United Way for Greater Austin, in partnership with the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Dept. and Veterans Service, Central Health and Greenlights, has been elected as part of a national competition to assess the feasibility of implementing a “Pay for Success” initiative. The goal of the initiative is to reduce teen pregnancies among Hispanic youth and to improve birth outcomes among African Americans. Pay for Success (PFS) is an innovative funding model that enables communities to access greater resources in order to tackle complex social problems by tapping private investments for the upfront costs of the programs. If the programs are successful in delivering services that measurably improve the lives of people it is meant to serve, then the government repays those who made the original investment. This ensures that taxpayer dollars are being spent only on social programs that actually deliver measurable results. Austin/Travis County was chosen among six other U.S. cities who submitted applications to Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc., the organization conducting the contest. Awardees will receive federally-funded technical assistance throughout 2015 for their various early childhood and youth development projects. The Austin/Travis County nonprofits and government entities involved were selected for their demonstrated commitment to funding high-quality, effective social interventions that produce real outcomes in the area of early childhood and youth development. The Austin/Travis County feasibility study will result in an assessment of two initiatives—Maternal Infant Outreach Program (MIOP) and Peer-to-Peer Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Empowerment Program (P2P)—to determine if Pay for Success should be implemented […]
Read MoreMarch Face 2 Face Recap with P. Terry
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
The Austin Business Journal led-series, Face 2 Face, didn’t disappoint this month. Colin Pope sat down with Patrick Terry, co-founder of our beloved local hamburger stand, P. Terry’s, to talk about his business practices. According to Terry, “The idea of P. Terry’s is very simple because I’m very simple, honestly. The idea of making a milkshake and handing it to someone makes me really happy. “ The philosophy behind that simple idea has grown into more than nine P. Terry’s locations with four more planned in 2015, all in the Austin area. Patrick and his wife, Kathy, are proud of the quality of product they are able to offer for a value price. They charge below three dollars for an all-natural Angus beef hamburger, complete with a specialty bun baked fresh by Mrs. Baird’s. If you add a side of fries, you can dine with confidence, knowing that they use all-natural Idaho potatoes. P. Terry’s also offers a vegetarian-friendly burger and has a vegan burger in the works. When asked if it is a sound financial move to charge so little for premium ingredients, Terry said, “You should work really hard to make good food and people shouldn’t be penalized…If you want a business to sustain through thick and thin they’ve got to love you. Give people a value where they feel good about what they just did.” “If you want a business to sustain through thick and thin, they’ve got to love you. Give people a value where they […]
Read MoreCLS Partners Amplify St. John’s
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
We love when our business partners get creative with their campaigns. CLS Partners organized their spring campaign around “amplifying St. John’s” in order to help us further promote our participating in Amplify Austin. CLS Partners kicked off their second UWATX employee campaign last week during Amplify Austin Day on March 5th. They made a corporate gift of $1,500 during Amplify, and employees spent the latter part of the 24-hour give-a-thon volunteering at Pickle Elementary in the St. John’s neighborhood. Some volunteers worked outside in Pickle Elementary’s numerous gardens, weeding, laying mulch and replanting. Others worked in the library, categorizing and shelving new books and reading to more than 40 children. They also fixed bulletin boards throughout the school and created a healthy eating information area in the cafeteria. CLS Partners accumulated 42 hours of volunteer service on Amplify Austin Day, equaling $982 of value added to the St. John’s community. CEO and President Clint Scott said CLS Partners gives to United Way for Greater Austin because our mission aligns with the company’s core values. “Creating a great work environment and encouraging employee engagement is an integral strategy of our CLS Partners ‘People Philosophy,’” Scott said. “That’s why we choose to partner with United Way to offer our employees the opportunity to give back by giving time and resources. CLS Partners contributed 1.5% of our annual revenue to charity in 2014, and we’re committed to continuing that tradition this year.” Last year, CLS Partners donated nearly $16,000 to UWATX through employee […]
Read MoreAmplify Austin “Power Hour”
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
