Newsroom

Hurricane Ike: Volunteer, Donate Food and Cash!

Here’s our latest update… VOLUNTEERS2-1-1 Texas needs help this weekend to help Hurricane Ike evacuees.The biggest needs are for tonight, midnight-7am & Saturday, 5-9pm, 9pm-12am & 12am-7am! !Sign up to volunteer now with 211 Texas! The Red Cross also needs help at the shelters. Training and a background check is required. Click here for more information. INKIND DONATIONSThe Capital Area Food Bank is taking emergency donations including bottled water, granola bars, canned meats (pop-top lids), peanut butter & diapers. Click here for more information. CASH DONATIONSClick here to give! Thanks for your help!

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Disaster Volunteers Needed!

We just got the word that 211 Texas and OneStar Foundation’s Donation Management Center need help with volunteers! Enclosed is the information. Please help if you can and/or spread the word! 2-1-1 Texas – Disaster Response Volunteers2-1-1 Texas, a program of United Way Capital Area, provides free statewide, 24-hour access to health and human services and disaster information through its multilingual helpline.2-1-1 Texas needs Disaster Response Volunteers to answer crucial calls. United Way Capital Area is taking a leadership role in ensuring the strength of 2-1-1 Texas. One way we’re doing that is by recruiting Disaster Response Volunteers. Disaster Response Volunteers relay information on shelters and evacuation routes. They direct people who wish to volunteer or donate goods to the agencies that can help them do so. 2-1-1 Texas needs volunteers who are caring, compassionate, creative problem solvers who want to directly help the public while working in a comfortable, professional setting. Bilingual speakers are especially valuable. Volunteers need: 10 Disaster Response – State-wide Donations Call CenterThe OneStar Foundation needs help with volunteers for the State-wide Donations Management Call Center. Volunteers will be serving as call operators taking calls from individuals and businesses interested in making donations in response to Hurricane Ike. There is a mandatory training for this volunteer opportunity scheduled for Thursday, September 11 from 10:00-11:00am at the OneStar Foundation office at 816 Congress Avenue, Suite 900, Austin, TX 78702. Volunteers needed: 100 To sign up for these two opportunities, please go to www.handsoncentraltexas.org. Thanks,Mando Armando RayoDirector, Hands […]

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Fall Day of Caring – LIVE UNITED!

On September 5 we had a busy day here at United Way Capital Area and Hands On Central Texas! We had more than 500 people from organizations across the community volunteering their time to projects for more than 32 agencies. The occasion started with a kickoff event at Alamo Park. The keynote speaker was Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, who got everyone “fired up” about their projects and talked about the huge impact volunteers make on the greater Austin community. Other speakers included David Balch, President and Chief Professional Officer at United Way Capital Area, Mando Rayo, Director of Hands On Central Texas and Jan Monney, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Business Operations at Freescale Semiconductor (photographed above). The LIVE UNITED theme was present among everyone! Give. Advocate. Volunteer. Volunteers showed support by wearing the LIVE UNITED t-shirts. Throughout the day volunteers engaged in activities that ranged from upgrading childcare facilities, playground construction, helping out food banks, creating literacy materials for Austin ISD students, assisting students with job search to painting, deconstruction of homes and garden work. A special thank you to our signature sponsor Freescale Semiconductor. Other sponsors of the event included Austin Coca-Cola, Clif Bars, City of Austin Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Office and Alamo Recreation Center. And, thank you to all of the teams who participated in Day of Caring and embraced the idea of LIVE UNITED. This was an incredible show of community support! Check out the Day of Caring Slideshow! Thank You. […]

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Si Se Puede!

Today I had lunch with fellow Public Innovator & Pf’s one and only Rod Reyna, at one of my new favorite taco spots. We were discussing the morning excitement – our Hispanic Community Enagement Initiative, Austin City Council meeting and press conference and the newly approved City of Austin Hispanic Quality of Life Initiative! We were both very excited about the opportunities this is going to bring to the Hispanic and Latino community as well as other segments of the community. I was telling him that we all need our day in the sun and today, we got it! Now it’s up to us to do something with it. We need to step up and lead, take action, do what we can to bring about community change, not only for our people but for everyone in the community. We came away from our lunch with full bellies, the ganas to make things happen and create change in our communities – for Rod, doing it Pf style and for me, engaging 100,000 people in community change. Check out the links for the Hispanic Quality of Life coverage…. Statesman – Councilman calls for look at how Austin Latinos are fairing (includes quote from our very own presidente, David Balch KVUE – Austin to study Hispanic quality of life News 8 Austin – City supports Hispanic Quality of Life Initiative Hispanic Quality of Life Press Conference – May 8, 2008 MandoDirector, Hands On Central Texas

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Eat Tacos and Do Good!

Tomorrow is our annual Spring Day of Caring. We’re hosting over 25 projects with almost 400 volunteers doing hands-on service projects AND we’re starting the day with tacos – my favorite! So if you have a yearning for eating tacos and doing good, then come join us! We’ll be at the Alamo Park in East Austin at 9am tomorrow, Friday, April 25th. See you there! MandoDirector, Hands On Central Texas

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Volunteers still needed for Spring Day of Caring!

We still have room for volunteers for our Spring Day of Caring. So if you haven’t already signed-up for a project, now’s your chance! Hands On Central Texas, a program of United Way Capital Area, invites you to help us celebrate National Volunteer Week (April 27 – May 3, 2008) by participating in United Way Days of Caring, presented by Freescale Semiconductor. United Way Days of Caring are community-wide events that address critical social issues through meaningful volunteer action. Each year, more than 1,500 corporate & community volunteers lend a hand and tackle issues such as poverty, education, and health, while doing everything from building homes, to building community gardens, to beautifying local parks. On Friday, April 25, 2008, we will host various meaningful volunteer projects that will address Central Texas’ most pressing issues. We will start the day with United Way Days of Caring Kickoff at Alamo Park located at 2100 Alamo Street where volunteers will learn about the impact they are making in the community, and they will have an opportunity to eat some breakfast, meet other volunteers and guest speakers, and check-in for their projects.Volunteer check–in from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. The majority of the projects run from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Register to volunteer at http://www.handsoncentraltexas.org/.We look forward to seeing you there!

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Honoring the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” It’s not because it’s my job to get people involved but because it’s a part of who I am. You can say that volunteering or helping out is “my gospel” and I know it because it feels good and it feels right. I feel it almost everyday when I think about Dr. King’s legacy and when I talk to people like Julie “No Se Que” (Español for Nordskog), who has a million ideas a minute and calls me every time she has them, and Monica who wants to tell the stories of Central Texas’ shining stars – volunteers & nonprofits through her start up blog and magazine – GoodCauseMagazine and Gator, a young man who is using Hip Hop music as a vehicle to inspire hope and healing with other youth though The Cipher-Austin’s Hip Hop Project. These are the kinds of people that inspire me everyday and truly are keeping Dr. King’s dream alive! Will you help keep Dr. King’s dream alive? You can do your part by helping us build MLK Peace Benches at our MLK Day of Service. We’re going to build them, paint them, add MLK quotes on them and give them away to community centers in East Austin. We also have 8 other projects available so there’s plenty of room for everyone. Before we get started on doing some good in the community, we want […]

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