Stepping Up for Urban Native Americans

What is United Way doing for Urban Native Americans and diversity in Erie County? Check out the latest from our Associate Vice President of Community Services, Theresa Fujiwara, and you’ll see.

Do we truly have a sense of cultural humility? Do we understand the strengths and needs of the vast populations that make up our diverse community?

The recent report “A Vision for the Urban Indian Community” is a result of a yearlong project aimed at better understanding and responding to the needs, assets and opportunities of the Urban Indian population in King County in particular.

Our dilemma: We could no longer be passive about the declining resources to address the needs in the local American Indian/Native Alaskan (Urban Natives) communities. Urban Native populations are disproportionately represented in many negative indicators of health and well-being.

For example, as cited in the above report:

•  Urban Native people in Erie County are more likely to be poor, with 24% living in poverty, as compared to 10.2% for the general population;
• The percentage of Urban Native people who are homeless and living in emergency shelters or transitional housing is two to three times their representation within the total population;
• While high school diploma attainment is less than all races, the percentage of Urban Natives with a college degree is significantly less than the general population;
• The Urban Indian Health Institute found statistically significant disparities between Urban Natives and the general population in education, poverty status, unemployment, asthma, obesity, smoking, teen birth rate, infant mortality, mortality, social support and mental distress.

Our realization: We needed help to figure out how we could be a better supporter. So we reached out to leaders from the Urban Native community for guidance. The result was a powerful community process that provided a forum for creating a forward-looking vision for participants.

There is strong dedication and cohesiveness among them, and when united even more, they can be a powerful force for policy, system and practice change. Recommendations centered on a unified vision and five pillars:

1. Investing in our youth
2. Nurturing community empowerment and involvement
3. Providing a road map for funders and supporters
4. Increasing visibility and presence in Seattle and King County
5. Creating a strong foundation for the community

Steps to Move Forward

On June 25, more than 100 people gathered at Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Seattle to discuss the report and focused on these questions: What are some practical next steps we can take to address this priority? What resources and opportunities are available? What am I willing to commit to do to make this happen?

Community members will continue to organize to move recommendations forward. Philanthropy Northwest will host a funder briefing on Aug. 13—please join us.

United Way is proud to have supported this community-driven effort to initiate steps toward strengthening resources for and in the Urban Native communities. Read more about our community’s work with the Seattle-King County Urban Indian community on Philanthropy Northwest’s blog.

Pre-K, Parent-Child Home Program: Better Together

Expanded pre-K is the talk of the town. And that’s great news: Kids who go to high-quality preschool are strongly positioned to do well in kindergarten and beyond.

Of course, science increasingly shows that brain development—and readiness for school and preschool—starts early in life, and benefits hugely from attentive, nurturing parenting. Kids who aren’t getting all the nurture they need can fall behind in the social, emotional and other skills they need to flourish when schooling starts.

United Way wants every child to have an equal chance to succeed, and that’s why we back work to make vulnerable families stronger. Our signature initiative is the Parent-Child Home Program, now serving 1,000 Erie County families.

The focus of the Parent-Child Home Program is stressed and isolated families. Some are young, low-income, single moms and dads. Many are new immigrants and refugees dealing with cultural dislocation and language barriers. Some are homeless. Read Sherry and Tramell’s story with the program.

The Parent-Child Home Program brings these families a specially-trained parenting coach twice a week for two years. The coach uses books and toys to draw parents and children into fun and stimulating interactions that build their bond and promote the child’s development.

The Parent-Child Home Program and quality pre-K complement each other very powerfully. Here’s why:

Kids in the families served by the Parent-Child Home Program likely won’t thrive without added help. But with both the Parent-Child Home Program and pre-K, they do very well indeed. In a 2005 study in Pittsfield, Mass.­?a community with deep, widespread poverty?children who completed the Parent-Child Home Program and pre-K tested an average of 10.15 months developmentally ahead of their age levels. That compares to 4.86 months of accelerated development for comparable children with pre-K only.

That’s a dramatic acceleration in kids’ readiness to learn and a huge boost to their long-term prospects. If it ultimately translates into higher high-school graduation rates—and there’s strong evidence from across the country that it does—the modest investments in the Parent-Child Home Program and quality pre-K clearly make huge practical sense.

Take a look at the Parent-Child Home Program resources page to learn how your organization can get on board.

What Does Record-Breaking Really Look Like?

We live in a generous place. United Way had a record-breaking 2013-2014 campaign year, raising $25.9 million, with $23.4 million to us. The rest was earmarked for a range of other good causes in the community.

I’m thrilled to share the news with agencies and colleagues that we continue to be the top fundraising United Way in the country, which is great. However, I also find myself needing to explain that the overall total doesn’t necessarily give me or my team additional funds to allocate to your good work. In fact, even in the context of a big year, our support for certain organizations and outcomes may fall.