Amplify Austin is only two days away! What sets this online give-a-thon apart from others is the chance to win incentive prizes from sponsors. Hourly prizes: Awarded to nonprofits that raised the most dollars or had the most donors in a single hour on Amplify Austin Day: $1,000 awarded to nonprofit with the most unique donors every hour during Amplify Austin Day $1,000 awarded to the nonprofit that raises the most dollars every hour during Amplify Austin Day Grand prizes: Awarded to a nonprofit on Amplify Austin Day: $5,000 to nonprofit with most dollars raised in first six hours (6 p.m., March 5 – Midnight, March 6) $5,000 to nonprofit with most donations from unique donors $5,000 to nonprofit with most total dollars raised $5,000 to nonprofit with most individual fundraisers In attempt to maximize UWATX’s chance to win some of these prizes, we are designating 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on March 5 as the Amplify St. John’s Power Hour! Because St. John’s neighborhood is in the 78752 zip code, we felt this was an appropriate time to raise the most money possible during Amplify Austin. Unfortunately, if you are scheduling your donation in advance, you cannot select a specific time you would like your donation to go through. However, if you have a spare 5 minutes on March 5 from 7-8, we highly recommend making your donation during this time–and your donation could be AMPLIFIED! This blog entry is part of our “Amplify St. John’s” series leading up to […]
Read MoreZine Art to Hang in Austin City Hall as Part of The People’s Gallery 2015 Exhibition
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
United Way for Greater Austin is pleased to announce that a portion of the collection from STRUGGLE, The Other Faces of the Texas Economic Miracle will be on display at Austin City Hall as part of The People’s Gallery Exhibition. The exhibition opens on February 27, 2015 and will run until January 7, 2016. The 11th annual People’s Gallery Exhibition features more than 100 artworks from Austin-area artists, galleries, museums, and arts organizations displayed throughout the first three floors of Austin City Hall, a highly-visible venue that hosts more than 200,000 visitors annually. “It is incredibly human to face challenges like living paycheck-to-paycheck, dealing with debt, or facing difficult choices with limited income.” STRUGGLE, The Other Faces of the Texas Economic Miracle, was selected from approximately 1,250 artwork entries from more than 300 applicants. The goal of this project is to show that struggle is not foreign–that it is incredibly human to face challenges like living paycheck to paycheck, dealing with debt, or facing difficult choices with limited income–and that we encounter people facing these challenges head-on in our everyday lives. This collection of custom portraiture was commissioned by UWATX in honor of our 90th anniversary. We worked with local photographer Matthew Rainwaters to capture some of the unexpected faces of poverty in Austin. “I wanted to illustrate the humanity in everyone without objectifying the working poor or holding them up as a spectacle,” Rainwaters said. Our hope is that these powerful portraits will start a dialogue in our community about […]
Read MoreVolunteers Make St. John’s Greater
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
UWATX will focus on the St. John’s neighborhood during this year’s 24-hour session of community-wide giving through Amplify Austin in hopes we can expand our work in this community, as well as our other target neighborhoods including Manor and Dove Springs. Take a look at some of the projects volunteers completed in the St. John’s community within the last year! Webb students who participate in our Volunteer Project Leaders class have been busy improving their own neighborhood. For Valentine’s Day, they created cards and banners to show their appreciation for teachers at their school. VPL students also participated in our annual MLK Day of Service by working with members of the Young Leaders Society to create giant jenga and other games for the Big Game – Super Bowl XLIX watch party. Funds generated from the watch party will go toward the YLS $180K Challenge, raising money for full-time coordinators at Webb, Decker and Mendez Middle Schools. Last December, the neighborhood came together for our Community Tree Lighting held at Webb Middle School. UWATX volunteers gathered more than 1,600 books to give out to kids of all ages who attended the event. Many of the kids walked away with more books than they could carry. Our valued business partners have also been busy making St. John’s greater in the last year. Texas Mutual spent the day at Webb Middle School volunteering as part of the Insurance Challenge. Some volunteers worked to beautify the grounds, while others decorated and put together welcome boxes to inspire students for […]
Read MoreFavor Delivery Is “Amplifying St. John’s!”
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
Local delivery service, Favor, has partnered with United Way for Greater Austin to help us “Amplify St. John’s!” Favor will donate $1 per every order received on March 5 to UWATX for Amplify Austin Day. You do not have to enter a special code or order from a specific restaurant to make your order count for us–ALL orders received on this day will benefit UWATX! Amplify Austin Day is an initiative run by I Live Here I Give Here to inspire Austinites to give back online for 24 hours. It takes place this year from March 5 at 6 p.m. to March 6 at 6 p.m. How does it work? It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3: Download the Favor app on your mobile phone, or visit FavorDelivery.com to download. Order food from any restaurant or store anytime from 8 a.m. on March 5th until the service stops running at 3 a.m. on March 6th. You can see if you are within Favor’s delivery area here. You just made Austin greater by investing in the St. John’s community–now enjoy your delicious meal or goods! This offer applies to more than food–you can think of Favor as your personal assistant! They deliver meals, prescriptions, groceries, dry cleaning, or anything else you may need. If you have additional questions about Favor, check out their Frequently Asked Questions page. Want to support UWATX further during Amplify Austin? Learn more about our Amplify St. John’s campaign or schedule your donation in advance now.
