OMMUNIT
United Way of the Midlands Community Update Winter ‘16/Spring ‘17
From the President and CEO AN ENGAGED AND CARING COMMUNITY
With spring’s arrival, United Way of the Midlands is grateful for the seeds of hope planted by remarkably engaged and generous neighbors who care Shawna Forsberg about strengthening our community. Whether the support comes from an individual or a company, or whether it’s in the form of volunteer service or a monetary donation, our community’s strength grows. We were proud to have the endorsement of corporate and community leader Ken Stinson at our Annual Meeting last fall. Said Stinson, “Increasing the number of vulnerable residents who are able to achieve financial stability is the first step toward independence and an overall reduction in local poverty. That bodes well for the success of this critical organization in identifying and addressing the future important needs of our community.” The meeting was also an opportunity to unveil the bold “2025 Goals” that focus on increasing the number of local residents who are able to address their urgent needs, succeed at school and become financially stable. The goals are intentionally aligned with other forward-thinking efforts at the Greater Omaha Chamber, Omaha Community Foundation and Heartland 2050. We invite you to read about the goals and the local statistics that indicate the urgent need to act. (See “2025 Goals” on Page 2) Because our community’s challenges cannot be addressed or solved by a single organization, United Way and great partners are continuing a symposium series that shines a light on serious human service issues. On March 22, 150 people attended a gathering that focused on hunger and food insecurity in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area. See page 6. The series continues on June 8, when Anne Mosle, vice president of the Aspen Institute delivers a keynote address and engages guests in a discussion on breaking the cycle of poverty across generations of families. Mosle is recognized nationally for building pathways to opportunity for women and families. We hope you’ll join us for this important event, as United Way and many great partners focus on helping more
children achieve success in school, and moving more families toward financial stability. Many thanks to our partners in the symposiums: Buffett Early Childhood Institute, First National Bank, Nebraska Children and Families Foundation, University of Nebraska Medical Center and University of Nebraska Omaha. To focus resources on reducing poverty, we are fortunate to have the leadership of communityminded citizens who serve on our board, those who carefully invest donor funding and many others who volunteer their time to make our metro area stronger. To increase engagement and make it easy for volunteers to track their own service hours, we have launched a new online tool called “Get Connected”, which provides similar tracking benefits for nonprofit and civic groups as well. The site is accessible at unitedwaymidlands.org. We are fortunate that community leaders like Ken and Annie Bird are sharing their campaign experience and passing the baton to chairs Steve and Sue Seline, who will lead the United Way of the Midlands Dr. Ken and Annie Bird at the 2016 Annual Meeting 2017 fundraising effort. Steve is president of Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC and served as the Chairs Division Chair in 2016. Sue is vice president of Walnut Radio and chair of the Westside High School Foundation. Scott Moore and Danene Tushar will serve as chairs of the Tocqueville Society, which makes for a very strong donor engagement effort that starts this summer. Thanks to those who make a contribution, who donate their time or expertise and the strong local organizations that maximize our community’s strength and resources through thoughtful collaboration – our community is indeed strong. There is much to be done. But thanks to you, our metro area is ready for the work that lies ahead.
Shawna Forsberg
COMMUNITY United Way of the Midlands’ funded programs provide important service to our neighbors every day. Now, the organization’s COMMUNITY plans for long-term positive STRONG impact are set in motion 2025 Goals with the “2025 Goals”. This set of specific and measurable long-range objectives now guides United Way of the Midlands’ work and holds it accountable for positive results from the signature program investment fund and collaborative work with other area partners. The goals are focused on ensuring the availability of services for the community’s most vulnerable members, providing needed supports for students that contribute to academic success, and enhancing the household income for local residents who live in poverty.
By 2025: • Over two million services addressing basic needs will be delivered to our neighbors living in or at risk of poverty. • 85% of 9th graders will be on track to succeed in school and life (approximately 7,900 students). • 65% of Omaha-Council Bluffs residents will be financially stable, so they can support themselves and their families (approximately 564,500 people).
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT:
• Improve grade level reading and pre-literacy skills for 7,000 children • Develop key life skills in 17,500 students and reduce chronic absenteeism by 10%.
19%
3rd Graders
1,789 (19%) of 9,414 3rd grade students in the Learning Community school districts were not reading on grade level in 2014-2015.
FINANCIAL STABILITY:
• Help 4,500 people increase their earning potential through access to job skill development and postsecondary education. • Improve financial opportunities of 7,000 metro residents through financial education, Earned Income Tax Credit and eliminating barriers to work. • Connect 1,000 young people who are not in school or working to meaningful education or employment.
