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

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

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

One of my favorite tunes of all times is the Supertramp song that was re-made several years ago by the Goo Goo Dolls - “Give a Little Bit.”  Yeah, I guess I am showing my age here – the original goes back to 1977, but the lyrics are still relevant.  If everyone were focused on giving a little bit of their time, their voice, and their money to help others, I am convinced that many of the challenges we face would be greatly reduced.

I’ll always remember a three day weekend I spent in San Francisco back in 2004 with my buddy Ernie.  We flew to the West Coast to participate in a leadership development workshop and intentionally arrived early to soak in the beauty of the area and spend some time with the local people.

We headed to one of my favorite districts, Haight Ashbury, so we could walk in the footsteps of so many talented musicians of the sixties.  After we grabbed some ice cream and took a seat on a less-crowded street corner bench, we noticed a gray haired gentleman with very few teeth strumming some classic rock tunes on his guitar and belting out the lyrics with an amazingly clear and captivating voice.   We walked over to get a closer look, made eye contact, and smiled.  Between songs we chatted with him.

John shared his name and a little bit of his life with us.  He was homeless, living in a tent in Golden Gate Park.  He was hungry and was playing for money to buy some food.  He was trying to take care of his daughter who had recently moved to his campsite.  Baked beans helped fill their bellies.

We asked him if we could sing a little bit with him.  Ernie is a talented musician with a good voice.   I have absolutely NO musical talent (ask UPS employees) but still try, nonetheless.  Together, we must have sounded okay because a small crowd soon gathered, voiced their approval, and gave a little bit of their money.

After about five songs, John smiled at us, thanked us for joining him, and said he was going to head back to his camp.  He said his daughter’s stomach had been hurting from lack of food, and he said he had collected more money playing that short time with us than he had made in quite awhile.  He thanked us for spending a little bit of time with him, and he was going to buy some baked beans and bread.

When I reflect back on my life, some of my most fulfilling moments are times when I connected with someone who, on the surface, appeared very different from me.  The memory of being on that street corner a couple of thousand miles from home with John, someone who had obviously endured many losses in his lifetime, will always stand out for me.

My first thought about being a donor to Metro United Way and being a volunteer in our community is having a sense of fulfillement and connection.  Doing something that makes a difference in the life of another person, even something very small like the brief time I spent with John,  makes a memorable and lasting difference for ME.  “Give a little bit” – and gain a lot!

“Now is the time we need to share.”  We all see the statistics – unemployment hovering around 10%, more people in our country living in poverty now than ever before, young children entering school ill-equipped to learn and not graduating from high school on time, if at all. 

In tough economic times, for those of us who are able, we need to reach even deeper into our hearts and our wallets to help friends, family, neighbors, and even “the man with the lonely eyes.”  So join me in giving a little bit of your time, your money,  your love, to make a positive difference for guys like John right here at home. 

“So find yourself, we’re on our way back home. Going home. Don’t you need to feel at home?”

Give to Metro United Way!

Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
Give a little bit
I’ll give a little bit of my love to you
There’s so much that we need to share
Send a smile and show you care
I’ll give a little bit
I’ll give a little bit of my love to you
So give a little bit
Give a little bit of your time to me
See the man with the lonely eyes
Take his hand, you’ll be surprised
Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
I’ll give a little bit of my love for you
Now’s the time that we need to share
So find yourself, we’re on our way back home
Going home
Don’t you need to feel at home?
Oh yeah, we gotta sing

General, Giving Giving, homeless, hunger, making a difference, Metro United Way, Volunteer

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 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

With school having just started back, education seems to be on everyone’s mind.  Getting over the anxieties and challenges of starting a new school year can be a big hurdle – especially if your child is entering kindergarten or a new school.  This year, my son is a 5^th grader at a school that he has attended since pre-school, but my daughter started at a new school as an incoming 6^th grader entering middle school.  At orientation, she remarked “This place is BIG!”  As a parent putting myself in her shoes, I couldn’t have agreed more.

When children have a supportive family and a stable home environment, doing well in school can still be a significant challenge.  Keeping up with all of their subjects, text books, assignment sheets, daily reading, and long-term projects can be a tall task!  However, there are much greater challenges being faced by large numbers of children in our community.

Last year, 10,555 students in Jefferson County Schools were homeless at some point during the year.  To me, that number is staggering, both in terms of volume, as well as impact for each child.  I think about how difficult it must be to try to focus on academics when you may not know where you are going to eat or sleep.  Even if you’re staying with another family, sleeping on a couch in the living room is a far cry from sleeping in the comfort of your own bed in a private space.  It’s also painful to think about the many situations which may have caused the unstable housing to begin with – the loss of a job, a serious illness or death in the family, a lack of financial resources, chemical dependency, mental illness, domestic violence.  Every situation is unique.

Fortunately for us, our community is thinking about some of these most challenged students and how we can support them to make sure they have a fighting chance in school.  Organizations like the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, the Coalition for the Homeless and systems like Jefferson County Public Schools, our Kentucky’s Department of Community Based Services (child welfare), and Family Courts are teaming up to discuss how we can better support homeless children and their families, and how all of our systems can work together to ensure all children have every chance to be successful, by addressing their holistic needs.  When organizations and individuals come together around common goals, amazing things can happen.

I invite you to consider what it would be like to be in a homeless child’s shoes trying to learn in the classroom.  What images does this evoke for you?  How could taking on this perspective help us all as a community to better support these children’s academic success and long-term stability? 

