Saves Week – start saving today
United Way for Greater Austin has been promoting savings for years through our Financial Opportunity program and this week, we are joining the nation to raise awareness for America Saves Week. “Nearly half of all U.S. Households have almost no savings to cover an emergency or save for the future” according to the Corporation for Enterprise Development. In Austin, this translates into more families struggling to weather emergencies like a car breaking down or a child getting sick. Often families turn to payday and auto title lenders for relief, only to be trapped by debt from unreasonably high fees. When the debt becomes too much to handle, the cycle of poverty accelerates. On average eighteen cars are repossessed a week in Austin, which means hard-working employees lose reliable transportation, threatening their jobs and source of income. The simplest way to safeguard against high-cost loans is to save automatically. Setting aside a small amount each week through direct deposit makes saving easy and convenient – start small, and it can add up pretty quickly. February is also the perfect time to start saving by depositing a portion of tax refunds. Through UWATX’s partner, Foundation Communities, Austin brought back more than eleven-million dollars through the Earned Income Tax Credit last year and generated more than $90,000 in savings. Have a friend or family member struggling to save? Find more saving tips at AmericaSaves.org and call 2-1-1 to find a free tax preparer that can help turn refunds into savings. Here are 5 […]
Read MoreSpotlight: Peter Kretzschmar looks “up and out” to make meaningful change
This month, UWATX welcomed long-time volunteer and avid supporter Peter Kretzschmar to our team as Vice President, Strategic Programs. In his new role, he will oversee UWATX’s work in the community, including our Success By 6, Target Graduation, Financial Opportunity and Navigation Center work. Before coming to United Way, what was your background, both professionally and in the community? I was at IBM for nearly 32 years, so I’ve been a tech guy since tech meant microwave ovens and color TVs. I started by working on health programs, mainly environmental health, everything from occupational health and safety to groundwater to air quality and so on, but really my principal roles over the years have been about relationships. I focused on managing relationships between different tech companies, forming alliances, and making sure we were both benefiting. I think that experience plays well with my role at UWATX. I’ve also been involved in the community consistently for many years. I was on the Board at Communities in Schools, which is one of our partners here at UWATX, have been involved with UT on Advisory Councils and as an adjunct faculty, and was involved with our Target Graduation program of course. So you’ve been consistently involved in the community, why did you want to get involved in a new way? I think it has to do with finally deciding “want to do when I grow up.” It was a natural evolution for me – I started my career many years ago and focused […]
Read MoreButter Half sets the scene for Austin’s couples
It’s been almost a year since UWATX joined with Creative Suitcase to paint the Butter Half mural – a large-scale work that reflects our mission to bring people together. Since then, the Butter Half mural has (pardon the pun) spread throughout Greater Austin. It’s been pinned, tweeted and blogged. It’s even made it’s way into a scavenger hunt, an editorial, a cutest couple content , on nail art and onto Austin’s most comprehensive to do list. But more than anything, the mural has been the background for couple photo shoots. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we asked the photographers and subjects of such pictures why the mural spoke to them: Jin + Vincent Ferrer: We love seeing this quirky mural outside our living room window! Truly a visual perk of living on the East Side and, also, a nice daily reminder to keep the wedded bliss fun and unpredictable. Jodi Bart Holzband: My fiance, now husband, found the mural as he was searching the web for murals in Austin. We really love street art and had a handful of other murals picked out as backdrops, but when we saw the ‘You’re My Butter Half’ mural, we were so excited, because we hadn’t seen anyone else use it as a backdrop, and because it seemed pretty appropriate for two food-lovers. Sabrina Consolascio-Garcia of Sabrina{bean}photography: My poor honey was feeling pretty icky that day and he still allowed me to drag him out of the house for a little adventure. I actually read […]
Read MoreFood needs, household expenses dominate needs in Greater Austin
The UWATX Navigation Center has published its annual report of trends in community needs for social services. A few key highlights: The UWATX Navigation Center answered 342,000 calls in 2012 while maintaining a 1 minute wait time and customer satisfaction scores between 96 to 98 percent among different services. Callers for 2-1-1 Texas, a partnership with Texas Health and Human Services Commission, skewed heavily based on gender: 70 percent female to 19 percent male (11 percent did not report their gender). Calls for food pantries increased 55 percent from 2011 to 2012. Food insecurity continues to be a challenge for our community and, perhaps surprisingly, children continue to be among those most affected – one out of four children in Travis County lives in poverty. Household expenses, including electric bill payment (13,879 calls), rent assistance (13,659 calls) and low-income housing (7,574 calls) remained among the top needs. This matches community trends: the percent of Austin households that pay more than 30 percent for housing increased by 3 percent from 2009 to 2010. Just two years into the partnership, the UWATX Navigation Center made 76 percent of all appointments for Central Health, giving Austinites easier access to medical assistance programs. Download the full report or check out our infographic below for more highlights: 2012 Community Needs and Trends Report – Highlights | Infographics
Read MoreFamilies log more than 2.5K minutes, avg. 61 logins per user on education app
