Help United Way win the Facebook Cause Challenge and $2500!

United Way for Southeastern Michigan is one of 48 United Way branches competing nationwide in a Facebook Cause Challenge. If we recruit the most members to our Facebook Cause by June 27th, our national sponsors will award us $2500 to use towards youth and campus programs.

If you are a Facebook member, please download the Cause Application and join 10,000 Strong for ASB Detroit 2009! Cause at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/94852?recruiter_id=7882801.

If you are not already a Facebook member, now is a good time to get on the band wagon! Join now at www.facebook.com.

Please make sure to invite all you Facebook friends and colleagues as well.

Thanks so much!

How to support long-term recovery in the Midwest

Alexandria, VA (June 16, 2008) — United Way today announced the creation of the United Way 2008 Midwest Flood Recovery Fund to support long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts throughout the Midwest states that have been devastated by the recent floods. Seven states have been severely impacted, with thousands of people evacuated and untold destruction to homes and businesses.

“United Way is committed to the mid- and long-term needs of the communities affected by this disaster,” said Brian A. Gallagher, president and CEO of United Way. “We intend to be a constant and very visible partner to the individuals and families of this region in their efforts to rebuild their lives.”

The focus of the United Way 2008 Midwest Flood Recovery Fund will be to support the rebuilding of lives and communities. Projects may include ensuring quality education, improving the financial stability of those affected and improving access to health care, including mental health services for those affected by the tragedy. United Ways throughout the affected states will work together, and with community partners and volunteers, to develop strategies to address the long term needs of the communities affected.

United Way also takes a leadership role in ensuring the strength of 2-1-1, a three-digit number that can be dialed for people who need services or for those who want to offer help. Thousands of people in the region are getting connected with the services they need through 2-1-1, such as finding temporary shelter. 2-1-1 provides an invaluable service in times of crisis, providing maximum community access to critical resources and information to help reduce the harmful effects of the disaster.

United Way’s community partnerships will be critical to the long-term recovery efforts. United Way is a member of both the Coordinated Assistance Network (CAN), formed to coordinate relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters, and the Major Relief Agency Consortium (MRAC) co-chaired by American Red Cross and United Way. Within this network, the initial response to disasters is led by the American Red Cross while United Way takes the lead in long-term recovery. Red Cross and United Way are joined by partners such as Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), Alliance of Information and Referral System (AIRS), Salvation Army, FEMA and many others in this critical work.

People who live in the region and want to volunteer to help with flood relief efforts are being encouraged to register at the United Way of Central Iowa's Web site, www.unitedwaydm.org, or to call 2-1-1. United Ways in the Midwest are not looking for volunteers from outside the region at this time.

Financial donations can be made by credit card online at www.liveunited.org, or by phone at 1-866-404-5826. Checks can be mailed to United Way, c/o One World Communications, 5195 Hamstead Village Way, Suite 135, New Albany, OH 43054. Checks should be made out to United eWay and include "United Way 2008 Midwest Flood Recovery Fund" on the memo line. Questions about the fund can be directed to 1-866-404-5826

United Way Launches innovative financial stability strategies and partnerships

PRESS RELEASE

Media Contact:
Sally Fabens
sally.fabens@uwa.unitedway.org
W: 703-836-7112, x 401
C: 703-946-3638

United Way Launches Innovative Strategies and Partnerships to Increase the Financial Stability of More Americans
- FDIC and other government, corporate and strategic community leaders join United Way to cut in half the number of lower income working who are financially unstable by 2018 -

Alexandria, VA (June 5, 2008) – Three hundred and fifty corporate, government, nonprofit and faith-based leaders gathered this week at the 2008 Financial Stability Leadership Summit in Chicago, where United Way
announced one new and several ongoing, innovative partnerships toward the goal of cutting in half the number of lower income working families who are financially unstable over the next ten years. As part of the
United Way Financial Stability Partnership™, strategies being discussed aim to provide hard working individuals and families with tools and resources to maximize their income, build savings and acquire assets for stable housing, continued education, small business development, and retirement planning.

At the Summit on June 5, United Way and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) publicly signed an agreement to promote long-term financial stability for unbanked and underserved individuals and families. This agreement will facilitate collaborative outreach and programs with financial institutions and other partners on ways to bring unbanked and underserved clients into the financial mainstream through low-cost products and services and expanded financial education efforts. Strategies include increasing financial literacy and access to transactional accounts, affordable small dollar loans, individual development accounts, savings deposits from Earned Income Tax Credits, split tax refunds, individual development accounts and savings campaigns, as well as other bank products and services.

