LIVE UNITED Y’All!

By Kelly Hutchinson, Donor Relationship Manager

You know the old saying…March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. I can still picture this phrase on colorful bulletin boards lining the elementary school hallway. You saw this saying when you were a kid too didn’t you?   I think this is why “weather” is fueling my thought process this time of year. Nothing draws your attention to a barometer, thermometer and a 7 day Outlook more than a change of seasons.

There is a strong nor’easter blowing down the hallways at Metro United Way and it all has to do with the “big picture”.  What’s the Big Picture you ask?  Well I will tell you…it is EDUCATION.

If you have spent anytime here at Live United Y’all then you know we are all wrapped up, we are all tied up, we are all tangled up in education-and we are all wrapped up, tied up and tangled up in education -because it is precisely the key to pre-empting the storms of life and thereby improving the opportunities for health and income stability for everyone in our community.

Yes, it will be the same blue skies, a warm and sunny forecast for me, for you, for that guy working in the cubicle down the way, and for the kid up the street -when you look at how getting an education affects the big picture. Oh sure, there will be storms in life for all of us. You can count on that. But, you will be ready, resourceful and have some shelter from the storms of life.

Education is linked to better physical and mental health, longer lives, fewer crimes, less incarceration, more voting, greater tolerance, and brighter prospects for our next generation. More education is good for individuals who stay in school to earn a high school degree or who enter and graduate college, but it is also good for all of us, paying big dividends in the form of increased civic engagement, neighborhood safety, and a healthy, vibrant democracy.

Now it’s your turn. Try your hand at predicting the weather where you live first to see what you learn.  Now you can check out what expert forecasters have to say here. What do you think? Is it Cloudy with a chance of Optimism? Are brighter days ahead?  Or are we going to be in for one wild ride when the next gust of pressure blows in?

Advocacy, Education, General Common good, Education, Metro United Way, opportunity

Nearly everyone would like to have a little more change in their pockets going jingle, jangle, ling.  It’s fun to think about planning a vacation, eating at a nice restaurant, or going to a concert when you’ve got some extra money.  However, for many individuals and families, meeting their basic needs is a daily struggle, and having some extra income is vital for taking care of the necessities – food, housing, safety, and health.  When stresses about life’s necessities mount, education takes a back seat.  However, we all know that the more education you have, the more money you make.  So what about those who are struggling to make ends meet, how can we help them with their education when other needs must be addressed first? 

Metro United Way understands the importance of addressing basic needs, so we are involved in efforts that boost income to make it easier for those of us under financial stress to focus on education.  We view this approach as providing the insulation of the education pipeline – making sure necessities are addressed so we can effectively remove barriers to educational attainment.

One of the efforts we support is making sure that local residents get all the tax credits for which they are eligible.  Since 2001, Metro United Way has actively promoted and supported efforts to provide free tax preparation and filing services, with a goal of making sure families who qualify with incomes up to $49,000 are taking advantage of the earned income tax credit (EITC).  The EITC can place as much as $5,666 back into the hands of hard working families.  With our partners –  the Louisville Asset Building Coalition, the Southern Indiana Asset Building Coalition and HJW Career and Financial Literacy Institute, we are making sure that individuals and families can get their taxes done free and receive eligible credits like the EITC.  Since we began working in this area, our partners have collectively served over 54,000 individuals and families, returning $59 million in federal and state tax refunds, of which over $25 million has been in the form of the EITC.  We have also saved filers an estimated $10 million in tax preparation and filing fees.   Learn more by clicking on the links above.

In addition, Metro United Way is working with Louisville Metro Government to promote a campaign known as “Through Any Door”, which provides benefit screenings for programs such as SNAP (food stamps), K-Chip (health insurance for kids), WIC (supplemental food for families with young children), Free and Reduced Price School Lunches, and other benefits.  The goal is to increase the uptake of these benefit programs for eligible families by streamlining the application process by working through a variety of trusted community partners.  Since launching in the Spring of 2009, this effort has assisted over 1,600 individuals, with annualized benefits in the millions of dollars.  We anticipate that this effort, along with others that are forming, will connect these benefits, also known as work supports, to more families than ever before so that basic needs can be met, and that families have more time and resources to support the educational attainment of their children. 

Bottom line:  Efforts like these help provide more money for food, housing, safety, and healthcare, and for educational attainment.  Jingle, jangle, ling!

