United Way of Greater Greensboro

United Way of Greater Greensboro’s African American Leadership Presents Distinguished Service Awards

On March 20, 2010, African American Leadership (AAL) of United Way of Greater Greensboro held its second annual Distinguished Service Awards Banquet. Approximately 175 attendees gathered at the NC A&T Alumni-Foundation Events Center to recognize individuals and community organizations that performed outstanding volunteer activities for nonprofit and charitable organizations aimed at improving the general welfare of the African-American community. In keeping with United Way of Greater Greensboro’s priorities, awards were presented in the categories of Education, Health, and Self Sufficiency.

Hank Wall, Executive Director of Brothers Organized to Save Others (BOTSO) received the award in Education. Hank has worked with African American Males in both Greensboro and High Point since 1975, mentoring them to stay in school, instilling discipline and self respect. He has formed strategic partnerships with agencies and organizations such as Communities in Schools, Kiwanis, Junior League, etc.“ In 2009 BOTSO became a part of Win-Win Resolutions, a non-profit organization that teaches youth critical negotiation and conflict resolution skills.”

Karen Dyer, President of the Greensboro chapter of The Links, received the award in Health. The Links has developed the “Go Healthy Challenge Program” which focuses on childhood obesity and nutrition. This program is administered through the Hayes-Taylor YMCA, and targets children ages 8-16 and their parents.

Amos Quick, Executive Director, Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club, received the award in Self-Sufficiency, aligning with the United Way focus on income. Amos has worked tirelessly to ensure that children are given the tools needed to overcome obstacles. His organization currently serves approximately 1400 children annually, providing them not only with a safe place to socialize after school, but also instilling (in them) critical character development, literacy and life skills.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Ms. Nettie Coad, community organizer and Executive Director of the Partnership Project. Ms. Coad is a longtime advocate of equitable housing and affordable healthcare for the underserved and underrepresented citizens in the community. Her efforts to revitalize the Southside community led to the naming of the Nettie Coad apartment complex on Martin Luther King Drive.

African American Leadership engages donors in the work of United Way of Greater Greensboro. United Way addresses critical community needs in the areas of Education, Income (Self Sufficiency) and Health by delivering 61 programs through 30 partner agencies. United Way also supports and provides leadership to three strategic initiatives including Thriving at Three, Partners Ending Homelessness and  2-1-1, a 24/7 referral line that operates 365 days a year.

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Tweet to Win a Free USA TODAY Ad for United Way

As part of its #AmericaWants campaign, USA TODAY is offering a full-page full-color ad (valued at $189,000) to the nonprofit that generates the most Tweets between now and Friday, April 16.  If you want to help, Tweet this to all your contacts and urge them to do the same: #AmericaWants United Way to get a full-page ad in USA TODAY. Please note: Use “United Way,” not a local United Way name, otherwise your Tweets won’t add up. For more information, go to the #AmericaWants website.

Source: United Way Worldwide

By: Aden Hailemariam, Marketing & Communications at United Way of Greater Greensboro

UPDATE: Check out more info here on the USA Today site!

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The YWCA and the Greensboro Commission on the Status of Women are sponsoring a brown bag monthly lunch series presenting “provocative, relevant discussions on issues important to women.”

It is probably safe it say that in the big picture, those issues important to women are also relevant to everyone else. There have been distinct and progressive changes in how women operate in society. Still, issues such as maternity leave and even paternity leave may reflect broader cultural notions of the family as a social unit. How have family roles changed relative to the past? How does single parenthood factor into this? What about the choices that young career-focused women make, single with no dependents or otherwise? What are the dynamics between women’s health, healthcare and work?

I attended the first event in the lunch series, “The New Breadwinners” on Tuesday, March 23rd. The event description stated that, “Women now account for half of all jobs with sweeping consequences for our nation’s economy, society, and future prosperity.” I was one of the few younger attendees; I am in my mid-20s, a current grad school graduate, and I have have started paving my career path. How do people look at me as a woman? How do my aforementioned qualities of generation, education, etc. reflect society today and affect my decisions for the future? Still, through the questions asked during the lunch, I gleaned that each person was going through a stage, or a set of circumstances, that was actually relatable to those younger than her and older than her.

With perspectives from HR professionals and the world of academia, we attendees probed The Shriver Report to learn more about the “portrait of American women and families” and the explore the new notion of a “woman’s nation.” The series presents topics on the fourth Tuesday of each month with topics including:

• Invisible but essential: Immigrant women in America
• Sick and tired: Working women and their Health
• Finding your mission: Re-evaluating goals and values
• Where have you gone, Roseanne Barr?: Women in the media
• Single in a marriage-centered world
• Remember our history (or we’ll be doomed to repeat it)

Bring your lunch and join the discussion!

The event is held at the new YWCA of Greensboro office on 4002 Spring Garden St. (between Wendover Ave. and West Market St.) unless otherwise noted.

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YWCA is a United Way of Greater Greensboro partner agency with programs funded in the focus areas of Caring for Everyone’s Health and Growing Successful Kids.

