Since H-E-B was founded in 1905, the company has always make people a priority; people and the community matter to them. That commitment was evident once again at the 2013 United Way store coordinators thank you lunch on October 23, 2013. Held at the Mueller – Austin 30 store, representatives from across Central Texas gathered to celebrate another record-breaking campaign year. Partners raised more than $1.17 million for people in need across Central Texas. In Williamson County, 1,829 partners pledged almost $308,000 for education, income, health and basic needs programs across the area. The impact of these contributions will allow thousands of families and individuals to access help when they need it the most. THANK YOU to each of our store coordinators and every H-E-B partner for investing in Williamson County!
Read MoreAfter-school programs make a difference for students like Lillie
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
Middle school is a tipping point for many students – and while what happens during the school day is critical, students spend more than 76 percent of their AWAKE time outside of school. That’s why we invest in quality out-of-school-time programs through Target Graduation, but the importance of these programs can sometimes be pretty abstract. Until you meet people like Lillie – a seventh-grade straight-A student at Mendez Middle School. She’s lived in Dove Springs for ten years and last year, she became involved with Junior Staff, a program from the Boys and Girls Club that students apply to participate in. Through Junior Staff, Lillie learns job skills by taking a leadership role in the program and learns how to run effective after-school programs for other students. “I believe Lillie believes in us as much as we believe in her and I think she will continue to flourish and grow as a vital part of our program.” Steven Zuniga, Extension Director of the Boys and Girls Club at Mendez Middle School Here’s what Lillie has to say about the program: Why did you start participating in the program? I started in sixth grade because because the people were really nice and my dad thought it would be good for me. The first time I went I had a lot of fun so I kept coming every week. What is your favorite part of the program? My favorite day is the day they celebrated my birthday. They wrote it […]
Read More[VIDEO] “Working together, we have more impact”
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
![[VIDEO] “Working together, we have more impact”](https://www.unitedwayaustin.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DigImages_Q2_2014-02-1.png)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn8PdKiy2Ac[/youtube] Bobby Jenkins, President and Owner of ABC Home & Commercial, has been advocating for UWATX for the past year and a half as co-chair of our Employee Giving Campaign. In his own words, it’s been an inspiring experience: I’ve learned a lot – some of the things that resonate with me is a lot of what happens locally with United Way. That’s something that, as United Way has evolved and changed, that local component is near and dear to my heart. And the ability for United Way to bridge multiple agencies is one of the things I think is unique – there’s a lot of agencies doing a lot of great things, United Way is the common denominator that can help unite them – working together, we can have a lot more impact than individually.
Read More2013 Campaign Awards
Posted on by Lindsey Tyner
Congratulations to the 2013 Campaign Award winners! You inspire us to do more for Williamson County. Thank you! Partner of the Year – Mel’s Lone Star Lanes and CJ’s Catering Large Campaign of the Year Award (1,000+ employees) – State Farm Insurance Mid-size Campaign of the Year Award (100-999 employees) – TDIndustries Small Campaign of the Year Award (less than 100 employees) – Oncor Volunteer Partner of the Year – Southwestern University Campaign Coordinator of the Year (tie) – Sandy Kotara, Atmos Energy and the campaign team at Texas Guaranteed Student Loans Community Builder Awards for top three companies who increased giving by the greatest dollar amount – H-E-B, State Farm Insurance and TD Industries Outstanding Employee Campaign Awards were also presented to H-E-B – Round Rock #3 and H-E-B in Cedar Park (Parmer/1431), Target Stores in Georgetown and Cedar Park and State Farm Insurance Improving the lives of Williamson County families now and for future generations is the focus for many local businesses that invest time and resources in the work of United Way of Williamson County through their annual workplace campaign. At an annual awards celebration held at Mel’s Lone Star Lanes on May 10, 2013 more than 20 local businesses were recognized for their commitment to investing locally in education, income, health and basic needs programs that help Williamson County residents improve their lives. In the past year, United Way of Williamson County (UWWC) Campaign Partners have invested more than $500,000 in grants and an additional $70,000 […]
Read MoreThree years at once: the Employee Campaign story
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
We work with 400+ companies locally to run Employee Giving Campaigns – giving their employees the opportunity to invest a portion of every paycheck in our community. But with different schedules, fiscal years and payroll cycles for each company, it can get pretty complicated, which means our team stays on top of three years at a time. We support these kooky schedules because we believe any one who makes a paycheck in our community should have the opportunity to give back, so we’ve developed processes to adapt to any company’s needs. Here’s how: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eke0sl9dr9k[/youtube] Every step of the process is completely flexible depending on the company’s needs, but here are a couple of common examples: Example 1: Company A wants to run their campaign in July. They prefer paper pledge forms because their employees are not often in front of a computer and, because they have branches across the state, want to enter their giving information themselves. After that process, they’ll their giving to our team by the end of November, but payroll deductions won’t begin until January, meaning their monthly payments to UWATX start in the new calendar year. Example 2: Company B wants to run a short one-week campaign in November. Because of the busy holiday season, they anticipate they’ll report their giving by the end of January. They will then begin payouts on a quarterly basis with the start of their fiscal year in April. While their campaign runs in November, we won’t see these gifts until […]
Read MoreHonoring LBJ’s legacy: Building a better future for American children
Posted on by Leah Meunier
More than 40 years ago, President Lyndon Baines Johnson passed away. The Texas native set the stage for many of our country’s most critical services for those in need, including the Head Start program. His philosophy of providing support services to help American families thrive is an inspiration for our overall work helping the working poor in our community, and particularly the Success By 6 program. In his 1964 State of the Union address, President Johnson declared a War on Poverty – a war we would fight through education and opportunity – and from that speech, the legacy of Head Start was born. The program was based on emerging research that you could break the cycle of poverty by providing a high-quality education to the youngest and most vulnerable among us: preschool-age children. The Head Start model that LBJ championed ensured that the emotional, social, nutritional and psychological needs of children would be met, knowing that it’s not just ABC’s and 123’s that children need to be ready for school, work and life. This is the same philosophy that inspires our work in early childhood. Today, research continues to affirm the value of the Head Start program. Longitudinal research shows that, to predict long-term success, it is not enough to look at what children know – – like how many capital letters they can recognize – but to include executive function and self-regulation – the ability to pay attention, exercise self-control, communicate, use what you know, and take on new challenges. In the […]
Read MoreHands On Central Texas gets a makeover!