In turn, the long-range goals are supported by annual goals in each of the three areas; in 2017, United Way has committed to provide, in the area of
BASIC NEEDS:
• 35,000 physical and mental health services • 20,000 critical safety services • 53,000 community resource referrals through the 2-1-1 call center. • 48,000 healthy food services to those at risk of hunger.
EMPLOYMENT
You can see the full 2025 document at:
unitedwaymidlands.org/2025goals
United Way Events ANNUAL MEETING
The strength of any community-focused organization begins with the people who support and guide it. United Way of the Midlands is fortunate that so many people and organizations gather at its table to make the community stronger. With that in mind, United Way of the Midlands’ annual meeting on October 21st celebrated donors and volunteers who have made a positive and measurable impact on the nonprofit and the community at large.
collective understanding “Our community of community needs. depends on It is positioned today United Way to with a community remain aligned wide perspective and with community embedded knowledge that allows them to needs” see opportunities and -Ken Stinson needs, to mobilize people and resources to improve collaboration.” Stinson and the strategic planning committee also called upon the 94-year old nonprofit to help donors and the community make informed choices and work together toward a bold community vision.
UWM Board Chair Dr. Mary Hawkins
In her opening remarks, UWM Board Chair and Bellevue University President Dr. Mary Hawkins noted the widely-shared local passion to make the Omaha-Council Bluffs community strong, by caring for those who need help. “We like to solve “What I also see in our community is a stubborn problems and belief that we cannot we do that best only help our neighbors, when we work but importantly, together” tackle the systemic -Dr. Mary Hawkins problems that create or exacerbate the hardships and real challenges people in our community face.” Ken Stinson, chairman emeritus of Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc., delivered the meeting’s keynote address. As chair of UWM’s strategic planning process, Stinson and other members established a clear vision for the organization that reflected United Way’s historic mission: to continue to help the most vulnerable, to better understand the community’s needs and to establish metrics that empowers the organization to better understand what does and does not work. “United Way must remain responsive to feedback and engaged across various sectors by listening to the community, sharing insights, and enhancing
Keynote speaker Ken Stinson
President and CEO Shawna Forsberg announced the organization’s 2025 Goals at the October event. “They are a culmination of the United Way’s strategic plan, community needs assessment findings, task force results and study of national data and trends,” said Forsberg. “The goals convey how United Way will invest and measure progress over the next eight years. The 2025 goals will guide our work and keep our organization accountable for the positive results from UWM investments and our collaborative work with other local partners.” Forsberg noted the steady guidance of the UWM Board of Directors, including current chair Dr. Mary Hawkins and Lance Fritz, Chairman, President and CEO of Union Pacific Corporation who presided over the UWM board for the previous two years. 420 guests and community leaders attended the event, which was sponsored by Silverstone Group and hosted by WOWT News Anchor Serese Cole.
Dr. Amy Haddad and Steve Martin accept their “Citizens of the Year” Award.
“2016 CITIZENS OF THE YEAR”
Steve Martin and Dr. Amy Haddad were recognized as United Way of the Midlands’ “Citizens of the Year” at the October 21st annual meeting. The CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska and director of Creighton University’s Center for Health Policy and Ethics were selected for the honor by a committee of community leaders and past recipients. Among their many civic commitments, the couple served as chairs of the 2006 UWM Campaign, and Steve Martin led the board in 2008. Martin’s commitments include service as a Governor for the Knights of Aksarben, and as a board member for Lauritzen Gardens, Strategic Command Consultation Committee and The Durham Museum. Dr. Haddad has served in leadership positions with the Douglas County Board of Health, Women’s Fund of Omaha, Opera Omaha Guild, Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, Midlands Council of Girl Scouts of America, Alzheimer’s Association of Omaha-Eastern Nebraska and Joslyn Art Museum.
2-1-1/UWM PARTNERSHIP WITH HENRY DOORLY ZOO Thanks to a new partnership between Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, United Way of the Midlands and the 2-1-1 call center, a number of metro families that would not be able to visit the zoo now have a pass that’s good through the end of October 2017. Students in 31 schools in the metro area’s lower-
income neighborhoods were the focus of the pilot year of this partnership; all are in areas where 85 percent of students or more receive free-or-reducedprice lunch. In its first year, the partnership focused on third graders in the Omaha Public Schools, Council Bluffs Community School District and Omaha Catholic schools. The 913 zoo passes give children and their families the opportunity to have extracurricular learning experiences that others have, which can enhance interest in and success at school. Research demonstrates a positive relationship between family engagement and improved academic achievement, and that family and community engagement can impact student learning. Outreach at the schools was done by members of the 2-1-1 call center staff at United Way of the Midlands, with the added purpose of making sure families and school representatives are aware of the center’s ability to connect them with helping services for those in need across the metro area.