General, Income benefit screening, Education, Income, tax preparation

by Chris Locke

Here we are, roughly three weeks into the New Year, and some of us have already started to falter on our ambitious 2011 New Year’s Resolutions. You know the ones where we swear to do exponential numbers of crunches, push-ups, sit-ups and to run miles in our beautiful regional parks. We vow to eat differently, be a little nicer, become a little wiser, and act a little more stately when we get upset. We promise to pinch a least one or two more pennies, and learn at least one new thing a week so we’ll be more engaging during social chats.

Well, my endorsement of these sorts of aspirations does not necessarily solidify the fate of the aforementioned list getting deemed as great things to aspire to, but what “reasonable” person would see any of them as bad things in which to aspire?.

So when we turn to look at what it takes to accomplish our resolutions, things can begin to get a little tricky. Often, by the end of January many of us start to adjust our thinking a little as we lower the “resolution bar” a notch or two. All the while thinking… this is too much!  So, we begin to rationalize about the beauty of achieving  just one of the lofty sorts of resolutions listed above.

Consequently, over the course of the last couple of weeks ,I have thought about resolutions a little more than usual and how Metro United Way has revealed our resolutions for 2011 and beyond. I thought about Metro United Way’s 2011 resolutions along side my personal resolutions and I am excited about the fact that one of our goals focuses on achieving the same outcome: supporting education success.

Two weeks ago, I received a generous invitation from a middle school to be a part of an effort to motivate students for the second part of the school year.  In seizing the opportunity, I had the pleasure of speaking to over 1200 students at Noe Middle School about developing their own personal vision to victory in education and life, and how having a personal vision for success can give students a reason for giving just one degree of extra effort towards being successful in school, getting prepared for college, work and life.

So consider this bold resolution: By 2018, 87% of students in the Metro United Way region will graduate on time. Pretty ambitious huh! Sure, it will certainly require a deliberate commitment with specific actions steps to inspire every young person to value success in school and to work with our entire community to create a college going culture.

With Metro United Way’s resolution in mind, I am proud and privileged to report that as we near the end of January, one of my personal resolutions remains intact, and I am happy to say that I am contributing to helping Metro United Way meet one of its resolutions. I think with hard work, dedication, and commitment from all of us together, Metro United Way’s bold resolutions can be achieved. Let’s move forward in 2011, with the dream that ALL of our resolutions are achieved, but with the determination and commitment to fulfill a very important one: working together to better all of our children, youth and our community

Advocacy, Education Common good, community service, Education, High School Graduation, opportunity, success, youth

Judy Schroeder 

In this season of giving, when we care so much that every child has a gift, do we need to remember that the best gift we ever give is the love that child needs so much?

I was in a remarkable gathering on my birthday this month. Yes, my family and friends are most remarkable, and I was blessed with very loving parents. But I was thinking about the group of parents I visited with that morning.

“2Not1.” Can you guess what it means? 

It’s actually a great title because it says exactly what it means:  Children deserve two parents, not only one.  Adults may have to live apart, but our children deserve both their fathers and their mothers as much as we, the adults of this world, can make that happen. 

There’s even a rising national movement among fathers who are creatively reclaiming their parenting role after separation from their child’s mother.

According to the National Drop-Out Prevention Center, parent engagement still makes the critical difference in young people’s lives. Students with involved parents, no matter what their income or background, are more likely to do better, try harder, be more involved, have better social skills, and finally graduate from school to hold jobs with incomes almost $10,000 better each year than the students who gave up and dropped out. Unfortunately, the National Principals Association also reports that 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. 

It’s just that much harder to be an involved parent when you are the only adult paying attention.

That’s why the extended family and community supports for both parents in a child’s life are so important.  

Empowering parents to support a child’s success is the best and longest-lasting gift we can give a child. That’s what we do in the Gheens Bridges to Tomorrow program. That’s what is working for Shawn Gardner as he organizes 2Not1. That’s why we ask every parent of an infant or toddler to fill out the Ages & Stages Questionnaire. That’s why our Neighborhood Engagement is focused on building Parent Networks. 

Loving, involved parents give a gift that lasts.

Advocacy, Education, General, Giving Children, Community, Education, Louisville, Neighborhoods, parenting

By: Mary Ann Steutermann

This time of year, thoughts turn to festive holiday gatherings. I have warm memories of family gathered around the Christmas tree laughing as presents were exchanged. Sometimes these gatherings were the only times during the year we’d see out-of-town relatives, and the opportunity to catch up with them was sometimes more fun than opening the gifts they brought.

