According to the Greeting Card Association, 190 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year. Due in part to United Way for Greater Austin’s first family-friendly Valentine’s Day volunteer event, community members will contribute nearly 1,000 cards to spread love to those giving back in the greater Austin community. On Saturday, February 7th, 25 volunteers created handmade Valentine’s Day cards to acknowledge the teachers and support staff who work every day in our target neighborhoods: Dove Springs, St. John’s and Manor. Volunteers wrote inspiring notes for preschool and middle school teachers, and thanked the businesses who run UWATX employee campaigns. Without the dedicated teachers, principals and staff who support Success By 6 and Target Graduation, programs aimed at improving school readiness and graduation rates, our work would not be possible. [youtube id=pNu16XsTm4Q] UWATX is investing in the future of greater Austin. In addition to the community volunteer event, our middle school Volunteer Project Leaders also created cards. These Volunteer Project Leaders are part of an afterschool program at Mendez, Webb and Decker Middle Schools that train middle school students to identify community needs and coordinate volunteer projects. More than 35 middle school students contributed to the massive Valentine’s Day card project by writing notes to their teachers and making appreciation banners to hang in the schools. Valentine’s Day is a day to recognize and appreciate all of the people in your life. We hope this volunteer project inspires you to tell those around you that you love them–whether it is […]
Read MoreAmplify St. John’s 2015
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
2015 marks the third year of Amplify Austin Day–a 24-hour virtual giving movement led by I Live Here, I Give Here. This year, United Way for Greater Austin is utilizing this day of awareness–and the weeks leading up to it–to highlight a community we care deeply about: St. John’s neighborhood in northeast Austin. We need your help to #AmplifyStJohns from March 5th at 6 p.m. to March 6th at 6 p.m. St. John’s is host to Webb Middle School in which a whopping 97% of students are economically disadvantaged. We invest $309,000 annually in Webb in order to better the lives of these students and their families through mentoring, tutoring, summer programs and case management, along with other services through our Target Graduation program. Last year, we provided these services to 76% of the students at Webb. Webb Middle School students are only a small portion of the economically disadvantaged youth in St. John’s. In fact, 60% of all children in the St. John’s neighborhood live in poverty. This percentage has an even greater impact when compared to the number of Austinites in general living in poverty: 38%. St. John’s residents of every age group are more likely to be living in poverty or to be low-income than overall City of Austin residents. The St. John’s community lacks many of the tools they need in order to help themselves. More than half of the residents in this neighborhood are Hispanic, and 48% of residences are headed up by a single parent. Many residents […]
Read MoreTapestry Foundation grant will expand Play To Learn
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
In 2011, United Way for Greater Austin launched the Play To Learn program, made possible through a Tapestry Foundation grant. As a result of the grant, thirty parents received UWATX’s unique eight-week course providing free education for underserved parents and their 2- and 3-year-old children. Since then, more than 400 families have benefitted from the Play To Learn program. We are pleased to announce that in 2015, the Tapestry Foundation will help this program expand even further with an additional $75,000 grant given to UWATX. The Tapestry Foundation is a private family foundation that awards grants to Austin organizations providing programs around early childhood and parenting education, as well as literacy-based and social-emotional learning programs. Thanks to initial grants from the Tapestry Foundation, UWATX was able to gain additional funders in support of the project, including Samsung, Famigo, Applied Materials, Daniels Fund and some very generous private donors, as well as additional partners. From 2000 to 2010, Austin experienced a 71% increase in the number of low-income children under the age of 6. Children living in poverty face risks other children may not, and are less likely to enter school socially, emotionally and cognitively ready. The Play To Learn program works by intervening before a child enters kindergarten, rather than children entering school unprepared and having to be caught up, wasting school districts’ time and money in additional resources. Additionally, the child now has a better chance of graduating high school and college, and securing a job with a livable wage. […]
Read MoreUT Austin Students Win $100,000 to Build and Launch 2-1-1 App
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