Read MoreWebb Students Lead Their Own Volunteer Project
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
It’s 4 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon, and the halls of Webb Middle School are growing quiet. However, three students aren’t part of the stampede of their peers racing for the exits. They’re in a classroom on the second floor, making phone calls to local business owners to enlist help in putting on a St. Patrick’s Day pancake breakfast for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House. These are the students of United Way for Greater Austin’s Volunteer Project Leaders program, and this isn’t their first rodeo. The kids in the VPL program at Webb have been conducting volunteer projects to help out around their community since the program’s inception four years ago. They’ve organized and led campus cleanups, campaigns to gather thank you notes for school librarians, community needs assessments, and a host of other initiatives designed to encourage their classmates and neighbors to give back to their community in St. John’s. While the idea of middle school students dedicating so much of their free time to philanthropic projects may seem extraordinary to many, it’s a no-brainer to the VPL kids. “What would you do if you just saw someone throwing trash around your neighborhood?” says LaDascious, an 8th grader who’s been a part of the program since he arrived at Webb Middle School. He’s just left a voicemail for a manager at Kerbey Lane Cafe, a frequent UWATX collaborator, asking for pancake mix donations and any helping hands they could provide. Kids in the program get many opportunities to practice this sort of outreach, […]
Read MoreFebruary’s Face 2 Face Recap
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
The Austin Business Journal’s Face 2 Face speaker series creates a space for the exchange of ideas among Austin’s business community in a setting echoing TED Talks. It kicks off with a half-hour of breakfast and networking at 8:30 a.m., followed by a one-hour Q&A session with a featured guest and ABJ editor, Colin Pope. We are honored and delighted to be the 2015 Community Partner of the monthly series, which gives us the opportunity to share our work among the community’s business elite by highlighting various programs and partners each month. February’s speaker was Co-CEO of Whole Foods, Walter Robb, who emphasized culture, quality and marketing as strategic points in the development of the Whole Foods brand. He also discussed the delicate balance of driving rapid growth while still maintaining ties to the community at local and global levels. “Culture belongs on the balance sheet of the company.” – Walter Robb, Co-CEO of Whole Foods Robb shared his insights about building culture among employees and customers in order to ground the work and growth of Whole Foods in shared values that are broadly inclusive and clearly communicated. “Culture belongs on the balance sheet of the company,” Robb said. We agree–recent statistics show that more than half of millennials (the fastest growing group of employees) said a company’s involvement in philanthropic causes influenced whether or not they accepted a job in the past. We have seen firsthand the positive impact a philanthropic component can have on a company; just ask any of our generous business partners! The idea of […]
Read More2-1-1 Call Data Shows Community Needs and Trends for Greater Austin
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
Happy February 11th, or as we like to say at United Way for Greater Austin, “Happy 2-1-1 Day!” Each year, 2-1-1 resource centers around the country celebrate this day and aim to raise awareness about the importance of the service. Since 1996, our Navigation Center has served the Greater Austin community as an access point for health and human services referrals. We are able to quickly and privately connect those in need of assistance to nonprofit and government resources, as well as track the needs and trends of the community as a whole with each call. The UWATX Navigation Center celebrates 2-1-1 Day by releasing an annual “Community Needs and Trends Report,” a compilation of data reflecting the scope of needs within our community throughout the year. View the complete report for 2014 here. The most recent data showcases the suburbanization of poverty in our region. While 2-1-1 call volume stabilized in Central and East Austin, we saw a significant increase in call volume from outlying areas, including Pflugerville, Manor, San Marcos and portions of Bastrop County. We aren’t the only ones noticing this trend. According to the Brookings Institute, “There has been a 143% increase in suburban poverty in the Austin metro area over the last decade.” Of the 327,935 calls answered in 2014, 79% of callers were female. We know that single parent-headed households are more likely to live in poverty than dual income households. The majority of callers were between 20 to 50-years-old, indicating that it is the working […]
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