Tag: uwatx

UWATX Selected to Assess Feasibility of Pay for Success

United Way for Greater Austin, in partnership with the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Dept. and Veterans Service, Central Health and Greenlights, has been elected as part of a national competition to assess the feasibility of implementing a “Pay for Success” initiative. The goal of the initiative is to reduce teen pregnancies among Hispanic youth and to improve birth outcomes among African Americans. Pay for Success (PFS) is an innovative funding model that enables communities to access greater resources in order to tackle complex social problems by tapping private investments for the upfront costs of the programs. If the programs are successful in delivering services that measurably improve the lives of people it is meant to serve, then the government repays those who made the original investment. This ensures that taxpayer dollars are being spent only on social programs that actually deliver measurable results.   Austin/Travis County was chosen among six other U.S. cities who submitted applications to Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc., the organization conducting the contest. Awardees will receive federally-funded technical assistance throughout 2015 for their various early childhood and youth development projects. The Austin/Travis County nonprofits and government entities involved were selected for their demonstrated commitment to funding high-quality, effective social interventions that produce real outcomes in the area of early childhood and youth development.  The Austin/Travis County feasibility study will result in an assessment of two initiatives—Maternal Infant Outreach Program (MIOP) and Peer-to-Peer Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Empowerment Program (P2P)—to determine if Pay for Success should be implemented […]

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Amplify Austin “Power Hour”

Amplify Austin is only two days away! What sets this online give-a-thon apart from others is the chance to win incentive prizes from sponsors.    Hourly prizes: Awarded to nonprofits that raised the most dollars or had the most donors in a single hour on Amplify Austin Day: $1,000 awarded to nonprofit with the most unique donors every hour during Amplify Austin Day $1,000 awarded to the nonprofit that raises the most dollars every hour during Amplify Austin Day   Grand prizes: Awarded to a nonprofit on Amplify Austin Day: $5,000 to nonprofit with most dollars raised in first six hours (6 p.m., March 5 – Midnight, March 6) $5,000 to nonprofit with most donations from unique donors $5,000 to nonprofit with most total dollars raised $5,000 to nonprofit with most individual fundraisers   In attempt to maximize UWATX’s chance to win some of these prizes, we are designating 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on March 5 as the Amplify St. John’s Power Hour! Because St. John’s neighborhood is in the 78752 zip code, we felt this was an appropriate time to raise the most money possible during Amplify Austin. Unfortunately, if you are scheduling your donation in advance, you cannot select a specific time you would like your donation to go through. However, if you have a spare 5 minutes on March 5 from 7-8, we highly recommend making your donation during this time–and your donation could be AMPLIFIED! This blog entry is part of our “Amplify St. John’s” series leading up to […]

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Volunteers Make St. John’s Greater

UWATX will focus on the St. John’s neighborhood during this year’s 24-hour session of community-wide giving through Amplify Austin in hopes we can expand our work in this community, as well as our other target neighborhoods including Manor and Dove Springs. Take a look at some of the projects volunteers completed in the St. John’s community within the last year! Webb students who participate in our Volunteer Project Leaders class have been busy improving their own neighborhood. For Valentine’s Day, they created cards and banners to show their appreciation for teachers at their school. VPL students also participated in our annual MLK Day of Service by working with members of the Young Leaders Society to create giant jenga and other games for the Big Game – Super Bowl XLIX watch party. Funds generated from the watch party will go toward the YLS $180K Challenge, raising money for full-time coordinators at Webb, Decker and Mendez Middle Schools. Last December, the neighborhood came together for our Community Tree Lighting held at Webb Middle School. UWATX volunteers gathered more than 1,600 books to give out to kids of all ages who attended the event. Many of the kids walked away with more books than they could carry. Our valued business partners have also been busy making St. John’s greater in the last year. Texas Mutual spent the day at Webb Middle School volunteering as part of the Insurance Challenge. Some volunteers worked to beautify the grounds, while others decorated and put together welcome boxes to inspire students for […]

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February’s Face 2 Face Recap

The Austin Business Journal’s Face 2 Face speaker series creates a space for the exchange of ideas among Austin’s business community in a setting echoing TED Talks. It kicks off with a half-hour of breakfast and networking at 8:30 a.m., followed by a one-hour Q&A session with a featured guest and ABJ editor, Colin Pope. We are honored and delighted to be the 2015 Community Partner of the monthly series, which gives us the opportunity to share our work among the community’s business elite by highlighting various programs and partners each month.  February’s speaker was Co-CEO of Whole Foods, Walter Robb, who emphasized culture, quality and marketing as strategic points in the development of the Whole Foods brand. He also discussed the delicate balance of driving rapid growth while still maintaining ties to the community at local and global levels.  “Culture belongs on the balance sheet of the company.” – Walter Robb, Co-CEO of Whole Foods Robb shared his insights about building culture among employees and customers in order to ground the work and growth of Whole Foods in shared values that are broadly inclusive and clearly communicated. “Culture belongs on the balance sheet of the company,” Robb said. We agree–recent statistics show that more than half of millennials (the fastest growing group of employees) said a company’s involvement in philanthropic causes influenced whether or not they accepted a job in the past. We have seen firsthand the positive impact a philanthropic component can have on a company; just ask any of our generous business partners! The idea of […]

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Poverty Awareness Month

January is Poverty Awareness Month, and we have chosen to once again highlight one of the communities we serve—Dove Springs in southeast Austin. For the most part, the Dove Springs neighborhood has not changed significantly when you look at demographics data over the past three years with one key exception: poverty.  According to the most recent data, one in five adults in Dove Springs live in poverty, while more than a third of children in this community also live in poverty. This means about 12,000 in Dove Springs alone are living in poverty. And, unfortunately, these numbers are only increasing each year. 20% of adults in Dove Springs live in poverty   36% of children in Dove Springs live in poverty   10% of seniors in Dove Springs live in poverty From 2011 to 2013, the Dove Springs population grew by 7%, but the number of residents in this community living in poverty grew by 15%.  According to PovertyUSA, the number of Americans living in poverty today is higher now than in the last 50 years. As Austin continues to become more unaffordable, even for those living above the poverty level, the urgency of intervention and change becomes more crucial. The first step toward breaking the poverty cycle is promoting the understanding of poverty and its root causes. PovertyUSA produced an informative and interesting video that showcases how families living in poverty in the U.S. spend their money, and how easy it is to quickly fall behind while debt continues to […]

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