Representatives of First National Bank, NE Children and Families Foundation and Two Men and a Truck collaborated, with UWM’s help, before Christmas.
HOLIDAY HELPERS 2016
The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays provide great opportunities for individuals, families and coworkers to donate their time in service of others. For the third year, United Way’s “Holiday Helpers” program made connections between 228 volunteers and local nonprofits that are thankful for extra help during such a special season. Projects during November and December 2016 included preparing and assembling Thanksgiving meal baskets, putting up holiday decorations, serving dinner and singing carols at area shelters and organizing toys for distribution to local families. As an example of some inspiring holiday
partnerships organized by United Way, First National Bank employees collected gifts for more than 300 children who took part in the “Project Elf” project at Nebraska Children’s Home Society. The moving company Two Men and a Truck stepped in to help transport all of the goodies to NCHS for the party on December 7th. The trucking firm also delivered donated toys from seven other community partners to NCHS that were later given to young clients from across the state. Mark your calendars for next November 1st to check out UWM’s 2017 “Holiday Helpers” projects.
COMMUNITY CELEBRATES LABOR LEADER’S IMPACT
Several hundred representatives of Omaha-area corporations, government, labor, nonprofit and civic organizations gathered on December 16 to pay tribute to the longest serving labor federation president in the United States. Terry Moore has now led the Omaha Federation of Labor AFL-CIO for 40 years. Michael Yanney, Chairman Emeritus of Burlington Capital Group LLC, was among those who noted Moore’s passion for the spirit and economic health of the entire metropolitan Omaha area. Other speakers included Bellevue University President Dr. Mary Hawkins and United Way of the Midlands President and CEO Shawna Forsberg. Nebraska’s former first lady, Sally Ganem, thanked Moore for his countless hours of community service on behalf of his fellow citizens in the state of Nebraska. Among his many civic roles, Moore has served on the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority and Aksarben Future Trust. He was a member of the President’s Council at Creighton University and the Omaha Schools Foundation
(L-R) Walter Scott, Terry Moore, Mike Yanney
Board of Trustees. He established and continues to lead the annual “Septemberfest Salute to Labor” that celebrates the accomplishments of local working families, and raises funds for community service projects, including United Way of the Midlands where he served on the board for 30 years. Esther George, regional president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, sent her good wishes which were read at the event. Moore chaired the search committee that selected George. As the Omaha area’s representative at the Fed, Moore holds the regional bank’s record for longest term of formal service by a non-employee. He received a Volunteer Action Award in 1985 from President Reagan. In Omaha sculptor, Matthew Placzek, 1992, President George presented Moore with a bronze H.W. Bush recognized him eagle statue in recognition of his community service. with a Thousand Points of Light Award. The event was held at Metropolitan Community College’s Ft. Omaha campus. Event sponsors were: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, Kiewit, Omaha Public Power District, Walter Scott, Union Pacific Railroad, University of Nebraska Medical Center and Michael Yanney. The following labor organizations sponsored tables at the event: IBEW Local 22, Laborers Local 1140, Omaha Professional Firefighters Local 385, Plumbers Local 16, Road Sprinkler Fitters Local 669, Sheet Metal Workers Local 3 and Steamfitters & Plumbers Local 464.
YOUNG PROFESSIONALS
Members of the Young Professionals Council continue to support United Way of the Midlands’ literacy efforts on a number of fronts. In addition to organizing the “Rock Out to Read” event on January 20th, members of the group volunteer each month at Howard Kennedy Elementary in the Omaha Public School district, in a variety of activities that support literacy. The YP’s also had a ”Books and Brews” event on April 20th to network and raise awareness about Book Trust. Renaissance Financial Corporation hosted the gathering and co-sponsored refreshments with Omaha Tap House. The Young Professionals Council is joining with Kennedy Elementary staff and students on May 10th, to celebrate the team’s first full year of partnership, which also featured special holiday events in October and December.
ROCK OUT TO READ
Two of the metro area’s corporate and government leaders recently used their musical talents to raise funds for the Book Trust program at United Way of the Midlands. UWM’s Young Professionals hosted the Rock Out to Read event. Bands that include Omaha Public Power District President and CEO Tim Burke and Omaha City Council Member, Pete Festersen played to a full house at the Reverb Lounge in Benson on January 20th. Burke plays guitar for “The Shenanigans” and Festersen is a drummer with “Glen Hollow”. All proceeds from the benefit show are making it possible for kids in need to choose and buy two or three books monthly during the school year, to read and share with their families.