Why the caveats? Because trends in local philanthropy mirror what’s happening across the country.

These days, many donors want to invest their money in a particular issue, rather than give an unrestricted gift. Donors want to be even more clear about the results their gift is buying and the impact on the community or population they want to help. This is great news for efforts like our Parent-Child Home Program. But it also means that the general operating support we provide for many agencies is harder to come by.

What will we do to get more people to give—and give unrestricted gifts? We’re trying to raise United Way’s profile.

You may have seen all the LIVE UNITED advertising on billboards and Metro buses. And you may have noticed the major new events we’re doing, such as the Sparkies and All-Star Softball Classic. We have a strong base of donors who know and trust us. But we have room to grow—hence our branding to relate to what people care about and bring people even closer. We want to respond to donors’ interest areas as best we can.

Ultimately, some of this will work, and some of it will not. And no matter what, United Way’s bottom-line belief is that all philanthropy is good, even when it is earmarked for a particular piece of work or even a particular organization.

Do you have a perspective you’d like to share? Feel free to email me or join us at one of this winter’s Community Conversations, when we bring United Way leadership together with people from the agency community. Email me and I’ll be sure you get an invitation. Also meet the team at the lead this year: our campaign chairs.

As always, thanks for being an outstanding community partner.

Say What? A Toast To Campaign Season?

At the Sparkies on March 12, five award winners will rise to the top from dozens nominated for their generous and innovative work in the community. We'll toast to great campaigns, volunteering and being generally awesome.

What makes a company Sparkies-worthy? Check out these examples:

PACCAR Inc…

• Focused on increasing leadership donors—who make a huge difference in the community by giving $1,000 or more to United Way. This led to 17 new leadership donors and 92 total. PACCAR President Ron Armstrong hosted a thank-you event for them at PACCAR IMAX Theatre at Seattle Center. Hence the great group shot above.
• Got its leadership executives on board with personal asks, emails and engagement. One general manager even took a turn in the dunk tank to raise money!
• Had a campaign coordinator Day of Caring team who made a video about their volunteer experience, showing it throughout the campaign.

City of Redmond…

• Held a Byte of Redmond food competition between departments. Of course there were themes. And of course there were great costumes. Redmond Mayor John Marchione wasn’t in one, but he welcomed all event guests, whose admission was nonperishable food for United Way grantee HopeLink. Byte favorites took home trophies and culinary bragging rights.

PwC…

• Held an auction that raised $60,000+ for United Way efforts to get people food and shelter and help all kids succeed.
• Sponsored the 2013 All-Star Softball Classic, at which $1.2 million was raised to end youth homelessness.
• Supported United Way on the inside, too, with partner Robert Moline serving on United Way’s campaign cabinet.

A huge thank-you to these great companies and the many others who are igniting change in our community. We want to celebrate all of this great work, so RSVP today for the Sparkies. This party’s for you!

15 Weeks of Good

The Loaned Executive Program is a unique leadership and professional development opportunity for employees from any company. Can you imagine all the good that could come from getting a career boost while helping raise vital funds for our community? We can!

It’s an opportunity for your employees to build skills in areas like public speaking, project management, sales and teamwork. We can’t forget that the quick 15-week program also means thousands of dollars raised to solve tough issues in Erie County like homelessness and hunger.

Two loaned executives from 2013 recently shared their thoughts about the program:

“Supporting a loaned executive is a great way for a company with philanthropic values to provide real-time leadership training for their employees.”
—Jennifer Alexandra, The Boeing Company

“The exciting part about being a loaned executive was seeing that my employer wanted to invest in me as an employee, help me further my career, and give me the chance to gain new skills. The tasks and goals were so different from what I work on, but the experience and everything I learned can be applied in so many ways at work.”
—Annette Mockli, Erie County Library System

Take Action Today

This week is “fiscal cut-off” in the State Legislature, where bills that have been passed out of policy committees will either be passed out of fiscal committees and on to a rules committee on their path to full House and Senate consideration, or will languish and die in the fiscal committees (House Appropriations and Senate Ways & Means).

Please pick your top priorities from our top priorities below and comment on the linked bills to let legislators know we’re keeping track of their progress through the fiscal committees. These three bills are being considered in fiscal committees and require lots of advocacy from United Way supporters.

Homeless Management Information System - Senate Bill 5898 eliminates barriers to participation by replacing the existing “opt in” informed consent process with an “opt out” system that continues to rigorously protect data confidentiality while increasing participation. This change will increase federal homeless grant dollars and provide better data for decision making about which services are needed where. Comment on the bill here.

Extended Foster Care – House Bill 1735 & Senate Bill 5740 ensure youth with significant medical conditions can stay in foster care until they are 21 years old so they have a safe place to stay while transitioning to adulthood. All other categories of foster kids have already become eligible to stay in foster care until age 21 except youth with significant medical conditions. It’s time to extend this protection to our most vulnerable foster youth. Comment on House Bill 1735 and Senate Bill 5740.

