Enterprise Rent-a-Car Employees go to PAL Boxing Center!

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by Josh Camacho

Guest Blogger, Enterprise Rent-a-Car

On April 25, about 10 Enterprise Rent-a-Car employees got the opportunity to volunteer at the PAL Boxing Center sponsored by the Police Academy. We spent time with kids of all ages, helping them with their homework, playing games, and making t-shirts with them.

We got a tour of their boxing facility and got to talk to their coaches and mentors about what it is they provide for the kids. It was great to be able to spend time with all of them and to have them ask us questions about our careers and professional lives, as well as being able to assist them in whatever they needed. These experiences are eye-opening on both ends, allowing us to spend time with the kids and help with their struggles, and hopefully we’re able to set a good example for them and make a difference in their lives. It was a very rewarding service project–and lots of fun too!

Thanks to United Way of Salt Lake for their partnership with this great center!

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Granger Elementary Becomes UWSL’s Newest Community Learning Center!

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by Scott McLeod

Community Collaborations Director

United Way of Salt Lake, Salt Lake Community Action Program, Community Education Partnership, and the community of West Valley are excited to announce the creation of our newest Community Learning Center at Granger Elementary School!

Granger Elementary is an important addition to the CLCs operating in our community due to its unique profile and demographics.  Granger is the largest elementary school in the Granite School District, with over 860 students.  Among those 860 students, 79% qualify for free and reduced lunch, 79% percent are ethnic minority, and 75% do not speak English as their primary language.

Community Learning Centers are an important part of UWSL’s Cradle to Career initiative.  Rather than thinking of CLCs as a program offered to children and their families, Community Learning Centers are an approach to fostering learning and for improving outcomes for an entire community.  What distinguishes CLCs from other schools, even those offering afterschool programs, is the degree to which everything that happens at the school is integrated.  This means that daytime curriculum, school faculty and staff, afterschool programs and staff, and services from Community Based Organizations are all coordinated to leverage their overall impact.

For example, one component of the Granger CLC is integrating Utah Partners for Health’s Mobile Health Clinic into the fabric of what community members can receive at Granger Elementary.  When a student’s academic performance is lagging due to health problems, or a family member’s health problems, this can be immediately addressed on-site at little to no cost to the family.  Other services integrated into the CLC landscape are afterschool programming, adult education and language classes, free tax assistance, financial literacy, youth mentoring, free immunizations, health insurance enrollment, early education & pre-K, and much more!

If you’d like to learn more about the Granger Community Learning Center, or even take a tour of the side, don’t hesitate to contact United Way of Salt Lake.  We’d love to tell you more about our work and the great things happening at all our CLCs!

United Way of Salt Lake Becomes Part of JA CITY!

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by Chelsea Nelson

Communications Director

United Way of Salt Lake is thrilled to announce that we have become part of the exciting Junior Achievement City!  The UWSL “storefront” is now open for business and kids can learn how we work to advance the Education, Income, and Health of our neighborhoods and communities.

JA City is located at Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum and is a host to over 9,000 fifth and eighth grade students for over 100 schools during the school year.  Students spend a few weeks developing their roles and work strategies before entering JA City, and once they are there, they bring the city to life enacting out a day of “real life” as an adult! Students operate banks, develop budgets, donate money, manage businesses, and even vote. UWSL is so excited to be a part of this city so that students can understand the United Way mission, as well as what it is like to work for a non-profit in need of donations, volunteers and advocates!

Thank you, Junior Achievement of Utah, of creating this magical city where our kids can learn, grow, get hands-on experience, and be creative!

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Celebration of Service Winner–Volunteer of the Year, Paula Green Johnson

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by Chelsea Nelson

Communications Director

Our Celebration of Service Event is coming up on May 30th!  This event is to honor outstanding individuals and organizations because of their commitment to our community.

The outstanding volunteer of the year is an enthusiastic champion who shows commitment to our community and United Way of Salt Lake’s mission through extraordinary volunteer service. It is with great appreciation that United Way of Salt Lake honors Paula Green Johnson as the 2012 Outstanding Volunteer of the Year.

