CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE DRIVE-IN CELEBRATION |
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Right now, we're gearing up to celebrate our local workplace champions. United Way's Annual Circle of Excellence event is coming up Wednesday, May 12th. Each year, we honor the outstanding community champions who volunteer their time, talent and resources to help promote the mission of United Way. The celebration highlights all the successes and hard work put forth by our valued business and community partners.
This year our event will be held at El Toro Flicks Carpool Cinema, where individuals and companies of all sizes can be recognized together for their excellent service and effort while social distancing. We're excited to announce that KVOA's Amanda Gomez and Lupita Murillo will emcee the awards. After the ceremony, attendees will enjoy a family-friendly movie, "The Princess Bride."
We want to thank our all generous sponsors who are making this event possible. Click here for more information and to check out this year's nominees. |
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SAVE THE DATE: DAYS OF CARING RETURNS |
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Southern Arizona's largest volunteer event is back! Mark your calendars and plan to join us for United Way's 22nd Annual Days of Caring event happening October 22nd and 23rd. Days of Caring brings together thousands of volunteers who roll up their sleeves and improve our community one project at a time. For more information on sponsorship opportunities or to learn more about submitting a project, email doc@unitedwaytucson.org
Project submission opens in June. Stay tuned for more details.
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TELL YOUR STORY FOR A CHANCE TO WIN CASH |
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We all have a story to tell but yours could win you some incredible prizes! Our Partners over at Million Stories want you to submit your money story to their #MYMONEYTALK #CONTEST. Whether it’s your biggest money mistake, your most brilliant strategy, funniest money moment, best advice you ever got or anything else that comes to mind. Check out these prizes: |
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Grand Prize: $5,000 cash
2nd Prize: $2,500 for groceries for the entire summer
3rd Prize: $500 cash
The deadline to submit your story is May 13th. Click here or watch the video above for more details. |
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Last month United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona presented the IdeaFunding Social Impact Award with Start-Up Tucson to the new Southern Arizona Organization: Diabetes Now. Diabetes Now is a female-owned patient-driven Diabetes Care Business based in Tucson. They're receiving a $5,000 start-up grant from United Way of Tucson for their vital work.
One in ten Americans currently has diabetes and the costs for care can be astronomical ($13,700/year on average) and many families find themselves having to choose between insulin and food costs. It has become even more necessary to find a solution now that over 8,000,000 Americans lost their health insurance this past year. Diabetes Now will help bridge the gap by offering wholesale prescriptions at $29/month that they deliver directly to your door, along with covering discounted doctor visits and lab work.
We want to thank Diabetes Now for helping us unite all of Southern Arizona with your innovative business as we work to provide equitable access to healthcare and improve the quality of living for everyone in our community. Click here to learn more about Diabetes Now.
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COVID-19 RELIEF FUND UPDATE |
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the need for assistance is growing in Southern Arizona. In the face of these challenges, your United Way has been providing emergency funding for community members through the United for Southern Arizona COVID-19 Fund. To date, we have raised $1,347,889 which has helped 70,727 individuals and families in need. We've sent funding to 35 partner agencies to fulfill 1,488 critical need requests. Click here to see KOLD News 13's story about a local woman helped by our COVID-19 Relief Fund. Here's another example of how the fund has helped local families: |
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Sahuarita Food Bank:
"Support from the United for Southern AZ COVID-19 Fund has helped us keep providing milk and pantry staples to people in rural Pima County, Green Valley, Sahuarita, South Tucson, Tucson, and Santa Cruz County. We continue to see a lot of families with children. One family with eight children, ranging in age from 2-14 years old, was struggling to afford groceries. The children loved milk, and our support helped them have plenty of it twice a month – they are so appreciative of what we have been able to do. We had another family with four foster children who are all disabled, and the groceries we provided helped them so much. Another client, a woman in her 90s, was seeing her health deteriorate because she needed more calcium and protein. We were able to give her a gallon of milk twice a month, and along with the other food provided, she is feeling much better. It is amazing to be able to help people with something as seemingly simple as milk.”
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Click here to learn more about the United for Southern Arizona COVID-19 Fund.
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MY SUMMER LIBRARY UNDERWAY NOW |
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Right now, thousands of books are being distributed to children in Southern Arizona. My Summer Library is partnering with 18 schools to improve 3rd grade reading proficiency, build home libraries and mitigate summer reading loss. 2,100 kindergarten through 2nd graders will receive each receive 12 books, totalling 25,200 throughout Pima County. This year, because of the pandemic, each classroom teacher will get a matching set of books to help strengthen the sense of community between school and home. Each school is providing volunteer support to count, sort and distribute the books to the students. We want to thank all of those staff volunteers and everyone who has worked to make this such a successful program year after year. |
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C2C CHOSEN FOR NATIONAL PROJECT |
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The Cradle to Career (C2C) was one of seven partnerships across the country selected to participate in the StriveTogether 2021 Systems Indicator cohort. As part of this initiative, C2C staff members, Peter Newbegin and Kassondra Silva, joined by Hilda Ladner, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer at Pima Community College, will join the community of practice to continue to build competency in racial equity data and will receive $10,000 to support the effort.
As part of this cohort, C2C and partners will develop action plans to strengthen how we use racial equity data to track progress on systems transformation for children and families of color. Although child-level data such as proficiency rates on standardized tests provides important information to support continuous improvement efforts, it is the result of systemic, structural, and institutional inequities. As we identify measures that reveal inequities in how resources, decision-making power, and opportunities are distributed to inform policies and practices within institutions and organizations, we will be able to track progress towards eliminating them. Click here to learn more about C2C and their work in Southern Arizona.
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LAST CHANCE TO FILE FOR FREE |
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Haven't filed your taxes yet? United Way's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) has you covered! If you made $66,000 or less last year, you do NOT have to pay to file your taxes. VITA can help you file for free without you leaving your house! We've teamed up with GetYourRefund.org to provide free, online one-on-one tax assistance from IRS-certified tax preparers. VITA tax preparation saves taxpayers an average of $250 per return. The deadline to file is May 17th so click one of the links below and file today.
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Circle of Excellence May 12, 2021
Join us for a virtual day of recognition for our workplace campaigns and the generous companies and individuals who help build a thriving community. See story above for details.
ACA Open Enrollment Now- May 15, 2021
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, open enrollment for Affordable Care Act healthcare coverage has been extended. Click here for more details.
New IRS Tax Filing Deadline May 17, 2021
The Treasury Department set a new deadline for filing your 2020 tax returns. Click here to learn how you can file for free with VITA.
United Way's 22nd Annual Days of Caring October 22nd & 23rd, 2021
Join in on Southern Arizona's largest volunteer event. See story above for details.
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*All photos taken without masks were either prior to the pandemic or while maintaining proper social distancing. |
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