Just this week, Metro United Way hosted a gathering of sorts. Fellow United Way personnel from Atlanta, Richmond, Nashville, Chatenooga, and Cincinnati joined us here in Lousiville. Each of our United Ways is working on developing plans to increase educational attainment in their communities through an initiative called Ready By 21. And the focus of this gathering was, well, gatherings.

We spent 3 days with our colleagues learning about new strategies for leading community gatherings that will help us learn much more about our communities aspirations for itself and how education connects to it. Sometimes in community work, we gain tons of “expert knowledge” at the expense of collecting “pubic knowledge.” The gathering this week taught us about how the very nature of gathering people together to share that goals and concerns has a power in itself.

This week’s gathering of United Ways had no real gift-giving and certainly no spiked eggnog, but being able to bring people together to learn new and better ways of bringing people together was itself a wonderful present.

Advocacy, Education, General advocate, Community, community change, Education, Live United, Metro United Way, Neighborhoods, United Way, youth

By: Mary Ann Steutermann, Director of Education Initiatives

We all remember that special someone from long ago. The one who made us feel talented, intelligent, and important. The one that helped us discover new parts of ourselves and opened us to new possibilities. The one who only had to smile in our direction for us to feel significant. Oh, no . . . I’m not thinking of our first love. The one I’m thinking of right now is that special teacher we all had at one time or another who really made a difference.

I’ve been blessed to have a few of those special teacher in my life. Mrs. Randall, my first grade teacher, was kind and gentle with me when I cried the frightened tears of a little kid who was terrified of the school bus. Mrs. Ford, my high school accounting teacher, took the time to tell me that my work was excellent and that I had a great future before me. And Dr. Kemme, a literature professor I had in college, went out of his way to identify and encourage what he felt was a real talent for English language and literature. Similarly, I’ve been humbled by the outstanding teacher my son had had in his young school career. Miss Diane in preschool talked to him like she would any other adult, which made him feel respected and valued. And Mrs. Rogg in kindergarten opened him to the wonderful world of reading that now allows him to learn everything there is to know about Star Wars Clone Wars.

Who is that special someone for you? Who is the teacher who made you see yourself in a whole new light and helped you grow in confidence? Who is the teacher who transformed the experience of learning for your child? This Thanksgiving I am especially thankful for all of the great teachers who have touched my life. Perhaps it’s the perfect time of year for you to do the same!

General Education, teachers, thanks

Mary Ann Steutermann

Growing up, I was lucky to have parents and other family members interested in how I was doing in school and very supportive of my progress. Mom would give me snack when I got home from school, tell me to turn off the TV so I could get my homework done, and would check on how I did when I said I was finished. Dad was a big help with geometry and science by helping me come up with ideas for the science fair or making me practice geometric proofs even when I didn’t want to. I also had a special aunt that I go could to for support when I had personal problems that I didn’t want to talk to my parents about. Unfortunately though, not every kid has that kind of support or the parental support provided isn’t enough to meet the academic and personal challenges the kid faces. Often, something more is needed.

Youth mentoring has proven to be one of the most effective ways of improving both self-esteem and academic success for young people. But mentoring isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. In fact, there are about as many different types of mentor relationships as there are caring adults out there willing to work with kids. A mentor can help with homework, shoot hoops or play baseball, take a young person to the theater, or engage in any number of activities that can help boost self-esteem and confidence.

Making a Difference

Most importantly, mentoring is effective. Students who meet regularly with a caring adult mentor are 52% less likely than other students to skip a day of school and 37% less likely to skip a class during the school day. Likewise, young people in mentor relationships are 46% less likely to start using illegal drugs and 27% less likely to begin drinking alcohol (National Mentoring Partnership – www.mentoring.org). Even more striking is the fact that minority youth are an amazing 70% less likely to begin drug use than those not in mentor relationships (Child Trends Research Brief).

Short-term gains from mentoring relationships include an improvement in the young person’s attitude about school; improved behavior at school; better relationships with parents, teachers, and peers; higher college enrollment and greater aspirations beyond high school; and improved decision-making, communication, social and relationship skills.

But the young people aren’t the only ones who benefit. Mentors report a greater satisfaction in their connection to the community and an increased sense of pride in making a positive contribution to the lives of at-risk youth. They also benefit from opportunities to develop new communication skills and further enhance their own strengths (www.nwrel.org/mentoring; Cori Brewster & Jennifer Fager, Sept. 1998).