Interested in more ways to connect with other women while impacting the community? Learn more about Women’s Leadership and Tocqueville Women’s Leadership at United Way of Greater Greensboro.

By: Aden Hailemariam, Marketing & Communications at United Way of Greater Greensboro

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Our AmeriCorps VISTA member, Chalene, is hosting a Census Blitz event this weekend and so we wanted to share other Blitz events in town this weekend.

What’s a Blitz?

City of Greensboro info on Blitz events.

City of Greensboro Census Blitz tracts.

City of Greensboro Complete Count Committee Census 2010.

Google search for census blitz greensboro.

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Census Distribution in English & Arabic

4930 Mary St.

Friday, April 9^th

11am-5pm

Host: Islamic Center of the Triad

Farmer’s Market

501 Yanceyville St.

8am-12pm

Host: Bethel AME Church, A&T Case students

Interactive Resources

Community Cookout

3015 E. Bessemer Ave.

11am-2pm

Host: IRC, Genesis Church & Erwin Montessori

Eastside Community Center

Fish Fry/Hot Dog Supper

429 Gillespie St.

10am-3pm

Host: Mary Stamey, Eastside Park Community Center

Community Meet-N-Greet Potluck

1214 Grove St. (the HIVE)

5pm-7pm

Host: Karen M. & Chalene P. (That’s Chalene!)

St. Philip AME Zion Church

1330 Ashe St.

10am-2pm

Host: St. Philip AME Zion Church, Rev Shuford

Teen Challenge

Community Basketball

1912 Boulevard St.

Time TBA

Host: Allen Hunt, Marissa Durlaga, Lavela Center, Teen Challenge

Census Distribution at A&T

1601 E. Market & Surrounding areas.

All Day event

Host: Greensboro Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, A&T CASE students

By: Aden Hailemariam, Marketing & Communications at United Way of Greater Greensboro

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Please enjoy some photos from the LPF event on March 27th at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. Latino Professional Forum joined the Tapestry Group in a reception and group tours of the museum. Paul Jeffrey, LPF President, spoke on behalf of LPF at the event and was followed by introductions from Weaver Foundation and ICRCM.

LPF is–as its name implies–a group of local professionals networking. Like the Tapestry Group, it goes beyond purely economic concerns and professional networking by allowing a space for people who may not find each other in the same space a place to socialize and feel more comfortable engaging each other in the present and in the future.

ICRCM goes beyond exhibiting local histories of civil rights and shares histories from around the world to truly engage the International part of its title. Even locally:

It is often noted that while Greensboro’s history of experience, conflict and progress between groups has been [between] black and white, the portrait has changed.

Previous post: Living history.

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Come out on Sunday, May 16, 2010 at NewBridge Bank Park to see the Grasshoppers play the Lakewood Blueclaws for the 2nd Annual Home Run for Homelessness, a commemoration of the Partners Ending Homelessness initiative.

Learn more about the event and Partners Ending Homelessness here.

Learn more about the Greensboro Grasshoppers here.

Schedule

3:00PM Gates open

3:00PM to 3:30PM Play catch on the field!

4:00PM Opening pitch

3:00PM to 6:00PM Kids Carnival on Natty’s Hill

Tickets

Reserve your seats by May 12th!

Advance tickets are $7 to $9 (minimum order of 10 tickets required)

$2 from each advance ticket order benefits Partners Ending Homelessness

We hope you will join us for this event and make this a fun-filled annual family tradition! There will be games and lots of fun for kids of all ages. This is an opportunity for youth groups, outreach departments, Ladies’ and Men’s study groups, Girls and Boy Scouts, Little League teams, fraternities and sororities, Rotary Clubs, Civitan Clubs, Kiwanis groups, and others, to have an afternoon of fellowship while supporting a worthwhile cause that impacts friends and neighbors in our own backyard.

For group tickets of ten tickets of more, a portion of the proceeds of every ticket sold will be donated to the Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative. If you are interested in group sales, please contact Brian Lee of the Greensboro Grasshoppers at 336-268-2887 or  brian@gsohoppers.com.  For more information about Home run for Homelessness or Partners Ending Homelessness, contact Myla Erwin at  myla@PartnersEndingHomelessness.org.

Bring the little ones to the carnival, pitch a blanket on the lawn before the game, and buy some hot dogs and popcorn inside the park. Let’s bat a home run for homelessness!

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When I add my byline to many of these blog posts, I add that I am in the Marketing & Communications department here at UWGG. I also have another role at UWGG as the Latino Professional Forum Coordinator. Last weekend, LPF had it’s first event of the year at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum.

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I was snowed in pretty badly on February 1st, the day that the International Civil Rights Center & Museum opened. If I could have gotten out of my driveway, I surely would have come to the office and scheduling would have it that I could be take part in the grand opening before I would even feel like it was time for my morning cup of green tea at my desk.