Homeless Youth Act – House Bill 1436 & Senate Bill 5404 ensure that homeless youth have the support they need to thrive. The Act maintains a fund to support housing, education, employment and other critical services for homeless youth and sets a goal that state systems will not discharge youth into homelessness. The Act also addresses regional disparities in service delivery for homeless youth, and creates the Office of Youth Homelessness in the Department of Commerce.  Comment on House Bill 1436 and Senate Bill 5404.

It takes less than 2 minutes to comment on the bills. Enter your address then click the “Verify” button; then enter your name and contact info and click “Support”. Lastly, you can enter a comment - feel free to use your own language or cut-and-paste ours from above.

To learn more about these bills, go here and enter the bill number.

Thank you for making our community a better place to live! 

How Can You Become Involved?

The Volunteer Reader Program has been bringing volunteers into preschools for the past 7 years.  How can you be involved with our program?

-If you’re a reader, we thank you and keep reading!

-If you’re not a reader, check out our website to learn more about our program. If the location, time slot and time commitment work for you, sign-up!

-You’re not able to volunteer? Help us recruit volunteers by spreading the word! We have over 40 openings at our sites all across Erie County! It’s just 1 hour a week for a minimum of 6 months! 

-Get your company involved! This past year PACCAR Inc., Microsoft Corporation and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP cumulatively donated 690 literacy kits that have been given to parents and children. Parents were encouraged to join in on the fun while reading the book with their child at home. Sites were very appreciative of the kits because it was nice to give the parents the kit after a conference, during a home visit or at an event. Contact us if you’d like to provide literacy kits to our families.

Booklist Recommendations

The trees are changing color, the days are becoming shorter and fall is here. Here are a few books with descriptions from Reading Rockets:

-“I Know It’s Autumn” by Eileen Spinelli, Age Level: 3-6; The signs that autumn is here are all around, from shorter days to warmer clothing. A child chronicles these changes in short rhyming text accompanied by softly lined, serene illustrations.

-“Mouse’s First Fall” by Lauren Thomson, Age Level: 0-3; In this simple escapade, two young mice — Mouse and Minka — play in colorful fall leaves. Because the adventurers are small, focus remains on the earth-toned leaves for a simple, but satisfying time.

-“The Apple Pie Tree” by Zoe Hall, Shari Halpern, Age Level: 3-6; Two sisters describe the changes they see in the apple tree throughout the seasons from bare winter branches to fruit in the fall. A recipe for making apple pie is included with additional information about pollination. American writer Louisa May Alcott must have noticed similar seasonal changes in the trees that grew around their Massachusetts home, named Orchard House for the 40 apple trees planted there.

Day of Caring: Waste Or Worth It?

By Sara Smith, vice president of community services.

If it’s August, then uw-logo.png United Way of the Great Lakes Region Volunteer Center staff are deep in the throes of working with agencies and volunteers on all the details of Day of Caring—planned this year for Friday, Sept. 19.

Pulling together Day of Caring, a community institution for years, is a lot of work for us and for you. Sometimes we ask ourselves if it’s worth it. But when we step back, there’s little doubt the answer is yes.

Day of Caring accomplishes a ton of work in a big burst. Is there any other event in King County that brings together so many agencies and 12,000+ volunteers in one day, producing 63,000+ volunteer hours to help nonprofits? Projects can be found in all corners of the county at all types of agencies.

If you submitted a project this year, thank you! Check out the Day of Caring resource center—including a checklist, tips for success and volunteer waiver forms. Questions about the day? See the FAQ for agencies.

Day of Caring + You = Big Things for the Community

Over just a few hours in last year’s Day of Caring, I visited with teams painting a senior center, packaging items for an agency’s annual auction, cleaning a child care playground and reading at a public school. Volunteers at each site were working hard while having fun and doing a good deed for agencies that otherwise wouldn’t have had the time or capacity to get it done. But as important as what Day of Caring accomplishes for agencies is what it does to catalyze community involvement by companies and their employees.

Last year saw 135 different companies participating. Many were Day of Caring stalwarts. Others participated for the first time, getting the chance to learn about issues, the nonprofits that work on them and how to help.

With its broad reach and high profile, Day of Caring helps create and reinforce an ethic of pitching in and making a difference. All nonprofits benefit from having that as a community value. Something else we know: The relationships between nonprofits and the companies that start on Day of Caring often grow into something larger and lasting. Consider El Centro de La Raza:

Mobilizing and educating volunteers, partnering with area companies, getting a whole lot of work done in a single fun day with reverberations that continue—Day of Caring is definitely worth it. If you’ve already submitted your project, huge thanks for making Day of Caring possible and taking part in an event that does so much.

Companies or volunteers can sign up for projects right now, so spread the word. I hope I’ll see you on Sept. 19!