Since the Young Leaders Society relaunched earlier this year, volunteering has been a significant focus for our group. It brings us closer to the community we’re working to support, and often it shows us a whole world we didn’t know existed right in our own back yard. A few weeks ago, we volunteered at Mendez Middle School to plant ten fresh trees on the campus grounds and do some much needed garden maintenance. Our group divvied up and conquered. Some dug holes and made space for the trees, some plucked weeds while avoiding large ant beds, and some went on a trash pick-up. During the trash pick-up, one member found a waterlogged copy of The Giver. We worked quickly and had some time to spare, when the campus coordinator informed us that just down the street at the recreation center many folks needed assistance after the Halloween floods. We quickly made a beeline to the recreation center for an impromptu volunteer opportunity. Donations were coming in fast and we were poised to sort them and get them to those in need – dozens upon dozens of bottled waters were loaded on pick-up trucks and to the neighborhoods. We were told that what families most need are baby supplies, i.e. baby formula, diapers, etc. After about half an hour the traffic died down, but we’d experienced the frenzy of being close the front lines of a disaster right in our backyard. In the past few weeks, others at UWATX have been […]
Read MoreMy volunteer experience: finding a sense of community in a city of thousands
Being from a small town in west Texas, the only flooding I’ve experienced was a hot summer day when the neighbor’s above ground pool ripped open and all the water gushed out into the yard. I couldn’t even fathom the impact of a real flood that could damage your home or soak everything you owned in water, but I saw it first hand last week. I was standing in a community that will forever define time as “before the flood” and “after the flood.” Gathered around under a small tent at the edge of an Onion Creek neighborhood, I joined other Hands On Central Texas volunteers as we headed to our first location of the shift – we were volunteering to clean up homes affected by the Halloween flooding. Walking down the streets of the neighborhood, I was just shocked by what water can do: vehicles looked like they had been an accident with an 18-wheeler and huge trees were bent over and on top of homes. I was standing in a community that will forever define time as “before the flood” and “after the flood.” I noticed a woman carring single items out of her house and watched her go back in to get more repeatedly, so I asked if she could use our help. She agreed to have a few people help – but nothing could prepare me for what I was about see. As we walked down hallway, you could see the line on the wall where […]
Read MoreHands On Central Texas gets a makeover!
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 MoreUWATX: What We Do
[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 MoreRain or shine – our volunteers are committed to giving back!
Despite the stormy weather, we still had a fantastic turnout for Fall Day of Caring on Friday – one of the annual volunteering days we manage through our Hands On Central Texas program. More than 900 volunteers attended and worked on 30+ projects to make Austin greater! Local employers, including ABC Home & Commercial, H-E-B, Kerbey Lane and IBM lent a hand as their employees spent Friday giving back to Greater Austin. Volunteers contributed to many projects, including preparing afterschool program materials, making soup bowls from clay and numerous beautification projects. Through their work, volunteers completed an estimated 2,700 hours of service, the equivalent of $60,939 in labor costs. Here’s what you guys are saying about the experience: Our volunteers stuck it out through the rain – enjoying the appreciation lunch with local food and music, and keeping high spirits. Thanks to everyone who came out and all the great local organizations and businesses that helped us make Austin greater! Check out the photos on Facebook! See all our pictures on Flickr.
Read MoreOur own UWATX Employee Campaign reaches 98 percent participation
At UWATX, we work with more than 400 companies locally helping them run Employee Giving Campaigns – giving employees the opportunity to invest a portion of every paycheck in the community. Each August, we put our money where our mouth is and run our very own campaign. The UWATX Employee Campaign is different every year, but we work to model the best practices that we encourage in our business partners: Recruit a cross-functional team: Our team included 4 staff members representing our fundraising, finance, IT and strategic programs teams Define your timeline: Our campaign ran for a week from Aug. 12 through the 16. Since our staff is ramping up for our busiest season, a short campaign works best for our needs. Plan volunteer events: We kicked off our campaign with a volunteer project at Webb Middle School! Have fun with activities that fit your culture: At the start of campaign, each employee was greeted with a hand-written note welcoming them and half-way through, we held a UWATX Spirit Day where employees wore UWATX colors to show off their spirit. Engage different teams in the way that works for them: Our Employee Campaign team coordinate a rally or meeting for each department, including five for our Navigation Center staff who have less flexibility because they stay on the phones all day connecting callers to community resources. We also incorporated both an electronic and paper pledge system to accommodate more ways to give. Consider your wrap up: On Friday, gift cards, […]
Read MoreLet’s help Decker Middle School get a sidewalk!