United Way and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation have expanded a partnership that helps to build the capacity of Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) outreach and free tax preparation efforts in 44 areas across the country and to support the development of one-stop financial stability centers. Bank of America associates support this work at the local level through thousands of hours of volunteer work. The partnership has yielded significant results, with grantees reporting over $653,000,000 in total tax returns over the first two years. The second year has seen a 43 percent increase in total tax returns from year one – and a 79 percent increase in EITC refunds claimed.

Another innovative partnership in the effort is with Nets to Ladders, Inc. (N2L), whose webbased software platform, the Benefits Enrollment Network (BEN™), simplifies the benefits screening and enrollment process and the ability to access financial institutions, products and services easily. Over the next year, communities across all fifty states will reinvent how needed benefits are accessed, screened and claimed, which will impact thousands of hardworking individuals and their families.

United Way also has partnered with the National Fund for Workforce Solutions™ to help identify communities across the country that have the capability, capacity and need to strengthen the workforce development and advance system in that community. The National Fund’s workforce initiative seeks to leverage $50 million to help at least 1,000 employers recruit, train, and move employees into as many as 50,000 new, family-supporting jobs annually.

United Way Vice President of Community Impact Development Dr. Madye Henson stated, “These ground-breaking partnerships are critical to help working families earn, save, and build assets. We are all connected and interdependent and, working together, we can ensure that more hard-working families get off the financial tightrope and onto solid ground.”

United Way and partners have come together at the Summit to make a commitment to cutting in half the number of lower income working families who are financially unstable over the next ten years. This effort is reflected in United Way’s recent report entitled, Goals for the Common Good: The United Way Challenge to America, which announced bold ten-year national goals in the three priority areas of education, income and health.

Speakers at the Summit include Brian Gallagher, president and CEO of United Way, Andrew Plepler, president of Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Martin Gruenberg, vice chairman of the FDIC, Marc Ferguson, CEO and founder of Nets to Ladders, Senator Bill Bradley, Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Stacey Davis Stewart, senior vice president of Fannie Mae Corporation, Josephine Robinson, director of the Federal Office of Community Services, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The 2008 Financial Stability Leadership Summit is being hosted and supported by the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. Platinum Sponsor of the Summit is Bank of America and other sponsors include HSBC, N2L and the Marguerite Casey Foundation.

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About United Way
United Way is a global network, including nearly 1,300 local organizations in the U.S. that advance the common good, creating opportunities for a better life for all by focusing on the three key building blocks of education, income and health. The United Way movement creates long lasting community change by addressing the underlying causes of problems that prevent progress in these areas. LIVE UNITED is a call to action for everyone to become part of the change. For more information about United Way, please visit: LIVEUNITED.org.

Alternative Winter Break

Alternative Spring Break alumni, Zehra Imam, has been inspired to take her volunteer work global. Watch this video and learn more.

2-1-1 On the Go helps to fill a void

By: Daniel Howes, Detroit News

DETROIT -- If you see a funky looking yellow-and-white Chevy Cobalt around a city park, its trunk open with one guy typing on a laptop and another talking to a homeless person, it's just John Azoni and Nick Monterosso doing some good.

They are United Way 2-1-1 On the Go, an innovative pilot project funded by $186,000 from Detroit-based corporations that aims to help guide some of the city's estimated 18,000 homeless off the streets and into permanent housing and full-time employment.

"We're filling a void," says Monterosso, 24, an Oakland University political science grad. Which is this: Funding for many of Detroit's social service agencies, swamped with clients, often is tied to tight requirements detailing whom they can help and how. But not 2-1-1.

It's all about bridging the gaps, about listening to the issues facing each client and then steering them to the right point in the bureaucratic maze of government offices and nonprofit agencies where they can get the help they need.

'If I can get a job ...'

Take Norman Kingston, 41. He wandered up to Azoni at Cass Park and started telling his story: Got out of prison in January. Best friend was killed. Had a drug problem but has been clean for 46 days. Has three kids, 14, 12 and 10 "but I'm not doing anything," he tells Azoni as Monterosso types his answers into the military-grade laptop.