UWATX has partnered with Famigo, a local Austin tech startup, to help parents discover quality apps for their children and help young children access educational apps more securely. Already, UWATX’s first cohort of Play To Learn families have logged more than 2,500 minutes since October, with an average of 61 logins per user. Famigo is an app on the Android market that allows children to access a collection of educational games, interactive books and other child-appropriate content hand-selected by their parents. Once inside Famigo, children can’t wander to outside content, including apps not selected by their parents. The service also provides a library of apps rated by their staff so parents can easily find new interactive education experiences for their young children. Only apps rated 3 or higher make it into the library, meaning all of the content is high-quality and safe for families and also has exceptional design and a great interface. Through this partnership, UWATX has loaded Famigo onto each tablet distributed to Play To Learn participants, who receive a Samsung tablet at the end of an 8-week parent-and-child education course. Famigo provides data on how families are using the service and what app are most popular. “Famigo works really well with our Play To Learn project because we are already integrating Samsung tablets so families can extend their education beyond our 8-week in-person course,” said Kaley Horton, UWATX Project Coordinator for Success By 6. “This app allows us to get deeper insights into how parents are engaging […]
Read MorePartner Profile: AVANCE
Name: AVANCE Partner for: 6 years Partner for: Success By 6 Our relationship: Expanding services that work UWATX funding supports AVANCE’s dual generation program – a holistic program for low-income, primarily Latino families with a focus on enhancing parenting skills, promoting long-term success for children, and family support. Over the years, our funding has more than doubled and UWATX has leveraged other grants to increase our support for this effective and successful program. Thanks to these efforts, AVANCE has been able to expand services in the Dove Springs and St. John’s neighborhoods and begin helping families in Manor as well. Sharing best practices and improving care AVANCE takes advantage of UWATX’s Family Support Network – a group that encompasses every agency that serves families with young children outside of formal child care in Greater Austin. UWATX brings providers together to coordinate services and share information, provide professional development and aggregate data. Thanks to this coalition, families in Greater Austin receive better care and agencies use resources more efficiently. Advocating for young children Thanks to recent advocacy work from UWATX and our partners, nearly $500K of City funding was restored to services for young children. Sofia Casini, AVANCE’s Executive Director, helped reach out to City staff and the community to give voice to this important issue. As UWATX continues to improve the landscape of care for young children, AVANCE plays a critical role in planning for Austin’s growing Latino population. Together, UWATX and AVANCE continue to work together to educate […]
Read MorePoverty continues to climb for Austin children
January is Poverty Awareness Month – a month dedicated to learning more about poverty in our communities, how poverty impacts all of us and what we can do to help. At United Way for Greater Austin (UWATX), preventing poverty is our key goal as we work to help Austinites overcome barriers to opportunity so we can all thrive. In Travis County, more than 192,000 individuals – or nearly one in five – live in poverty. Since 2011, an additional 1,512 children have fallen into poverty so that one in four Travis County children live in poverty, the highest poverty rate of all age groups. Poverty has a lasting impact on children, affecting how the brain develops and often leaving young children with long-term deficits in their academic and emotional growth. Stress caused by poverty can even lead to permanent changes in the structure and function of the brain. Living in poverty in the earliest years (birth to age 2) can even predict high school achievement as well, making children roughly 30% less likely to complete high school. The cycle of poverty begins early and continues to permeate all stages of development, from childhood to adulthood. Starting behind early in life is a key indicators that a child is unlikely to transcend poverty. Nearly half of all children that are born into poverty will continue to be poor as adults. Nearly half of all children that are born into poverty will continue to be poor as adults. But it doesn’t stop there: graduating high […]
Read MoreGrowing challenges for family budgets
This week, Frances Deviney, Ph.D., Texas KIDS COUNT Director at CPPP, presented to the UWATX Women’s Leadership Council about the growing budget challenges facing Austinites and what they could do to get involved. Here are some highlights: Nationally, a family of three is considered poor if their total income is less than $18,123 annually. This does not take into account regional differences in cost of living or changing expenses, including rent, health care, child care and transportation. The child poverty rate in Texas (27%) is higher than the overall US rate (23%). The Travis County child poverty rate (24%) has also climbed above the US rate. In Travis County, income has not kept up with inflation. Adjusted for inflation, Central Texans are making $6,000 less on average than in 2000. Many families – including 21% of 2 parent, 2 child households and 61% of single parent, two child households – are not making enough to make ends meet. At UWATX, statistics like this drive our work every day. We are working to provide families with higher quality, more affordable child care options, improve public support for early childhood and provide financial literacy.
Read MoreQ&A: Jennifer Poppe on early childhood education and the WLC
Jennifer Poppe is a partner at Vinson & Elkins and a member of our Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) Executive Committee. In December 2012, her firm gave a $10,000 grant to Success By 6 to support young children. We spoke with her about why early childhood is important to her and why she’s chosen to be involved with UWATX. What inspires you to help young children? Over the last few years, I’ve realized how much early childhood education and development matters. I’ve seen it with people close to me – both children and adults in my family – and have also seen its impact on our community more broadly. In one case, I know someone who started school behind because he moved here when he was young from another country. Because of that difficult beginning – starting just a little behind the curve because of a language barrier – he struggled with confidence in his academic skills and wasn’t sure he could catch up through high school and into college. Those beginning years really lay the foundation for your school career and not starting on the right foot can be a serious challenge. Given this importance, I want to do what I can to help make a difference. What’s your most memorable experience giving back through Success By 6? I attended the Success By 6 Summit last year and learned a lot about how important the program is to our local community. The keynote speaker focused on statistics – that early […]
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