UPDATE on 7.25.2013: As of today, TXDOT approved priority funding for the Decker sidewalk project, saying the Decker Middle School students that led this charge are “an inspiration.” TXDOT will provide $1.5M in funding to build the sidewalk. Local advocates will work to fundraise an additional $600K to support the project. Special thanks to Mark Marek for his help today! Almost a year ago, UWATX started a Volunteer Project Leader (VPL) class at Decker Middle School – bringing together 6th, 7th and 8th grade students to learn about their community, assess needs and create and manage projects to make real changes at their school. One of the most pressing needs they identified was a sidewalk to make getting to school safer, and over the past year, the students worked hard to make that a reality. The road in front of Decker Middle School is a four-lane highway and the speed limit only drops to 50 mph in the school zone. In the past year, one student was killed crossing the road to get to school. Another saw a person be hit by a car. To date, there has been a third death. In speaking with fellow students, teachers, administrators, business leaders and local advocates, safety was a top concern and the lack of a safe way to cross the street hit the top of the list. The VPL class at Decker led a letter writing campaign to let Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) and Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) officials know about […]
Read MoreVolunteer Project Leaders celebrate 8th grade graduation at school dance
As the 2012-2013 school year winded down, Volunteer Project Leaders (VPL) at Webb Middle School coordinated their 8th dance and celebration and closed out the year with a bang. The gymnasium overflowed with cheery family, friends, and educators as their special 8th grader was commemorated for graduating middle school. Among those in support of the hardworking school kids were the bigger kids from United Way for Greater Austin’s (UWATX) Young Leaders Society (YLS). The YLS founding committee was excited to help celebrate students’ hard work and achievements. Members set tables in preparation for the fun evening, decorated the gym with balloons, and manned the taco buffet and cupcake line. After tacos and cupcakes, the real fun began as the dance was underway. YLS member, Luke Martinez, had a memorable moment when called upon by a Webb 8th grader to learn the complex and choreographed movements of the Dougie. After Luke’s life transformed before his very eyes, other members engaged in the ever famous Cupid Shuffle, the Wobble and even had the distinct honor of dancing Tribal, a dance that has ignited a cultural revolution in parts of Mexico. By the end of the night everyone had new dance moves to add to their repertoire. [AFG_gallery id=’8′] YLS members had tons of fun – here’s what they had to say about the celebratory night: “Having had to achieve certain goals in order to have the dance, it was evident that the 8th grade students cherished being there. The dance was much better behaved […]
Read MoreDeloitte makes our community their top client
“Our annual IMPACT Day is just one way our commitment to service extends beyond business and into the community.” – Joe Echevarria, CEO of Deloitte Friday, June 7 marked the 14th Deloitte IMPACT Day, an annual event where Deloitte closes its doors and every employee heads out into the community to give back. The day is a true testament to Deloitte’s commitment to volunteering, and our Hands On Central Texas program has been proud to partner with Deloitte on this day for the past four years in Austin, this year helping 300 local employees connect to meaningful projects. This day of service is a cornerstone of Deloitte’s Impact Imperative: a strong company’s corporate culture of professionals who contribute their time, innovative thinking and specialized business-sense to drive measurable change. “At Deloitte, we pride ourselves on providing high-value, quality services to our clients and the capital markets, and we apply this same approach to service within our communities. As we’ve seen lately, when the private and public sectors collaborate, we can make a real and lasting impact,” said Joe Echevarria, chief executive officer, Deloitte LLP. “Our annual IMPACT Day is just one way our commitment to service extends beyond business and into the community. At its core, IMPACT Day is about making our communities and our country stronger.” To make Austin greater, Deloitte employees landscaped and gardened, helped students work on their resumes and interviewing skills, painted inspirational quotes and helped makeover the teacher’s lounge – all at Mendez Middle School, a […]
Read MoreVolunteer Project Leaders celebrate a year of success!
Just a few days ago, we celebrated the achievements of our Volunteer Project Leaders – 30 middle school students from Decker, Mendez and Webb Middle Schools who have become community advocates in just a few short months. Across three campuses and two school districts, students: completed 10 volunteer projects; gave 479 hours of volunteer work; and contributed the equivalent of $10,811 in volunteer time to the community! Projects included campus clean-ups, painting healthy and educational activities for outside play, creating campus motivational walls with letters from supportive adults, distributing food at a local food pantry and hosting a Community Cultual Celebration for families – just to name a few! To say Thank You and recognize their efforts, we gathered at UWATX offices – check out the pictures. Here’s what some of these amazing volunteer leaders – all 7th graders who participated in VPL – had to say about it all: Q: Why are you participating in United Way for Greater Austin’s VPL training? Valerie: I participated because I want to help other people and the experience I get from it. Breonna: I participated for fun! Jaritza: I saw it as an opportunity to do something in our community. Breon: I participated to join in on the VPL events and attend meetings. Q: What projects have you enjoyed the most? Valerie: I enjoyed Community Cultural Celebration the most because a lot of people were involved and I helped out my community in a good way. Breonna: The Community Cultural Celebration! Jaritza: The Community […]
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