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Author: Alex Northington

New Community Resource Hub Opens at Lincoln High School

Written by Alex Northington on . Posted in In the News.

By: Demond Fernandez for WFAA

DALLAS — Students, parents, and neighbors around Lincoln High School in South Dallas will have a new space on campus focused on connecting the community with a variety of resources.

Lincoln High School and a variety of community partners unveiled the school’s new Community Resource Hub on Thursday. The office is housed in the original school building. Organizers say it is a place where students, parents and neighbors can visit to get access to some of their immediate needs.

“It is definitely significant, because of the lower economical issues that we have in this particular community. We need all of the resources and help that we can get,” said Marcus Turner, President of Lincoln High School Dallas Alumni Association.

Several alumni, staff and neighbors toured the new resource hub. The space has computers and printing stations for parents and local residents to use. There is a coffee bar and a lounge for meetings. You will also find a closet filled with uniforms, clothing, hygiene and grooming items for students and neighbors. The resource hub is also stocked with snacks hits for anyone needing relief.

“We’ve got to let go of that façade that we don’t need nothing. We need all that we can get, with God’s love and grace and mercy. That’s what this is – God’s grace, love, and mercy,” said Willie Mae Coleman, Class of 1952.

The United Way, Southern Dallas Thrives, CGI, EY, and Dwell with Dignity are among community partners who worked to bring the Lincoln High School Community Resource Hub to life. Organizers transformed the school’s old storage space into the colorful resource center.

“We are appreciative of community resource centers like this, because they show that the community is willing to invest in our students,” said Drexell Owusu, Dallas ISD’s 2020 Bond Co-Chair.

The 2020 Bond initiative included about $41 million to invest in similar community resource centers on several campuses.

“We’re super excited about this, because this small example is a proof point of what is yet to come,” Owusu explained.

You can expect to see more community resource hubs like the one at Lincoln High School, and on a larger scale, opening in schools across Dallas ISD.

North Texas Summer and Supper Council Makes Sure Kids Don’t Go Hungry

Written by Alex Northington on . Posted in In the News.

The North Texas Summer and Supper Council hosted its first in-person summer meals kickoff event Wednesday for the first time since the pandemic started.

The council’s mission is to make sure every child has access to healthy food over the summer months when they normally rely on school meals.

The kickoff event at Beckley Saner Recreation Center in Dallas featured fun activities for more than 150 kids and volunteers sent kids home with free meals.

“Oftentimes, families do not have access to meals that would generally be free to them during school time. When school is out of session, this program really helps bridge the gap,” said Ashley Douglas with the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.

Volunteers expect to serve 70,000 kids in Dallas and Collin Counties during the summer months. Families are encouraged to call 211 to find out more about where to find free summer meals.

The North Texas Food Bank estimates that one in five kids in our region is food insecure. Research shows that events like this can increase summer meal participation, alerting families that community sites are open and offer a fun and easy way to get a nutritious meal. To find a summer meal site near you text “FOODTX” to 877-877.

AES Literacy Institute Wins Social Innovator of the Year at United Way’s The Pitch

Written by Alex Northington on . Posted in In the News.

By: Ben Swanger

For the first time since 2019, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’ signature social innovation event, The Pitch, was held in person. And taking home the grand $60,000 Social Innovator of the Year prize was ShaKimberly Cooper of Dallas-based AES Literacy Institute.

Founded about three years ago, the nonprofit helps North Texans from deprived social and economic backgrounds earn their high school equivalency certificate. AES also won $10,000 for most innovative venture, $10,000 for the best presentation, and $25,000 for completing the Social Innovator Accelerator Program.

The five participating innovators were given five minutes to pitch their ventures, followed by five minutes of Q&A with the judges.

“Just to get to this point, all five innovators were doing incredible things,” Amber Venz Box, founder of LTK and one of this year’s judges, told D CEO. “But ShaKimberly, having personally identified with who she is serving, was just so enthusiastic about her organization. Looking at it as an investment, dollar for dollar, her scale is tremendous. And her budget, on an annual basis, is $86,000; for the work she is doing, that is a lot of ROI in return for the community. I told the other judges, ‘If we don’t vote for her, we’re going to get booed off the stage.’”

Joining Venz Box in the judge’s chairs this year were Jorge Corral, Dallas managing director of Accenture; Chris Kleinert, CEO of Hunt Investment Holdings; Billie Jo Johnson, general manager of Toyota Financial Services; and Steven Williams, CEO of PepsiCo Foods North America. The event was emceed by AT&T Business CEO and United Way’s 2020-2022 campaign chair Anne Chow.