Before and after the opening, I often checked the museum’s website which was slowly but surely evolving. Each time, the museum’s splash page made me uneasy, though it intrigued me. There may have been some intent there; you were more or less welcomed with two doors–one that said “WHITE ENTRANCE” and the other, “COLORED ENTRANCE.” To enter the site, you could click on one or the other. If you had never been to the site before, you may not have know whether or not the page that the door linked to would be different than the other…

And, what was the consequence of clicking on the door that perhaps you wouldn’t go through in real life?

Ok, we are talking about clicking here. Of course, these days, clickers beware, but in this context, the museum presented to me a reality of the past that stopped me in my tracks.

Today, if you go to www.sitinmovement.org, you are presented with a similar splash page, but there’s nothing to click, nothing to choose. The intro loads and you are presented with a statement that you can agree with:

Some things should be left to history. When I first saw this, I was almost relieved.

Still, I am of the persuasion that history never ends and that it is not just a thing of the past.

In any case, the past affects the present and the future. The museum may focus on the sit-ins of Greensboro and the Civil Rights Movement as it is known in the United States, but the museum also intends to address the international part of its name with focuses on civil and human rights issues around the world, of which you get a flavor at the end of the museum tour.

At the beginning of the museum tour, one enters the “Hall of Shame” exhibit. It is difficult to consume the photographic (and audio) evidence of the harm that humans inflicted on one another, however one can see how far we have come as a society from those experiences and not take that progress for granted.

It is often noted that while Greensboro’s history of experience, conflict and progress between groups has been [between] black and white, the portrait has changed.

Last Saturday, March 27th, the Latino Professional Forum joined Weaver Foundation’s Tapestry Group in touring the new International Civil Rights Center & Museum. In the next post, you’ll see a bit more about the event we had (including photos!). On behalf of LPF, I would like to thank the International Civil Rights Center & Museum for hosting us this past weekend.

By: Aden Hailemariam, Latino Professional Forum Coordinator and Marketing & Communications staff at United Way of Greater Greensboro =)

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Guilford County, NC – March 22, 2010 – The Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative is proud to announce its relocation to its new offices in Greensboro and in High Point from its former office within Family Service of the Piedmont in Jamestown, NC. The move stems from an expansion of focus, growth of the Initiative and the recognition of the importance of being located close to the Initiative’s projects, programs, and partners. The new offices, set to open on April 1, 2010, will enable the Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative to have an elevated presence in both High Point and Greensboro.

The United Way of Greater High Point and the United Way of Greater Greensboro have championed the Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative and continue to actively support the Initiative by providing an in-kind gift of office space. The Greensboro office is located in the United Way of Greater Greensboro building located at 1500 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro, NC 27405. In High Point, Partners Ending Homelessness is located within the United Way of Greater High Point building, 201 Church Avenue, High Point, NC 27262.

New Contact Information:

Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative

1500 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro, NC 27405

201 Church Avenue, High Point, NC 27262

336.553.2715

Info@PartnersEndingHomelessness.org

www.PartnersEndingHomelessness.org

K. Jehan Benton-Clark, MSW

Initiative Director

Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative

1500 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro, NC 27405

201 Church Avenue, High Point, NC 27262

336.553.2715

Jehan@PartnersEndingHomelessness.org

www.PartnersEndingHomelessness.org

Myla Erwin

Community Resource Specialist

Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative

1500 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro, NC 27405

201 Church Avenue, High Point, NC 27262

336.553.2715

Myla@PartnersEndingHomelessness.org

www.PartnersEndingHomelessness.org

Source: Partners Ending Homelessness

By: Aden Hailemariam, Marketing & Communications at United Way of Greater Greensboro

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Congrats to Melissa B. of Burlington, NC! Melissa has won the autographed basketball in the United Way raffle for a basketball signed by all of the ACC Men’s Basketball coaches. Thanks to all who visited Greensboro for the tournaments, the locals who came out to the games, those who volunteered or staffed the tournaments, and everyone who visited us at the United Way booth!

United Way of Greater Greensboro, United Way of Greater High Point and United Way of Forsyth County were excited to be the hosting United Ways at FanFest! Learn more about your local United Way here (enter your zip code in the top right-hand corner).

See more photos of FanFest in this and other albums.

More info on the United Way/ACC relationship.

Happy Spring!

By: Aden Hailemariam, Marketing & Communications at United Way of Greater Greensboro

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Since our regional 2-1-1 billboards were put up earlier this month, I’ve passed by both of them on my travels between Greensboro and High Point. After planning for the installation for months, all I could do was smile when I saw the real thing installed and to-the-point for drivers passing by. These new billboards share the 2-1-1 number and it’s main goal–to help if help is needed.

The first step in finding help is knowing who to call.  9-1-1 is for emergencies, 4-1-1 is for directory assistance and 2-1-1 is for finding community health and human service resources. (from www.nc211.org)

Learn more about 2-1-1 in North Carolina here.

By: Aden Hailemariam, Marketing & Communications at United Way of Greater Greensboro

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