Need help finding access to temporary housing, food banks or health services? You can always call 2-1-1 at anytime–but soon there will also be an app for that. A team of University of Texas at Austin students spent last fall developing a smartphone app called “CallScout,” designed to help Austin residents have easier access to social services information. VP of UWATX’s 2-1-1 Navigation Center, Kay Garza, said this app is an important step to bringing information to more low-income individuals because they are more likely to have phone internet access than home internet access. The project took these 12 students to New York in January, where they competed against student teams from other schools, such as Stanford and UC Berkeley, for the grand $100,000 Watson University Competition prize—and won! The app uses Watson technology developed by IBM. Watson is a supercomputer that can quickly sift through large amounts of information to answer complex questions, keeping “in mind” natural speech nuances. CallScout allows users to ask Watson a complete question, i.e. “Where can I find food for my family?” The app will then list nearest food pantries based on the user’s location, along with contact information, hours of service and user reviews. It also allows users to create their own review of the service received, so others using the app may see useful information when choosing a service to best fit their needs. The UT Austin students created a video showing exactly how the CallScout app will function. The Navigation Center […]
Read MoreDr. Leah Newkirk Meunier on “Leaning In”
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
We are pleased to feature our very own Leah Newkirk Meunier, Ph.D. in an upcoming Lean In Panel, a sold-out UWATX signature event sponsored by St. David’s HealthCare. The panel is based on the concepts laid out by Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, in her groundbreaking book, Lean In, which discusses how embracing a career and a healthy family life are applicable to both women and men. In the book, Sandberg argues that 21st Century challenges are going to be best tackled by people who can stay at the top of their games professionally while not sacrificing their ability to be great parents and spouses. This panel will offer valuable thoughts on how to “lean in”—thoughts that are important for people of all ages and at all stages of life. When asked about her take on Lean In, Leah offered insight about those who have inspired her to achieve great success in her personal and professional life. “When I think about the women who paved the way for me to achieve all that I have, my husband’s 95-year-old great aunt, Honey, comes to mind. She was leaning in before it even had a name. As a Chinese-American immigrant and a woman who was not permitted to attend college or learn to drive a car, she had very little opportunity presented to her, but singlehandedly ran not one, but two businesses!” Dr. Meunier is the head of our Women’s Leadership Council and director of the Early Childhood Business Alliance and […]
Read MorePoverty Awareness Month
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
January is Poverty Awareness Month, and we have chosen to once again highlight one of the communities we serve—Dove Springs in southeast Austin. For the most part, the Dove Springs neighborhood has not changed significantly when you look at demographics data over the past three years with one key exception: poverty. According to the most recent data, one in five adults in Dove Springs live in poverty, while more than a third of children in this community also live in poverty. This means about 12,000 in Dove Springs alone are living in poverty. And, unfortunately, these numbers are only increasing each year. 20% of adults in Dove Springs live in poverty 36% of children in Dove Springs live in poverty 10% of seniors in Dove Springs live in poverty From 2011 to 2013, the Dove Springs population grew by 7%, but the number of residents in this community living in poverty grew by 15%. According to PovertyUSA, the number of Americans living in poverty today is higher now than in the last 50 years. As Austin continues to become more unaffordable, even for those living above the poverty level, the urgency of intervention and change becomes more crucial. The first step toward breaking the poverty cycle is promoting the understanding of poverty and its root causes. PovertyUSA produced an informative and interesting video that showcases how families living in poverty in the U.S. spend their money, and how easy it is to quickly fall behind while debt continues to […]
Read MoreYLS In 2014: Time For Reflection and Growth
Posted on by Jeremiah Bentley
2014 was a successful year for the Young Leaders Society (YLS), and we hope that it was rewarding for you both personally and professionally. While reflecting on the success of this year, we also have the opportunity to look forward into 2015 and explore what’s in store for the YLS in the new year. As you’ve most likely heard, YLS has an ambitious goal of raising $180,000 this campaign year to fund full-time social workers on each of the three campuses where we work. This approach will allow us to serve even more students in a meaningful way and keep them on the path to graduation. We would love you to be a part of our fundraising campaign to make a difference in the lives of some of our neediest middle schoolers. You can do that by giving directly to United Way or through our YLS peer-to-peer fundraising taking place in February. Keep an eye out for more details on our big online give-a-thon coming in a few weeks. There are a couple of exciting things we have in store to help us get going on our $180K goal. The 2nd annual “State of the YLS” meeting is coming up on January 6 at Speakeasy. You’ll hear speakers from the YLS Committee and staff from the middle school campuses we support. You can expect to hear what we’re all about (“it’s for the kids!”) and how you can get involved in the coming months. This event is for both current members and those interested in […]