OUR COMMUNITY’S FUTURE BEGINS NOW
Omaha’s future is in the hands of those who live, go to school and do business here every day. To ensure the best possible steps to an even stronger community, United Way is working with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce and Urban League of Nebraska to look ahead toward the Omaha of tomorrow.
(L-R) Rebecca Ryan, David Brown, Shawna Forsberg, Tom Warren
The three organizations have engaged the services of Rebecca Ryan, an economist and selfdescribed “futurist” to bring people and organizations together to strategically shape the regional economy over the next two decades. Ryan, who is founder and owner of NEXT Generation Consulting, helped launch the Chamber’s successful Young Professionals group. More than 150 civic and business leaders gathered for the kickoff meeting on February 28th. Ryan’s role is one part of a project called “Strategic 4Sight”, an initiative that looks ahead to the metro area’s future with these things in mind: alleviating poverty, strengthening the economy, and preparing the next generation for work and leadership. Learn more by visiting www.omahachamber.org or by contacting Jamie Berglund at 402-233-7142.
REMEMBER UNITED WAY OF THE MIDLANDS ON MAY 24th FOR OMAHA GIVES! OPPD CEO Tim Burke (far left) with band “The Shenanigans”
HUNGER: CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS IN THE HEARTLAND
One in seven people in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area experience hunger. For one in five local children, hunger is an unfortunate fact of life and makes it even harder to succeed in school. As difficult as those statistics are, some of the people who lead local food security efforts say our community is making some progress. Susan Ogborn, president and CEO of Food Bank for the Heartland, moderated the March 22nd symposium sponsored by UWM, UNO, UNMC and Buffett Early Childhood Institute. Thanks to recent collaborative efforts in our metro area over the past three years, Ogborn said the number of “food Susan Ogborn, president and CEO, secure” individuals Food Bank for the Heartland has slowly increased, but is far from solved. Dr. Courtney Pinard, Senior Research Scientist with the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition concurred, and cited a recent collaborative effort in the 24th Street Corridor from North Omaha to South Omaha. Five agencies in the education, government and nonprofit areas worked together to increase the percentage of households with high food security from 15% to 19%. Hunger Free Heartland’s executive director, Rachel Olive, emphasized what’s at stake for undernourished children, who find it harder to focus at school and often have lower math and reading scores, which impacts their ability to graduate and get a stable job as adults.
Craig Howell, the Shared Services Coordinator at Hunger Collaborative say when adults are forced to skip many meals, it impacts their effectiveness at work. Or, he said, if they can only afford to eat low-quality food, obesity and other serious health problems can result, which also impacts their effectiveness at work and economic stability. Douglas County Health Department Director, Dr. Adi Pour noted that encouraging steps are being taken by some food stores and gas stations Dr. Adi Pour, Douglas County Health Department Director in lower-income Omaha-area neighborhoods to promote healthy food options like fresh vegetables and fruit, which often cost more than low-nutrition options. Early feedback looks very positive, Pour said, and she applauded the participation of some local community gardens as well as some organizations offering to provide instruction to families on the best ways to cook fresh, healthier foods. The symposium took place at UNO’s Milo Bail Student Center, the site of a special June 8th symposium that will be co-sponsored by the same organizations. Special guest Anne Mosle will deliver a keynote address on “Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: A Multigenerational Approach”. Mosle is vice president of the Aspen Institute and executive director of the organization’s Ascend policy initiative. For more information on this community event, please contact events@uwmidlands.org. A “white paper” on the food security symposium data and discussion is available for download here. A trailer for the HBO film “American Winter” was also shown. That trailer is available for viewing on youtube.com.
CELEBRATING BOOK TRUST’S FIRST SEMESTER
In six short months, more than 2,100 local elementary school students from low-income families now have a stack of books at home to read and share with their siblings. In most cases, they had very few when the school year began. Thanks to support from United Way of the Midlands and the Women’s Leadership and Young Professionals Councils, the children were able to “purchase” age-appropriate books through their schools’ monthly Scholastic Reading Clubs, as do many children in schools across the community. In all, the young participants selected and received more than 35,000 books from the start of school in August 2016 through February 2017. Bringing the book program to our metro area is one of several ways UWM is supporting the early literacy skills of children who live in poverty. The challenges they face are daunting; a child is four times more likely to drop out of high school if they do not read proficiently by the end of 3rd grade. If that child lives in poverty for at least one year, he or she is six times as likely to drop out.* Ten schools “Our students talk with a high about Book Trust poverty rate celebration days as if in six Omahathey are mini-birthday Council Bluffs area school parties each month.” districts are -Nancy Nelson, Principal participating in Holling Heights the first year of UWM’s Book Trust effort. By the end of this school year, each child will have about 20 books to keep and share with their siblings.