Education, General Add new tag, Children, Coalition for the Homeless, Education, future, homeless, Jefferson County Public Schools, Live United, Louisville, making a difference, Metro United Way, Metropolitan Housing Coalition, parenting, youth

By Natalie Harris

I came across this article,  The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers, by David Leonhardt, in the New York Times business section this morning, and with all the buzz about our recent Kindergarten Countdown event at Slugger Field, I thought the timing was too good to be ignored.

While the article is a bit of an opinion piece (ultimately treading into some potential education policy minefields), I thought the greater point of the study discussed was clearly worth mentioning:  kindergarten, when done well, has an incredible long-term impact.  As Leonhardt sums up:

Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more.

An that “more” is nothing to sneeze at:

A student who went from average to the 60th percentile — a typical jump for a 5-year-old with a good teacher — could expect to make about $1,000 more a year at age 27 than a student who remained at the average.

The study discussed, “How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earings? Evidence From Project STAR”, ultimately concludes that an outstanding kindergarten teacher is worth $320,000 a year.

This could definitely be viewed as depressing news in these days of budget cuts, school closings (i.e. bigger classrooms), and big challenges for even the best teachers — the ultimate toll all this can take on the community is alarming — but it should also be viewed as a call to action.

The work Metro United Way does in support of early childhood education (Success By 6, Gheens Bridges to Tomorrow, Born Learning and more) pushes us towards one goal:  making sure that our children arrive in kindergarten ready to succeed.  This moment of economic crisis makes it even more imperative that we do the work, with our community’s help, to meet this goal.

Education, Events, General early childhood, kindergarten, Kindergarten Countdown, Metro United Way, Success By 6

By Kelly Hutchinson, Donor Relationship Manager

This post is all about the United Way campaign in Scranton that Dunder Mifflin hosts to benefit United Way. That would be the Lackawanna County United Way in case you were wondering.  When the folks give at The Office they are helping advance the common good and create opportunities for a better life for all.

And just why would I share a post with you about the Dunder Mifflin campaign you ask?  Well I will tell you.  It’s because they do such a great job with their campaign at The Office that they are even an award winning company!

I promise I don’t make this stuff up. Look on the wall next time you watch and perhaps by the copier and just maybe you will see it there too. It is the Dunder Mifflin Extraordinary Campaign award from United Way.  Yep, that’s right the good folks at The Office care about their community and their neighbors and they are all part of the change they want to see in their community. 

My guess is that Dwight Schrutte used to organize the campaign. I think that this year Pam Beesly will be appointed by Michael Scott the CEO to serve as the campaign coordinator for The Office.  Michael sees great leadership potential in Pam and knows that she could do a great job making plans and working with the United Way staff.  Pam will love her new role and enjoyed making friends and meeting other coordinators in the community who run campaigns for their workplace.  

Pam will do her part each fall to organize an efficient and fun campaign that offers all her co-workers the chance to give, advocate and volunteer. They all feel proud of the award on the wall and the fact that when they each do their part that they can make a big difference in Scranton.

Some of the associates at The Office will help Pam with the campaign by planning fun events to celebrate their campaign and thank their donors. Dwight said that Meredith  likes supporting the campaign because it helps so many organizations. They all find that having their United Way campaign at The Office provides for a team-building experience.

So now I want to know just a couple things. Seriously for a moment please….The Office hosts a United Way campaign –does your company?  If your answer is ‘no’ then I don’t want it to be because you were never asked. If you don’t have a campaign and you want your company to be in good company alongside community corporate leaders at companies of all sizes like UPS, GE, Humana, Kroger, Atlas Machine or Deco Paper then let us help you get on board. It’s easy, fun and efficient. We would welcome the chance to start a relationship with you where together we can accomplish more than any one organization can alone.

Please join us this year. We all win in our local community when children succeed in school, families are financially stable and people enjoy good health. We want YOU and your company to join us this year and be part of the community campaign.

If you do have a campaign for Metro United Way, then I of course want to say ‘thank you’ for caring and sharing. You make it all happen here. You make our home town a stronger, better place to live and work. Even in the face of challenging economic times you and your company have made it a priority to help people in crisis now with basic needs support while taking on issues that are going to make our community stronger in the future. A heartfelt thanks to you and your office!

General, Giving, Volunteering Giving, Metro United Way, Start a United Way campaign, The Office, Workplace Campaign

By Mary Sullivan

What do wide eyes and laughter have in common?  Let me go a little further in my explanation. Recently 240 students from Holy Cross High School spent the day volunteering. Two of the sites I visited were Iroquois Child Care Center and California Area Family Development Center. I heard laughter from both children and students as they were bouncing balls up into the air. Children were wrapped around the legs of these students, and in another room three little girls wanted to show their dolls to one of the boys.

Today, we often read or hear about how young people aren’t engaged, but in one day Holy Cross students volunteered at nine different organizations, provided 1320 service hours, and gave back $27,522.00 of in-kind service to our community. Holy Cross High School certainly isn’t the only school that does volunteer work. So far this school year, Metro United Way has coordinated volunteer projects for Barret Middle School, Moore Middle School, Spalding University, Bellarmine University, IUS and U of L.

Metro United Way has been supportive of youth volunteering for many years, and for 22 years, Metro United Way has recognized a high school senior for their volunteer effort by awarding a $3,000 scholarship.  In fact, Volunteer Engagement Center origins began from a partnership with U of L School of Recreation, the Junior League of Louisville and Metro United Way (Community Chest). Since the 1930’s until today, helping youth map out their career choices or exploring interests through volunteering has always been part of what we do. So if you a student or a group looking to do something this summer, need to do community service hours for school or your faith based organization, want to meet interesting people, or just have fun, please contact the Volunteer Engagement Center’s website at metrounitedway.org/volunteer.

Education, Volunteering community change, early childhood, future, making a difference, Metro United Way, scholarship, youth