"I had no place to stay. The Michigan Department of Corrections placed me somewhere. Basically I'm homeless. I want to go back to school," Kingston says, in "peer counseling. If I can get a job, I know the rest."

They give him a referral, an appointment to meet, at 9:30 a.m. last Friday, with Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit. Last year, Goodwill placed 1,500 Detroiters in full-time jobs at an average wage of $10.48 an hour, an estimated $30 million stimulus to the local economy. Kingston didn't show up, according to the agency, but others have.

"So far, so good," Goodwill President Lorna Utley says of the 2-1-1 pilot program. "It's not huge numbers. We're certainly glad to be part of the process" -- monumental as it can be in Detroit, the poorest major city in America with the nation's lowest high school graduation rate.
The newest need: Lockers

To be homeless, the 2-1-1 crew explains, is to be stuck. Without a permanent address, you can't apply for food stamps, can't apply for most jobs. The United Way-backed effort helps folks get IDs; gives them a physical mailbox donated by UPS and installed at the Detroit Rescue Mission; offers calling cards donated by AT&T; and, when possible, provides bus passes so folks can get to work.

Their newest need: Lockable lockers that can be assigned to people in the 2-1-1 On the Go program so they can secure "anything that can be sold," Azoni says. That includes clothes, a tent, a cook-stove or the debit-style food-stamp cards that frequently disappear in homeless shelters.

"The focus is to remove barriers and put people back to work," says Cindy Pasky, CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions Inc. and a driving force behind the 2-1-1 On the Go initiative. "The guys were telling me that in the last couple of weeks they put nine people in jobs -- and those are people they say can't be put in jobs."

That's better than the alternative. Monterosso and Azoni are employees doing jobs far removed from their academic pursuits of poli-sci and, for Azoni, the painting he pursued at the College for Creative Studies.

"It's different from day to day," Azoni says. "I talked to a guy recently who has his masters' degree and he's homeless. We've had some clients who have never been in this situation before."

Daniel Howes' column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at (313) 222-2106, dchowes@detnews.com or detnews.com/howes.

A Diversified Approach to Racial Harmony Through One D

Posted by Karl Gregory and Michele Hodges at 2:29 PM to Crain's Detroit Business Mackinac Public Policy blog

This posting has been jointly written by an African American male, Dr. Karl D. Gregory, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Oakland University, and a white female, Michele Hodges, President of the Troy Chamber of Commerce. We are two individuals that have met today, for the very first time. Karl lives in Oakland County, Michele in Wayne. Neither now lives in Detroit, but both recognize the future of the Detroit Region is integrally related to the health of Detroit itself.

In the course of our discussion, the topic of race relations arose, and we found that we are like minded on numerous fronts. We identified the need for One D to emerge as an important part of the solution, in addressing race relations.

The Region will thrive or fail, as the city of Detroit does. We both would like nothing better than for One D to be successful, and for each of its priority goals to be achieved. Today, we would like to cast a spotlight on the Race Relations priority. We hope that our thoughts might affect those who have the responsibility for administering this priority.

We believe the Race Relations priority must be adequately defined, inclusive of items such as minimization of incentives contributing to urban sprawl, combatting racism, and a substantial lessening of racial disparities. We as a Region must determine what is achievable, and work deliberately to make it happen. We must be accountable to one another. We must move forward in a united, concise and directed fashion. We must set a direct course and obtain the cooperation of others in holding steadfast to this course.

Colorblindness, a movement beyond race, forgetting race, or building bridges, are blind alleys and not what we seek. For example, we are suggesting that "building bridges" would be to settle for less, for lands that are bridged will not become one land, and will never blend into one autonomous, unified entity. Instead of building bridges, we must strive to join the two lands, reducing as much as we can the gap, thereby removing more of the differences, and creating a society built on respect, and one that celebrates racial differences. As has been said of late, "different is not deficient."

We have to be courageous, direct, honest, transparent, and accountable. Our Detroit Region is the most segregated in the United States. It is our own, and it is in our own interest to march towards a re-integration. We wish the Region to become a thriving, diverse, and integrated place. Success in this means that our children and grandchildren will grow up in an environment where people get to know, understand and respect each other, rather than be divided by skin color and ethnic differences. We pray that One D will capture the essence of this diversified approach to racial harmony.