The five participating innovators included:

  • ShaKimberly Cooper and AES Literacy Institute, which helps individuals 17 years of age and older who did not graduate high school by offering a three- to six-month alternative program that allows them to earn their Texas Certificate of High School Equivalency.
  • Joseph Vincelli of The Artist Outreach, which uses the arts as a way for students to learn core subjects like language and math through a delivery focused on early-elementary learning using drumming techniques and dance moves.
  • Jennifer Searles of Veritas Impact Partners, which delivers the gift of health by addressing the key barriers of benefit literacy, technology/user challenges, and customer engagement. This specialized direct-to-resident approach allows Veritas to surpass national trends on telehealth user activation.
  • Shellie Ross of Wesley-Rankin Aspiring Professionals (WRAP), a pre-apprenticeship program for high school students that addresses gaps in workplace readiness and low living wages through technical instruction, soft skill coaching, financial support and literacy, and parent education.
  • Shireen Abdullah of Yumlish, which is creating an AI-powered cultural nutritional therapy solution for minorities with diabetes and is addressing socioeconomic barriers to dietary adherence.

A total of $270,000 was awarded this year, and each participant took home $25,000 for completing the Social Innovator Accelerator Program.

AES Literacy Institute took home a total of $105,000. Yumlish earned the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, which came with a $20,000 prize. The Impact Award for $20,000 was presented to Veritas Impact Partners. And the $25,000 Audience Choice Award was earned by Wesley-Rankin Aspiring Professionals.

“Watching these innovators get up here and pour their hearts out was amazing. They’re all so polished and really unbelievable,” said Chad Houser of Café Momentum, who earned the Social Innovator Program’s inaugural investment in 2013.

Since its founding, the United Way program has invested more than $5.9 million in funding, training, and mentoring for 64 North Texas organizations. Recipients have gone on to raise an additional $30.1 million in funding and foster more than 800 partnerships.

The Pitch begins with a month-long fellowship program captained by United Way. It features 10 area social innovators who receive seed funding and mentorship. Following the mentorship, the United Way selects five of those organizations to participate in The Pitch. It’s known as the Shark Tank of Dallas, but as Sarah Papert, CEO of Literacy Achieves and a mentor in this year’s program, put it: “It’s more like the Hunger Games.”

United Way ‘Women In Construction’ Effort Helping Clients Build Better Lives

Written by Alex Northington on . Posted in In the News.

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Michelle Wheeler of Dallas loves the idea of building things– and fixing what’s broken: and that includes her life.

“I was going through a really hard time,” shares Wheeler. “I left an abusive situation. I was homeless for a while… and so, I was living in a way I had never lived before. And I didn’t recognize myself anymore… life had to change.”

So, when the United Way approached her about getting involved in their Women in the Workforce program, it was just the nudge she needed.

“The people in this program really stood beside me and helped to guide me,” says Wheeler.

The goal of the workforce development program is to provide wraparound support to help move clients from jobs to livable wage careers.

And one of the eight career pathways puts “Women in Construction.”

When Ashley Douglas, Senior Director of United Way’s Southern Dallas Thrives Initiative, was asked “why construction,” her response came quick:

“Why not women in construction,” she responds with an enthusiastic laugh. “It’s really a holistic approach in terms of how we’re able to provide impact and work directly with residents to meet their ‘right now’, give them all of the necessities that they need from basic needs resources like transportation, or access to food, even assistance with childcare, to be able to allow them to focus on curriculum.”

Wheeler, now an HVAC technician with TD Industries, was a part of the first group of graduates completing training earlier this year.

“The job training was just part of it,” explains Wheeler. “I came into this with no family, no support, it was really difficult for me to start making those relationships again.”

But she’s learned to trust and is loving her new job and life. That progress is what makes Douglas smile.

“It’s just amazing to see,” says Douglas. “You literally see a life shift, and that is what we are here to do.”

The training is free for participants and the next class begins in January.

As for Wheeler, she can’t wait to see what she can build, on a healthier foundation.

“Is this really happening ya know?” exclaims Wheeler with a laugh. “I’m starting to feel like myself again… and I like it.”

 

Story by Robbie Owens for NBC DFW

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas Awards $1M in Health Innovation Technology Prize Funding

Written by Alex Northington on . Posted in In the News.

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas awarded $1 million in prize funding to the winners of its Health Innovation Technology Challenge at a virtual event on Oct. 19. The five winners range from small tech startups to large, well-established health care networks. 