Paula is an amazing supporter of United Way of Salt Lake and of our work.  She chaired the WPN for more than two years, has continued to be a very active member of the WPN Executive Council, and is a member of the Women for Educational Achievement Subcommittee of the WPN.  She agreed to accept a position, representing UWSL, on United Way Worldwide’s National Women’s Leadership Council, where she is one of only 15 women from around the country. She is currently the vice-chair of our Public Policy Committee.  She is a member of the Changing the Odds Steering Committee.  She and her husband, Peter, are members of the Tocqueville Society.  She also opens her home regularly for UWSL events.

Congratulations to Paula and we thank her for being a community advocate, a voice for change, and an outstanding volunteer! 

Paula consistently LIVES UNITED!

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Guadalupe School Celebrates Teacher Appreciation Week!

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By Brandon Elwood
CLC Coordinator, Guadalupe School
Guest Blogger

Schools nationwide are celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week, and the parents of the Guadalupe School community wanted to be sure that they got in on the action. In past years, parents have organized a lunch at the end of the week. The lunch tradition is one that the teachers and staff at Guadalupe School love and appreciate.
This year, however, the parents decided to take things to another level. As part of the United Way backed community learning center initiative, the importance of parent and community engagement in school has been a major focus this year. In addition to the Friday lunch, the parents gathered on Saturday, May 5th to carry out a door decorating extravaganza. Each teacher’s door was decorated with a tree filled with apples which had been inscribed with class members’ names.
Beautiful flowers were created by hand with tissue paper and other materials, each adorned with the name of a teacher.

After decorating doors, the parents also took time to clean the buses which carry their children to school each day. Maria Campuzano, a parent of a pre-school student at Guadalupe, was instrumental in organizing the Saturday event. She happily explained that she and the other parents wanted the teachers to know what a great job they are doing for their children, and also expressed her pride that this event had been planned and executed by parents. Maria says the parents plan on providing a snack in the teacher lounge each day building up to the big Friday feast.

We look forward to more great parent involvement at the Guadalupe Community Learning Center as time goes by!

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Salt Lake County Mayor Visits Kearns Jr. High

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By Sarah Trescott
Interactive Marketing Director

As one of the staff photographers, I often have a fellow staff member stop by my desk and ask me to tag along with them on a tour or event to shoot a few pictures. It happens all the time so often I’m not exactly sure where I’m going and know very little about what is happening. I just show up with my camera! This morning I had the chance to join Mayor Peter Corroon as he toured Kearn’s Jr. High. It was great to be able to see a fantastic collective impact partnership in action!

The Mobile Health Clinic was in the parking lot, seeing to the physical needs of children and their families. Inside the school there was a station was set up for eye exams. And in the Community Learning Center there was an English class in session for parents. It was clearly evident that United Way Neighborhood Centers are the hubs of the communities they serve, creating a web of support surrounding entire families.

When we peeked in on the English skills class, Mayor Corroon was greeted so warmly from every parent in the classroom. When he got up to speak, the entire room was shocked as he addressed the parents in their native language of Spanish. I wish you all could have seen the joy on their face to see that the Mayor was taking the time to learn their language, and understood the difficulty each of them faced in the journey to integrate into American culture. Several parents had written him letters and read them to him in order to practice their English. It was truly a touching moment.

I couldn’t help but think how many people and partners were making this moment possible. People often ask me what we do at United Way of Salt Lake. Well, this is what we do. We bring people together. We bring partners together in spaces like schools so that parents can get education and health assistance. We ask companies and volunteers to get involved in order to help kids succeed in school. There are lots of fancy words and deep philosophies that could explain this all, but simply put… we bring people together, so that our communities can be a great place for kids and families. And ultimately, isn’t that what we all want!

I really encourage you to join us, there is space for everyone! Whatever your skill or passion, we need you to help us make this community a better place. And you know, together we really can do more than any one person or organization can do alone!

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May Tip: Dine Out One Less Time

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Today’s money tip comes from America Saves. Dining out is something everyone enjoys. Instead of pressuring yourself to stop eating out, try something more realistic like cutting one night of dinner out. If it costs you $25 to eat out, but only $5 (even less!) to eat in, then the $20 you save each month allows you to almost completely fund a $500 emergency savings account!

More resources and tips to help you cut your spending are available on the Believe website!