Baby Steps

The great thing about being a mentor is that you can do it any way you like. Mentors can work through programs like Big Brothers, Big Sisters or countless agencies that pair caring adults with kids in need of a helping hand. But what if you don’t have time for that kind of commitment? No problem! You can still make a contribution. Consider asking kids in your neighborhood or you friends’ children how they are doing in school. Ask about their interests, what they are learning, and what they want to be when they grow up. Encourage them to stay in school and to go to college. If you can be a mentor through a more formal relationship, super. But if not, just showing some concern for the kids you encounter is a way to make “mentoring” part of the culture in the Metro area and to show kids that plenty of adults out there want them to be successful and are willing to help.

Education, General, Volunteering Children, Education, making a difference, mentoring, Metro United Way, reading, Volunteer, youth

By Christopher Locke

Wow, it’s that time of the year again! A time when young people of all ages have visions of cartoon-covered backpacks, reams of three-hole, loose leaf paper and bounties of yellow Number 2 pencils dancing in their heads… Which means it’s indeed time for school! With the return to school and visions in mind, I’m reminded of a Henry David Thoreau quote that says “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

And while most parents and adults in the community are expectedly looking at purchasing items like sports and band uniforms, instruments, or even lab supplies to support their children’s education success in the classroom and school– a lot of well-meaning and caring adults have been spending a lot of time creating a compelling child-centered, community-based vision for young people to be successful outside the classroom and school. These caring adults and young people were callers, conveners and participants in a community effort called the Youth Vision. It was exciting to participate and witness the process of developing a vision that the community can be proud of that will also mobilize us to action.

The community response to an invitation from a group of youth development and education experts convened by Metro United Way to come and share their thoughts on youth success was overwhelming. When all the conversations were complete, 36 community conversations had taken place with residents from 30 of the 32 zip codes in the Louisville Metro area, from 11 other Kentucky zip codes and from 3 Southern Indiana County zip codes. The participant demographics revealed that the conversations had attracted broad and diverse participation from community residents interested in young people.

And as Thoreau said, they looked at some things. In fact, the participants looked at a long list of depressing challenges that often impede many young people’s paths to educational success.

• 1 in 4 freshman entering 9^th grade in JCPS don’t graduate on time and in four years with their peers.
• 65% of JCPS students are on free and reduced lunch.
• Worse still, last year JCPS reports that 10,500 students were classified as homeless.

In all three cases, a disproportionate number of the students are African American and Latino.

But again, like Thoreau wisely recommended, the community residents participating in the youth vision conversations did not get mired in pessimism. No, instead, this spirited group, led by Metro United Way and Metro Government, decided that the callers and the residents see what matters. So the optimists flipped the deficit-based reality that many of our students and families deal with everyday on its head and decided to engage resident voices in the process by asking three strengths or asset-based questions.

• Think about a young person in your life…What are your hopes and wishes for their success?
• What helps a young person be successful?
• If you could waive a magic wand, how would our community look different if ALL youth were succeeding?

After over 500 people had answered, the compelling Youth Vision emerged.

Louisville Youth…

• Have the skills and education to be self reliant, healthy, engaged and economically thriving.
• Have hope and show strength of character to achieve their goals, follow their dreams, respect others and contribute to bettering their community and world.
• Live in a caring community where everyone values, supports, invests in and fights for their success.

It sounds  pretty compelling to me, and we hope you agree! What are some of your ideas for our community’s youth? Would you be willing to act in creative ways to bring this vision to life in the community? How?

Advocacy, Education, General back to school, Children, Community, Education, future, High School Graduation, kindergarten, making a difference, Metro United Way, opportunity, parenting, Southern Indiana, students, success, youth, youth development, Youth Vision

By Jan Sherrell
One of Metro United Way’s goals is that:
By 2018, 87% of our community’s high school students graduate from high school on time. Currently our community’s graduation rate is 73%.

We sometimes refer to it as a BOLD GOAL. We recognize that we alone can not make that change for our community. We are working with partners to explore what out of school time programs are working and what areas they service. We know that food and housing and mental health are just a few of the factors that can also affect the success rate of kids in school. But just naming the goal and proclaiming it is a step toward making it happen.

I’ve experienced this personally –goal setting and proclaiming it.

As a youth it wasn’t emphasized to me that after high school comes college. In fact I didn’t even entertain ideas of college until a high school counselor, looking at my grades and scores encouraged me to think about continuing my education past high school. It was not an expectation in my family to pursue college. I didn’t even dream that dream. We were a middle-class working family with five kids and a stay-at-home mom.