The challenge, presented by AT&T, encouraged both entrepreneurs and health systems to create transformative, technology-forward solutions to community health challenges in North Texas.

The funding can empower the activation of solutions throughout the Dallas region, United Way said.

Startup and institutional innovators vied for two sets of prizes. Winners of the Entrepreneurial Venture Award each received $200,000 and winners of the Institutional Venture Award each received $150,000 in prize funding.

Entrepreneurial winners will also receive consultative support from the BCBS C1 Innovation Lab, which often works with health care startups to broaden the impact of innovative new products and services

The winners

Per United Way, Health Innovation Technology Challenge winners are:

Entrepreneurial Venture Award

GreenLight VitalSign6
GreenLight’s mental health software, VitalSign6, is a suite of depression screening and clinical decision support software tools for minority and economically disadvantaged children.

Insight Optics
Insight Optics created a smart, mobile-enabled eye exam platform to better serve patients who live in rural, impoverished, and underserved areas. The solution lets primary care providers and their staff record video of a patient’s eye on their phone. The exam can be forwarded to a local specialist for diagnostic support and follow-up care.

OneSeventeen Media
The creator of reThinkIt! for School—a digital mental health platform that uses chatbot assistants, live chat counselors, and other tech—aims to help students in sixth to 12th grades better process difficult emotions, understand their own behaviors and navigate those of others while preserving teachers’ discipline management time and saving schools money.

Institutional Venture Awards

Children’s Health
Children’s Health will expand the reach of two existing mobile apps for asthma and diabetes. The health innovator also will develop and include two remaining modules for behavioral health and weight management. Its BeeHive platform will help youth facing mental health challenges by providing convenient access to interactive support solutions for moments of crisis, educational information and tools, and links to additional clinician-approved, no-cost, just-in-time support resources.

Parkland Health and Hospital System
Parkland’s gamified teen resiliency platform uses technology and social interaction to provide a new pathway to wellness for at-risk adolescents aged 14 to 17 in the Dallas community. The Stand for Parkland venture merges the clinical and behavioral health expertise of Parkland Health & Hospital System with the advanced data analytics and community navigation capabilities of the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation and SuperBetter’s scientifically proven app (adapted specifically for teens for this challenge).

Finalists

Finalists received $20,000 each in prize funding:

The UT Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders
The Callier Infant Hearing Project uses 3D printing tech to make custom ear molds at the point of service to improve early access to appropriate intervention for infants born with hearing differences. This advancement will help prevent developmental delays and positively impact educational outcomes for children everywhere—especially among families who have a difficult time accessing clinical care, the group says.

MyPHI
The platform, a secure patient-controlled health information exchange, automatically accesses, indexes, and organizes patient data from diverse portals into a sharable summary report. The goal? To enable seamless health-to-school data sharing and care coordination and provide timely access at school to quality mental, behavioral and preventive care for low-income students with chronic diseases.

River Health
The virtual-first health plan is a subscription service that provides comprehensive primary and behavioral care to individuals. Working with partners like CVS Health and UnitedHealthcare, River provides virtual care, in-person doctor’s visits, therapy, and prescriptions for just $35/month.

Texas Health Resources
THR is collaborating with local schools to develop the Feeding Us to Learn and Live (FULL) Minds & Bodies program, a health care initiative grounded in technology that is designed to combat food insecurity and promote the emotional wellbeing and long-term academic success of low-income students who are traditionally underserved.

UT Arlington’s Center for Addiction and Recovery Studies
Gateway is a unique, interactive virtual gaming app aimed at gateway drug prevention. The game is designed to educate youth while also building refusal skills to withstand peer pressure—all in a fun, enjoyable game that has increasing game-level activities in a medieval-style wizard school setting.

The “why” behind United Way’s health tech challenge

“The issue of health impacts everyone, from individuals and their families to entire businesses and communities,” said Jennifer Sampson, McDermott-Templeton President and CEO of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, in a statement.

“To improve access and equity in health care, we must all work together to find solutions to our greatest challenges. The Health Innovation Technology Challenge is driving innovation and impact through collaboration, and we’re proud to have the opportunity to elevate our finalists’ forward-thinking, technology-driven innovations so they can benefit our entire region,” she added.

Specific challenges included increasing access to preventive care or improving social/emotional wellness and mental health. The funding is meant to help roll out the winning solutions which are aimed at their target audiences—”most of whom are North Texas students.”

