Mobilization
Mobilization Update
February 2012 Report to the Board
View a printable pdf version of this report here.>>
IMPACT
- Children’s Aid Society’s National Center for Community Schools was in Toledo January 16 – 18 to conduct training for the three selected Schools as Hubs Lead Partner organizations. Time was also spent at schools and with United Way of Greater Toledo and Toledo Public Schools staff.
- Positions for Hubs Directors at all four Hub Schools were posted in the Toledo Blade and other weekly papers on Sunday, January 29. Hub Directors will be identified by Friday, March 16 and will begin within 30 days of selection.
- Preliminary results show a 20 percent increase in attendance for students working with an AmeriCorps Graduation Coach.
- The first of three Developmental Designs Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) workshops for teachers at all five elementary schools will be hosted at Pickett Academy on February 15. This training workshop will provide the signal for silence; modeling; cooperative game-playing; structures for peer processing; and closures for class periods practices and demonstrations.
- Robinson Elementary will complete the fourth and final day of the Responsive Classroom I (an SEL workshop) on February 25. Twenty-nine staff members will receive 30 contact hours for completing this 4.5—day training. This will bring the total number of Toledo Public Schools staff completing Responsive Classroom I to 138.
- Nancy Rice, previously with the Center for Nonprofit Resources, was hired part-time for one year to serve as the out of school excellence coordinator within the Community Impact department.
- Approximately 322 people have taken advantage of free, volunteer tax preparation locally. The taxes filed to date account for $722,000 being brought back to our community.
- Live Well Greater Toledo, a collaborative driven by the YMCA/JCC, has developed action steps for each of its objectives:
1. Increase accessibility of fruits and vegetables: establish Healthy Corner Store Initiative
- Surveyed corner stores to find out if they carry fresh fruit and vegetables; quality; friendliness of owner; next step is to take findings from Community Conversation and data to create Action Plan.
2. Enhance infrastructure and traffic safety in areas where people could walk/bike: establish safe route to school initiative.
- On October 5, 2011, 100 kids from Sherman Elementary participated in International Walk to School Day and over 40 kids participated from Moody Manor Walking School Bus.
- Five volunteers from Moody Manor trained and oriented to lead Walking School Bus. United Way-funded parent toolkits and incentives to recruit children to walk on the Walking School Bus.
- Safe Routes to Schools grant for incentives to utilize for toolkit startup written by University of Toledo students and awarded for $1,000.
- City of Toledo Engineering Department leading up larger, community-wide Safe Routes to School grant
3. Increase availability of healthier food and beverage choices in public venues: increase access to healthier food in the after school setting
- Coordinating with existing YMCA afterschool and Children’s Hunger Alliance food programs on healthier choices
- Ensuring all USDA programs (summer feeding, afterschool snacks/dinners) are fully utilized and coordinated
4. Increase accessibility to physical activity and play
- Will conduct needs assessment for targeted neighborhoods within the city of Toledo
ENGAGEMENT
- The United Way mobilization team had their last offsite Education Mobilization visit. The team spent time improving how best to articulate Toledo’s story, discussing how to increase and maintain volunteers and Board engagement, learning about issue campaigns, and much more.
- One-hundred and twenty-seven staff, volunteers, partners, and community members participated in United Way’s diversity and inclusion survey in January. We will share results in March.
- Nick Kulik was promoted from development officer in Toledo to director of United Way in Wood County.
- United Way added a new Ambassador Project at Toledo Seagate Foodbank. The first Saturday of every month, from 9 a.m. to noon, volunteers pack boxes with food for seniors. February 4 was the first occurrence of this new Ambassador Project, where 17 people volunteered and packed 450 boxes. This new opportunity is the sixth Ambassador Project, and it is advancing United Way’s income and health work. It was chosen to engage all the larger groups who have contacted United Way wanting to volunteer. The subsequent months are already filling up with new volunteers.
- The United Way Volunteer Center coordinated volunteer opportunities the week of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Day and engaged more than 200 volunteers. That day, volunteers also collected, sorted, and boxed more than 450 boxes totaling 3,500 lbs. of food for MLK Kitchen for the Poor at the Unity Celebration at The University of Toledo.
- Members of the Public Policy Advisory Council (PPAC) will meet with community impact volunteers, with the goal of gaining an even better understanding of the community impact work and the complex strategies needed to advance it. PPAC members will then begin drafting an updated advocacy platform.
- United Way African American Initiative (AAI) is finalizing a year of planning and research, in partnership with Owens Community College and University of Toledo, which will inform the community how best to support the transition of African-American males from high school to college. In the greater Toledo area, the achievement gaps remain wide.
- This fall, the Initiative will produce a report, which includes data in five focus areas: readiness to learn, African-American male achievement, college and career preparedness, school experiences, and postsecondary experiences. These sections are followed by a series of “Profiles of Excellence,” which highlight individual successes of African American males from Toledo-area schools. The report will conclude with the launch of an awareness campaign designed to improve the academic supports and performance of African-American males in greater Toledo schools.
- This fall, the Initiative will produce a report, which includes data in five focus areas: readiness to learn, African-American male achievement, college and career preparedness, school experiences, and postsecondary experiences. These sections are followed by a series of “Profiles of Excellence,” which highlight individual successes of African American males from Toledo-area schools. The report will conclude with the launch of an awareness campaign designed to improve the academic supports and performance of African-American males in greater Toledo schools.
- Women’s Initiative of United Way is happy to announce their creative writing program, WordShop, will be piloted at Rosary Cathedral Elementary School starting August 2012. The program will provide creative writing field trips, themed workshops, in-class support for students, and will hopefully open its doors to other school systems the following year.
Previous mobilization updates:
January 2012
December 2011
August 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
October - November 2010
August - September 2010
June - July 2010
May 2010
April 2010