This counselor sparked something in me and I began to consider college. By working from age 16 and with student loans, I was able to attend a local college, but I didn’t have a clear goal or major or career in mind. My motivation and commitment was lacking and I followed the classic “fall in love and get married” path — which has been good and I’m still married 28 years later — but it nagged me that I didn’t complete a degree.

I decided in 2008, that I would complete my degree. I set a goal. It certainly felt like a BOLD GOAL to me. I was 46 years old and pretty rusty at studying and taking tests. My days already seemed full, how was I going to fit college into my life and family budget? Fact is, I wasn’t very thorough in my planning. I didn’t forecast how long or how much money I would be investing. I just knew it was something I always wanted and I went for it.

I’m now 13 hours short of my degree; it is going to happen.

There are many, many youth out there just like I was. They need encouragement. They need to hear that great things are expected of them and that they can do it; it really is a culture thing. Children are being raised without the goal and expectation of completing high school. All families do not emphasize the importance of education..

Maybe it is your role to help a young person set a BOLD GOAL, and to help them reach that goal. It will take the entire community to increase the graduation rate to 87%, but YOU can help that one child recognize the importance of education and completing high school.

Do you have a story to share like mine?  Do you know a young person who had someone make a difference in their success?

General Education, goals, graduation

by Mary Ann Steutermann

I’ll admit it – I have few domestic skills. In particular, I absolutely, positively do not cook because 1) I don’t enjoy it and 2) previous attempts have resulted in blaring smoke alarms and upset stomachs. Fortunately for me, I am married to a great cook who both enjoys the process of creating a fine meal and actually produces dishes that people find not only edible but downright delicious. Over the years, I have watched him in the kitchen preparing a meal, and I’ve learned his secret to success – preparation.

The Right Ingredients

I was surprised to learn that most of my husband’s culinary efforts go into selecting the best ingredients and then spending quite a bit of time cutting, chopping, dicing, and seasoning them. In fact, he probably spends at least twice as much time preparing the ingredients as he does actually heating something on the stove or baking it in the over. Similarly, Metro United Way has been hard at work preparing to develop a strategy map that will guide our efforts in the coming years as we work to ensure that all of our children arrive at kindergarten ready to be successful and that at least 87% of them complete high school by earning their diplomas.

Just as it’s tempting to jump right into to turning up the heat on the stove without taking the time to chop and season the ingredients first, it’s tempting for an organization to jump too quickly to decisions about its future work without doing the necessary leg work in preparation. But we won’t make that common mistake. In fact, we’ve been hard at work in the kitchen for several months now.

Engaging the Community

Before settling on our specific strategies in support of educational progress, we have been doing a lot of homework. An essential part of this has been engaging the community in various ways in order to make sure we have all of the data and information needed to make good decisions. We have been working with various groups to get their feedback on our emerging role as leaders in community support of educational progress. So far we have engaged the community through:
• Donor conversations
• Colleague discussions
• CEO calls
• CSC committee discussions
• Council of Agency Executives discussions
• CI Cabinet conversations

Another major engagement opportunity we have embarked upon is an Education Research Project in conjunction with Kentucky Youth Advocates. In addition to providing the latest research on how to promote high school graduation and reporting on essential quantitative data by county, the project has also engaged superintendents, principals, government officials, business persons, faith-based leaders, parent organization leaders, service providers, and various other community movers and shakers on their perceptions of both strengths as well as perceived needs. This will allow us to not only identify what is going on in each county in each of the 5 “tipping points” of the UWW education framework (kindergarten readiness, 4th grade reading, middle school transition, high school graduation, and college/career), but it will also let us also know what the community feels they most need to see improvement in educational attainment.

We are in the process of planning community forums in each county to discuss the results and get further input during October and November. We’ll keep you posted on this!

Lessons Learned

Without a doubt, I will never cook a sumptuous meal that meets with the praise (and shock) of my family and friends. But lots of us at MUW have been hard at work in the kitchen doing the prep work on another masterpiece – a framework for moving forward as community leaders in support of greater educational attainment. Watching my husband prepare a wonderful meal has taught me that an ideal result to any creative endeavor takes patience, preparation, and persistence. Even though the thought of applying these traits in a real live kitchen gives me hives, I’m thrilled to be applying them to our emerging plan for helping our community meet its educational goals.

Advocacy, Education, General advocate, Children, Community, Education, engagement, future, Louisville, making a difference, Metro United Way, research, strategic planning, youth