Innovation through collaboration

That every major hospital system was involved in the challenge—either as a sponsor or participant—is a “true testament to the unity behind this concept,” United Way said.
The organization says the Challenge competition is just one element of its social innovation work. The nonprofit aims to “find creative new ideas to address our community’s systemic challenges in education, income, and health.”

Particularly in the area of health, United Way wants to improve access for North Texans who face challenges like no health insurance or lack of broadband internet.

Anne Chow, CEO of AT&T Business and two-time chair of United Way’s Annual Campaign, says sustained good health is key. It “enables individuals to thrive, which in turn, enables families as well as entire communities and businesses to succeed and grow,” she said in a statement.

“Now more than ever, we must leverage innovative, forward-thinking technology to improve access and equity in health care.”

AT&T was presenting sponsor of the event. Other sponsors included the Troy Aikman Fund at United Way Foundation of Metropolitan Dallas, Axxess, Kimberly-Clark, Baylor Scott & White Health, Children’s Health, The Harold Simmons Foundation, Vizient, Methodist Health System, Texas Health Resources, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital, BlueCross BlueShield, Medical City Healthcare, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, and Health Wildcatters.

By: Quincy Preston for Dallas Innovates

United Way Of Metropolitan Dallas Fights Pandemic-Related Learning Loss

Written by Alex Northington on . Posted in In the News.

DESOTO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – A new program in DeSoto ISD and Cedar Hill ISD is getting students excited about learning, even during the summer break.

t is a program called “Heal, Play, Learn,” developed by the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, in partnership with the school districts.

After a year filled with pandemic-related learning disruptions, Susan Hoff with the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas said the program hopes to help kids fall back in love with school and learning.

The Texas Education Agency estimates that, due to distanced learning, students lost nearly six months of instructional learning and more than 150,000 students went completely missing from school.

“Our focus is getting kids reengaged in school, so they are ready to start this fall ready to roll and excited about learning, which is so critically important,” Hoff said.

The programs feature STEM, arts, music, sports, and wellness classes. All working together to improve student’s social emotional wellness, physical health, and engagement with arts and sciences.

A strategy that teachers like Shannon Hill from DeSoto ISD said is a winning combination for students.

“You’re exposed to more and you are able to actually move, interact, learn more with peers around you,” Hill said. “You have something tangible to touch, which can spark your learning and your interest and that is the main thing we want to do.”

In DeSoto ISD, the program is part of the district’s summer school curriculum.

In Cedar Hill ISD, the program is open to all district students and families. The “Heal, Play, Learn,” classes will be held on Wednesday evenings in starting June 16 and continuing through July.

“This is a model that we hope other districts, not just around North Texas, but the state and nation will adopt as well,” Hoff said.

All made possible by a nearly $900,000 grant from Texas Instruments Foundation in partnership with Educate Texas.

United Way of Metro Dallas Cites Ambitious 2030 Goals as it Kicks Off Annual Fundraising Campaign

Written by Alex Northington on . Posted in In the News.

The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has announced its goals for the upcoming decade as it kicks off its annual fundraising drive Monday.

“United Way has an unwavering vision that all North Texans, regardless of race or ZIP code, should have the opportunity and access to achieve their full potential,” said Jennifer Sampson, the agency’s president and CEO.

The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas spent 18 months working with civic and community partners to develop its “Aspire United 2030” goals for North Texas, which target what Sampson called “the building blocks that enable citizens to lead productive lives” — education, income and health.

Those goals include a 50% increase in students reading at grade level by third grade; a 20% increase in young adults earning a living wage; and raising to 96% the number of residents with access to affordable health care insurance.

The fundraising drive is chaired by AT&T Business CEO Anne Chow.

“It’s more important than ever for corporations, constituents and all community members to join the movement and drive lasting change that benefits all residents of the North Texas region,” Chow said in a statement issued by United Way. “Only by working together can we address and overcome the systemic issues that hold back underserved groups, particularly minority populations.”

In connection with its 2020-21 campaign, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas will host a panel discussion Monday with corporate leaders about the importance of collective action to create lasting impact. The panel will include David Park, senior vice president of Atmos Energy; Curt Morgan, president and CEO of Vistra Corp.; Steven Williams, CEO of PepsiCo Foods North America; and Jim Hinton, CEO of Baylor Scott & White.

The campaign kicks off with a $12 million head start in corporate donations, including contributions from Atmos, Vistra, AT&T and Kimberly-Clark Corp.

 

Story by: Marc Ramirez. Marc Ramirez is a Dallas-based lifestyles journalist and food and drink enthusiast who would rather think about what’s for lunch than anything on his to-do list.

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