Read MoreHelping Families is the Greatest Gift
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
We are continuously humbled by the generosity and philanthropy that our Greater Austin community demonstrates throughout the year, especially during the holiday season. You may know the Maldonados, Salazars and Wynns from our blog and campaign materials. These families graciously allow us to tell their stories to personalize the issues surrounding affordability in Austin that many of our neighbors are struggling with. Thanks to the thoughtful efforts of companies that run United Way for Greater Austin Employee Giving Campaigns, our three UWATX feature families received a sleigh-full of goodies to trim their trees, which were donated by Target. Generous companies including Atlassian and Freescale purchased and wrapped gifts for members of each family, which included age-appropriate toys, household items and clothing. One anonymous donor even provided a $300 gift card to a local grocery store for each family. Donors provided gifts for the families that can go under the tree, and some that will continue to occur long after the lights and ornaments are packed away. Gatti’s Pizza has pledged monthly pizza and sides to each family for an entire year. Many working-poor families in the Greater Austin area are struggling just to make ends meet. The pressure of the holidays creates an even more complex situation for members of our community who have very little to spare. According to the most recent census data, poverty and low-income rates have steadily increased for children under 6 years of age in the Manor area where the Maldonados live. The number of renters is also […]
Read MoreHow to Choose Toys for Young Children This Holiday Season
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
With the holidays just around the corner, we asked Success By 6 Family Services Coordinator, Laura Olson, to share ideas and information about selecting safe and appropriate toys for young children, as informed by the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children). Let’s start with “safety first,” as they say! Safe toys for young children are: well-made (with no shared parts or splinters, and do not pinch) painted with nontoxic, lead-free paint shatter-proof easily cleaned Electric toys should be “UL Approved.” Be sure to check the label, which should indicate that the toy has been approved by Underwriters Laboratories. In addition, when choosing toys for children under age 3, make sure there are no small parts or pieces that could become lodged in a child’s throat and cause choking or suffocation. It is important to remember that typical wear and tear can result in a once-safe toy becoming hazardous. Adults should check toys frequently to make sure they are in good shape. Good Toys and Activities for Young Children In addition to being safe, toys for young children need to match their stages of development and emerging abilities. Toys that encourage interaction with an adult can be beneficial to both parent and child. Children not only benefit from ample independent play, but also from meaningful one-on-one attention and play with a loving adult. Books, cooking supplies, art activities and items used for nature play can be especially supportive of relationship-based learning and play. A limit to electronic or media-themed toys […]
Read MoreUWATX Presents at TX Statewide Early Learning Summit
Posted on by Ricky Deakyne
Last week, the cities of Fort Worth and Austin co-hosted a summit on early learning. This summit was the culmination of the National League of Cities’ Education Alignment for Young Children initiative. Austin and Fort Worth are among six cities nationwide that received this technical assistance grant to help with educational alignment for young children. The summit focused specifically on Texas, and dozens of early education experts spent the day learning about efforts in six communities- Austin, Forth Worth, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio. “It was a very interesting and informative day that allowed us to reflect on our community’s efforts, share successes and lessons learned, and gain insight in how other communities are tackling the same challenges and issues.” –Dr. Alison Bentley, Success By 6 Coordinator Austin’s representatives included UWATX president, Debbie Bresette; SB6 coordinator, Dr. Alison Bentley; Travis County planner, Tara Carmean; E3’s Director of School Readiness, Laura Koenig; and Dr. Rosamaria Murillo and Cynthia Gamez from the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department. Members from each city were able to share their work, exchange ideas and become part of a peer learning network on early childhood educational alignment. Groups were asked to present about best practices in their community including what has worked well in the past and what challenges they encountered. Dr. Bentley, in collaboration with Tara Carmean, presented on the School Readiness Action Plan of Austin/Travis County (SRAP)–-our community plan to ensure that school readiness becomes and remains a top priority. Specifically, their presentation […]
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