Author: United Way of Metropolitan Dallas

Meet the 2022-2023 Social Innovation Accelerator Fellows

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on September 1, 2022. Posted in News & Updates. No Comments on Meet the 2022-2023 Social Innovation Accelerator Fellows

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, social innovation is embedded in everything we do. We’re constantly looking for and implementing innovative solutions to long-standing challenges in our community.

Embracing innovation allows us to stay nimble as we work to improve education, income and health in North Texas. It’s one of the key ways we’re driving progress toward our Aspire United 2030 goals, which include increasing the number of local students reading on grade level by third grade, increasing the number of North Texas young adults who earn a living wage and growing the percentage of individuals with access to affordable health insurance.

As we move toward these goals, part of our social innovation work involves partnering with nonprofit and for-profit social ventures that take a creative new approach to systemic challenges impacting North Texans in the areas of education, income and health. Our longest-running social innovation program is the United Way Social Innovation Accelerator in collaboration with Accenture, which encourages innovative solutions to social issues by providing entrepreneurs with funding, mentorship and community connections to grow their ventures and amplify their impact.

Since its creation in 2013, the Social Innovation Accelerator has invested nearly $6.6 million and approximately 5,000 mentoring hours in 79 North Texas social entrepreneurs. With the support of United Way’s community connections and credibility, these startup organizations have gone on to raise an additional $33 million, build more than 850 partnerships, receive national recognition—and positively impact more than 155,000 North Texans over the last nine years.

As we continue to build on this success, we’re proud to announce the fellows selected to participate in the 2022-2023 Social Innovation Accelerator in collaboration with Accenture:

	Cornerstone Crossroads Academy Cornerstone Crossroads Academy (CCA) seeks to develop urban youth through transformative education, equipping future leaders to impact their communities for Christ. CCA looks for innovative ways to efficiently prepare students for an evolving workforce, equipping them to learn, think, plan and problem solve. Their goal is to ensure every student who enrolls at their academy graduates with a high school diploma or GED and enters college and/or the workforce.
	Empowering The Masses Empowering The Masses offers short-term training programs that create a lasting impact. Their initiatives include certification programs to bridge gaps in education and to create expertise, as well as workforce training for adults to create opportunities for sustainable employment. The organization also runs a food pantry to address the lack of access to fresh, healthy and nutritious food in South Dallas.
	Heart of Courage Heart of Courage provides support and resources for women who have lost temporary custody of their children due to drug addiction, incarceration, domestic violence, mental health issues or homelessness, working to reunite and create a better future for their families. The organization provides an array of services, such as court advocacy, one-on-one peer mentoring, parent support groups, and educational and career support.
	ilooklikeLOVE ilooklikeLOVE’s EmpowerU Program equips new and expecting mothers to actively expand their mental, maternal and financial capacity for building thriving, sustainable environments that shift their children’s lives toward a brighter future. The eight-week Mommy Cohort provides group and individual developmental sessions and instruction in pre/post-natal education, life skills development, financial literacy and employment readiness, with a goal of positioning low-income single mothers to be engaged in living wage employment and/or training by the time their child turns 1.
	Lullaby House Lullaby House provides a continuum of care to pregnant and parenting teens and their children in foster care in safe, stable long-term housing. The organization’s evidence-based approaches are designed to help teenage parents and families build relationships and capacities to move them toward generational wellness. Their services include individualized case management plans, educational assistance, mental health counseling, life skills and supportive services, which are crucial to achieving independence.
	March to the Polls March to the Polls is a nonpartisan voter empowerment organization that is focused on cultivating a lifelong commitment to voting and civic engagement in underrepresented communities, primarily youth and people of color. The organization forms partnerships with school districts to provide in-classroom voter registration and education—connecting the issues affecting students and their families’ daily lives to the power of voting—and utilizes innovative and effective ways to engage youth and people of color in the electoral process.
	Reading to New Heights Reading to New Heights provides free one-on-one virtual tutoring sessions for adults with low literacy. The organization leverages certified educators who teach the fundamentals of reading as if the adult is learning for the first time, which equips them to successfully navigate many demands of day-to-day life. Reading to New Heights provides a discreet option for those who wish to avoid a group setting and prefer a personalized learning experience.
	Together We Thrive Together We Thrive is designed to lead their young clients—each of whom carry labels such as homeless, foster and or sex-trafficked—to a place of sustainability where they can thrive. The organization serves youth in school during the school day, in transitional homes, in youth centers or any other location where their services are needed. Together We Thrive offers life coaches who provide the consistency of a healthy adult that thousands of North Texas youth are looking for and need.
	Women Rock, Inc. Breast cancer is the No. 1 cause of cancer deaths among Hispanic women and the No. 2 cause of cancer deaths among African American, Native American, Asian and Caucasian women. In response, Women Rock launched a Peer 2 Peer program to decrease the number of lives lost to breast cancer, with an emphasis on marginalized populations. Peer 2 Peer enables women to live longer through early detection and gives survivors purpose, pride and the power to thrive after breast cancer.
	Young Leaders, Strong City Young Leaders, Strong City (YLSC) works to educate students on untold local histories and narratives of race and identity, equip them with tools to create equity through community change and activate them to realize their visions for change. The organization is working to scale its Race & Money Curriculum, which provides the historical context necessary to help youth not only navigate, but begin solving for economic inequities for themselves, their families and communities.

