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One of the ways we’ve changed how we work is to participate in more collaborations. A great example of this is with the new Austin based I Live Here I Give Here campaign. United Way Capital Area was one of the first partners to support this new initiative, and David Balch, CPO of UWCA, continues to play an active role on the steering committee. Read all about the campaign launch here and view the launch pictures online

Mando with some of the Public Innovator applicants. Rich Harwood speaks about bringing people together to address our community’s most critical issues. Application deadline for The Public Innovators Lab has been extendedIn case you missed it, the deadline for submitting applications has been extended to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 19. Applicants also have the option to submit a copy of their resume (no longer than 2 pages). You can complete the form online, and hit the “Submit” button at the end of the form upon completion.

This morning’s Statesman has a great editorial covering this week’s summit for community engagement, the Harwood Engagement Summit. Click here to read the full editorial if you haven’t read it yet. People don’t know one another and tend to live and work in pockets. Communities can make bigger changes by working together on common issues. When the public and private sectors worked together on assisting Central Texas families with their tax returns last year, the effort brought families $17 million in earned income tax credits, up from $3 million three years ago, Balch said. Now imagine the changes that 100,000 Central Texans can make in their communities by mentoring youngsters, building affordable housing and working with schools. That kind of engagement in our community takes us back to the public square.

So I have a theory about this community engagement work we’re doing. It’s about options for everyone and finding ways to connect to that one thing that makes it worthwhile for you to become involved in our community. Sure we want people to volunteer but if we can engage you in other ways, I’m all about that. In fact, we have a very broad definition of community engagement; it’s about sparking interests, learning, connecting and doing hands on community work to ultimately, strengthen Central Texas. Take our Day of Caring event a few weeks ago. It was amazing and I was blown away by the number of people that came out to do real meaningful work that day. We had over 1,000 people doing, connecting & learning and I, for one, can see how much we impact the community when we come together. I think you should feel the good karma coming your way pretty soon! 😉 But you don’t have to take my word for it, check out the volunteers in action! As I mentioned before, we love giving you options and here’s some more… Become a Public Innovator (free scholarships available!) Learn to lead projects with Volunteer Project Leader Certification Help our nonprofit partners and join our Community Investment Review Team Join us for the Cesar E. Chavez Statue Unveiling Ceremony at UT. Thanks for staying involved! Mando Director, Hands On Central Texas Be the Change. Volunteer!

KUT ran a report on today’s Harwood Engagement Summit. If you missed it, click here to listen to the audio clip. The Summit is bringing together 500 public innovators, thought leaders, and potential volunteers from various segments of the Central Texas. From KUT.org: Disparities in education, income, health, and other social issues are challenges facing large cities including Austin. St. Davids Community Health Foundation and the United Way Capital Area are partnering with local non profits and kicking off a campaign to try and lessen social disparities. Read the press release here.

A special “thank you” to Texas Gas for hosting a golf tournament to benefit UWCA on August 31st. Pictures of the event have recently been posted. Click here to view the entire gallery.

One of our 3 Focus Areas moving forward is Financial Stability. We feel, in order to close the “opportunity gap” that exists here in Central Texas, that it’s vital to help provide those paths to financial stability for all our community, in order for all to prosper. Unfortunately, a new report shows there is much work to be done here. In fact currently Texas gets an F for financial security. The national Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) recently released the 2007-2008 Assets and Opportunity Scorecard, which shows that Texas was just one of five states that earned an “F” based on poor performance in the following areas: Financial Security, Business Development, Homeownership, Health Care, and Education. To learn more, check about the following links — CPPP report – written by Don Baylor, a member of our Financial Stability Leadership Council http://www.cppp.org/files/2/scorecard.pdf Austin Business Journal article: http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2007/09/10/daily31.html?b=1189656000%5e1519878&surround=etfCFED website: http://www.cfed.org/focus.m?parentid=31&siteid=2471&id=2472 Our plans for Financial Stabilityhttps://www.unitedwayaustin.org/communityimpact/financial_stability/index.cfm

Day of Caring – Vignette Volunteers From all of us here at United Way and Hands on Central Texas we thank you. Thank you for caring, thank you for staying involved in your community and thank you for volunteering today!