“Our students talk about the Book Trust celebration days as if they are mini-birthday parties each month.” said Nancy Nelson, Principal of Holling Heights Elementary in the Millard Public Schools. When they see staff wearing their book day t-shirts, I can hear the children sharing the names of the books they chose and talking about reading to each other during this special time.” Michael Naughton, Principal of Edison Elementary in Council Bluffs says “United Way and the Book Trust Partnership have impacted our school in a tremendous way. It has given students the opportunity to ‘choose literacy’ by buying books they never would have had the opportunity to afford.“ In addition to contributions from the WLC and YP groups, the Kum & Go Company also supported the local Book Trust efforts, in the form of a $10,000 grant in 2016.
Book delivery day at Ralston’s Mockingbird Elementary School was a cause for big excitement on February 21. ”Gru” from the “Despicable Me” movie series handled the book distribution, to the delight of the second grade students. (Gru was played by Ryan Pivonka, assistant principal at Ralston High School.) * Hernandez, Donald. (2011, April). Double jeopardy: How third-grade reading skills and poverty influence high school graduation. Baltimore: The Annie E. Casey Foundation, p. 3-4.
WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
The “Train to Gain for Student Success” initiative launched by United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) is on track and is now projected to help even more at-risk children and teens than originally projected. The goal of the WLC partnership with Collective for Youth is to eliminate the education achievement gap between low-income students and their peers at school, by providing additional high-quality and research-based training to the staff members at local “out of school time” programs at local nonprofits – where many children and teens go after school and on weekends. Often, the nonprofits don’t have the resources for such additional training, which includes topics like “Ask-Listen-Encourage”, active and cooperative learning and ways to manage conflict. In its second year, about 350 youth program employees are engaged in the training, with a projected impact on nearly 6,000 metro area students through the end of 2017. One of the out-of-school staff members who participated in the training says it has helped him learn a number of ways to better motivate students and approach obstacles in different – even positive— ways, to help them achieve their best. Members of the WLC also provide considerable support for United Way’s Book Trust efforts. On April 6, Dr. Rosie Edzie, director of development for the University of Nebraska Foundation moderated a “Lunch and Learn” discussion on the topic. The panelists were: Dr. Mark Adler, superintendent of Ralston Public Schools, Ebony Harvey, principal at Wakonda Elementary in OPS and Julie Danker, literacy coach at Bloomer Elementary in the Council Bluffs Community Schools.
(L-R) Ebony Harvey, Shawna Forsberg, Dr. Rosie Edzie, Julie Danker, Dr. Mark Adler
NEW, EASY-TO-USE ONLINE VOLUNTEER SITE
“Get Connected” is a new online and mobilefriendly engagement site that not only displays a variety of available local human service projects but also empowers volunteers to sign up and track their service hours right inside the website. With this easy-to-search online engagement portal, United Way can better help our fellow nonprofit and civic organizations develop meaningful and long-term relationships with members of our community who care enough to invest their time in the important work that’s underway at our local organizations. Please visit unitedwaymidlands.org/volunteer.
DAY OF ACTION/ DAY OF CARING
“Day of Action” on June 21st will involve hundreds of volunteers spread across the city, engaged in efforts to help children increase their reading skills.
“Day of Caring” on August 25th, is United Way’s hallmark service project that involves more than 800 volunteers from dozens of companies and other organizations who tackle projects like painting, organizing and cleanup at nonprofit organizations.
CORPORATE/EMPLOYEE TEAMS VOLUNTEER THROUGH UNITED WAY The logos below represent the many companies asking United Way to organize volunteer projects in the past six months.
Terex, a global manufacturer of lifting and materials-processing products held its annual meeting in Omaha in January 2017. Representatives called in advance to ask for help in lining up opportunities to help nonprofit agencies in our area during the team’s stay. United Way organized projects at four metro area nonprofits. In all, 74 Terex employees(below) spent an evening assembling care packages for shelter guests, sorting donations and painting at four nonprofit sites in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area. Terex President Jim Lohan says “United Way of the Midlands did an excellent job of finding four agencies for us to serve in the Omaha community.”
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