Austin Community Foundation and United Way for Greater Austin co-hosted a panel on May 12th, “Gentrification & Gender: How Austin’s Changing Neighborhoods Affect Women and Children.” The panel was put on for both organizations’ women’s groups, UWATX’s Women’s Leadership Council and ACF’s Women’s Fund of Central Texas. Panel speakers were Dr. Eric Tang and Dr. Victor Sáenz of the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Tang is an assistant professor in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at UT. His research revealed that Austin was the only major growing city in the United States to experience an absolute numerical decline in African Americans. Dr. Tang is currently working on a book, East Avenue: African Americans in Austin’s Terrain of Inequality. Dr. Sáenz is an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the educational success of boys and young men of color. Dr. Sáenz has developed a successful mentoring program for Latino boys in Austin ISD schools and created a statewide consortium to share best practices. He sees the educational success of boys as key to creating healthy families and communities. The panel started with a video from an Austin-American Statesman project on economic mobility in Austin. The video does a great job of describing how the history of segregation in Austin has led us to the current state of East Austin today. Dr. Tang elaborated on some troubling statistics from the most recent censuses in Austin. Austin is the only major city in the […]
Read MoreUWCA raises over $100K for Wildfire Relief
It’s hard to believe it has been over a month since wildfires broke out across Central Texas. For UWCA, this time of year is always busy with workplace giving campaigns, but the wildfire relief efforts brought an added sense of urgency to the work we do. Within hours of hearing about the fires, our 2-1-1 (the United Way Helpline) team went to work verifying information on resources, services and safety. Social media is now a huge part of every disaster recovery effort so 2-1-1 staff members scoured social channels for up-to-the-minute news, verified its validity and then served as a hub of verified information for all callers. UWCA also initiated a text-to-give campaign, so anyone can text “Wildfire,” to 85944 and donate $10. The money donated to the Wildfire Relief Fund has already provided gift cards so those affected by the fires could buy groceries, gas, lodging, replacement tools, clothes and other necessities. To date, we have collected more than $117,000. Recently, Samsung announced a one-time gift of $50,000 for our wildfire recovery fund, the largest contribution to date. This donation allows United Way to work with communities to determine both immediate and long-term recovery needs. Together, we can help those most in need and those who are no longer covered by insurance regain a productive life. Samsung’s gift exemplifies what it means to be a true corporate partner and citizen. Their gift toward wildfire recovery is in addition to the ongoing corporate giving campaign, so those who relied on […]
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