MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS Our School Readiness Action Plan (SRAP) provides a strategic and data-driven roadmap to making sure our community, parents, caregivers and educators are ready and prepared to support the mental and physical health and development of our children. Our SRAP goals include ensuring that all children receive early and regular developmental screenings, have access to basic needs and mental health services as well as increasing the number of family-serving agencies that are trauma-informed. Ninety percent of the brain develops by age five and a child’s mental health is the most important aspect of their social and cognitive development. Research shows that the earliest years of life can set the stage for lifelong mental health outcomes. “Early childhood trauma has been associated with reduced size of the brain cortex. This area of the brain is responsible for many complex functions including memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thinking, language and consciousness. These events may affect IQ and the ability to regulate emotions, and the child may become more fearful.” National Alliance on Mental Illness research shows that early intervention and treatment can minimize and prevent the loss of critical developmental delays. The more the community is prepared to identify, evaluate and, if necessary, treat the mental health of our children, the less we have to spend on healthcare, involve the juvenile and criminal justice system and fight to keep children from dropping out of school. WHAT IT MEANS FOR MIGRANT CHILDREN TOXIC STRESS Doctors Concerned About ‘Irreparable Harm’ To Separated […]
Read MoreEmployee Campaign Leader of the Year 2014
Each year, we host the Employee Campaign Awards to recognize the donors and leaders who work hard to make employee campaigns successful at their workplaces. For the 2014 Employee Campaign Awards event last Friday, we added a new, very important award: Employee Campaign Leader of the Year. Employee campaign leaders are vital to the success of every employee giving campaign for United Way. We look forward to highlighting an outstanding “ECL” each year moving forward, and this year the very first award of this kind goes to Laura Seaton of Travis County. “It is a warm knowing that despite your own life trials and dramas, and we all have them, you have given something of yourself that truly has helped another human being feel a little whole again and a little less lost.” — Laura Seaton Laura Seaton lived and worked in public service for Maui County, but circumstances brought her to Austin, Texas where she started working in public service with Travis County in 2010. Laura participated in the United Way for Greater Austin campaign three years in row, and goes above and beyond carrying the message to every employee in her department, Transportation and Natural Resources, and across the county as an ECL. Laura takes her responsibility of being an ECL very seriously. She implements rigorous best practices, personalizes the campaign so each employee feels more connected and does it all with a smile. Laura was assigned to be an ECL, yet she loves the role. When asked […]
Read MoreUWATX Wins Common Good Award
United Way for Greater Austin received a 2015 United Way Common Good Award for our work in early childhood development. The award comes from United Way Worldwide, the umbrella organization that guides nearly 1,800 local United Ways around the world. UWATX is one of only three United Way chapters worldwide to be honored by United Way Worldwide as a 2015 recipient for strengthening communities by advancing the common good through innovative practices that are making a measurable impact in education, income and health. United Way Common Good Awards recognize promising and effective practices from communities around the world that are applying a range of solutions to community challenges along the impact continuum. This year, the award recognizes excellence and effectiveness in the areas of Program Solutions, Impact Initiatives and Community Solutions. UWATX earned the Common Good Award for Impact Initiatives in recognition of the School Readiness Action Plan. The first School Readiness Action Plan was published in 2012 to address the needs of all children in achieving the cognitive, physical, social, emotional and language skills needed to thrive in an educational setting. Currently, only half of children living in Central Texas enter kindergarten prepared for school success. Research indicates a strong correlation between high-quality early education and overall school success. To address these needs, UWATX formed a coalition of early childhood advocates, experts, parents, service providers and business leaders to ensure school readiness is a priority in Austin/Travis County. “It is a tremendous honor to be recognized as a role model […]
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