Posted on by Lauren Bradshaw
We strongly believe that donating your time is a valuable gift to our community – which is why we run Austin’s largest volunteer network. This week, we updated the Hands On Central Texas site to make it easier for volunteers to find what they’re looking for. Here’s what changed: New homepage We’ve updated the homepage with a more intuitive slideshow so you can easily browse the top events we have going on. We’ve also added a stream of photos from projects and created project categories. Project categories We’ve heard from you that the search function on the site is tricky – it doesn’t always pull the opportunities you’re really looking for. So we decided to take the guess work out of connecting to volunteering by making it easier to access opportunities in the areas we see most often. The categories – which are accessible from the home page and the new By Categories page – include opportunities related to our UWATX Strategic Programs (Success By 6, Target Graduation and Financial Opportunity) and those that offer team building, are family friendly or fit a seasonal need, like tax prep or holiday volunteering. Our goal is to connect you to meaningful volunteering – so let us know if you’re not seeing what you want to see. Easy-to-find calendar We often direct volunteers to our calendar to find the right opportunities for them – so we’ve made the calendar accessible from every page on the site. Now, you can easily see a calendar […]
Read More[VIDEO] Success By 6 – making sure every child is ready to learn
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
![[VIDEO] Success By 6 – making sure every child is ready to learn](https://www.unitedwayaustin.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DigImages_Fall2013_Pt2-03-1.png)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23fsa-DCZn8[/youtube] In our community, only 50 percent of children start school ready to learn – that number drops to 13 percent in low-income Austin neighborhoods. We are working to change that statistic though Success By 6 – our program to fundamentally change the landscape of care for our youngest and most vulnerable children. Today, 90 percent of children who participate in Success By 6 initiatives are on-track developmentally to be ready for school. Want to learn more? Tell us: [pardot-form id=”6638″ title=”Email marketing – welcome series”]
Read MoreUWATX: What We Do
Posted on by Aviva Pinchas
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPZTdJaMoiY[/youtube] United Way for Greater Austin has been in this community since 1924 – committed to making Austin greater by building philanthropy and running strategic programs. In the presentation above, Debbie Bresette, our president since 2009, breaks down how we do it: To build philanthropy, we run employee campaigns, giving everyone in our community who earns a paycheck the opportunity to give back. We also coordinate volunteer efforts because we believe giving your time is valuable as well, and we work to inspire individual giving because we know we are all richer when we give back. Last year, we raised more than $16M for nonprofit organizations and coordinated nearly 100,000 hours of volunteering. Of that fundraising, donors entrusted $5.1M to our organization – and we put that giving to work for Greater Austin. In our strategic programs, se support young children through Success By 6, middle school students through Target Graduation and families through Financial Opportunity, and we provide an easy way to connect to services and resources through the Navigation Center. But we also know that it takes a village – for children to succeed, they need parent support, for families to thrive, they need quality education for their children. So our programs are structured to create wrap-around services. Our work is coordinated, knowing that supporting one student can be a key first step to improving the trajectory of a whole family. It’s also targeted in areas that have the highest needs, innovative (because we keep an eye on the landscape […]
Read MoreElected officials & local organizations partner to get Central Texans covered
Posted on by Christa Berry
UPDATED 10.31.2013: In the first month, UWATX received more than 650 calls related to the Health Insurance Marketplace. Learn more about the process so far from KEYE. Download the following maps: Hays County Williamson County Travis County In Central Texas and across the country, the Health Insurance Marketplace just launched. We’ve been working to connect individuals to government health programs through the UWATX Navigation Center and today we came together with a wide range of elected officials and health care advocates to urge Central Texans to sign up for coverage. “Today represents a big step – a serious step – toward making health insurance available and affordable to so many Texans who need it,” said Senator Kirk Watson at today’s press conference. Oct. 1 marked the first day of open enrollment for the Marketplace, which allows applicants to easily access, compare and sign up for a variety of health insurance plans in person, online or over the phone. Consumers can access the Marketplace by going to healthcare.gov. In Austin, they can call the UWATX Navigation Center by dialing 2-1-1 to find their nearest Certified Application Counselor. “The Affordable Care Act is law, and about 1.5 million Texans will benefit from the opening of the Health Insurance Marketplace that the Act allows,” Watson said. “But don’t forget, Texas leads the nation in our percentage of uninsured residents. There’s still much, much more we can do to ensure that Texans have the health coverage they need.” More than one in four […]
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