What’s Next for the Fellows

The Social Innovation Accelerator fellows are already going through an intensive bootcamp powered by Santander, with expert instruction that will help them refine their business plans and set important organizational milestone goals. They are also receiving one-on-one mentoring and coaching from a team of Social Innovation Accelerator mentors.

Early next year, five of the 10 fellows will be selected to participate in The Pitch, our annual social innovation competition, where they will compete for tens of thousands of dollars in additional seed funding.

You’ll be seeing a lot more of these incredible organizations as they go through the Accelerator and compete for a spot at The Pitch. Stay tuned!

Checking in on Progress Toward a More Equitable Workforce

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on August 17, 2022. Posted in News & Updates. No Comments on Checking in on Progress Toward a More Equitable Workforce

In the years since COVID-19 reached our region, North Texas workers have continued to feel the broad-reaching effects of the pandemic. Across North Texas, many of our neighbors have been unable to find and keep good-paying jobs, and every new wave of the virus has brought fresh layoffs and uncertainty.

In the midst of these workforce challenges, in early 2021 United Way of Metropolitan Dallas partnered with national research and action institute PolicyLink and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions to publish “Advancing Workforce Equity in Dallas and Collin Counties: A Blueprint for Action.” The report identifies the array of obstacles workers of color face in the local labor market, as well as steps that are required to ensure these workers can readily enter and advance in the North Texas workforce.

In the 18 months since the report’s release, our region has made some significant gains in its employment statistics. However, many challenges remain—especially for women and workers of color.

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, income has always been one of our areas of focus, because we understand the importance of financial stability and a good-paying job in a person’s life. As our world has been reshaped by COVID-19, we’re more committed than ever to developing and investing in workforce programs that will provide a path forward for our hardworking neighbors.

Together with our committed supporters, we continually work to improve workforce equity throughout North Texas. And in the face of evolving difficulties, our initiatives are having a real impact on local workers and their families.

Progress Since the Start of COVID-19

When COVID-19 hit North Texas, our region’s workforce was devastated. Local unemployment hit a peak of 13.5% in April 2020. Women and workers of color were affected the most, because they tend to work in industries and jobs that were hit the hardest, such as food service and hospitality.

In the two years since, unemployment has gradually improved, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Take a look at how this year’s most recent unemployment statistics compare to the two previous years:

June 2020 unemployment: 10%
June 2021 unemployment: 5.7%
June 2022 unemployment: 3.8%

While these numbers are encouraging overall, the effects of the pandemic are still all too real for many of our neighbors.

Our Workforce Doesn’t Benefit All North Texas

Unfortunately, many of the racial disparities that COVID-19 highlighted in our local workforce have persisted even as our unemployment figures have improved. According to the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, our region’s Racial Equity Index ranking is 27^th out of the 150 largest metro regions in the U.S. That means for people of color, 123 metropolitan areas offer better access to high-quality education and training opportunities, family-sustaining wages, and employment for those who want to work.

Greg Mangum, vice president of economic mobility at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, affirms that workers of color in North Texas tend to have fewer pathways to good-paying jobs available. Plus, they’re more likely to have their careers impacted by external factors, such as access to childcare, transportation and digital literacy skills.

The “Advancing Workforce Equity” report explored several key trends that often limit job opportunities for workers of color in particular:

The workforce is deeply segregated. Despite the growing diversity of the workforce in Dallas and Collin counties, workers of color are crowded in lower-paying and lower-opportunity occupations; white workers are overrepresented in many higher-paying professions.
North Texas has a shortfall of good jobs that do not require college degrees. Overall, only 40% of workers are in jobs that are stable, are not at risk for automation and pay family-sustaining wages. That number drops to just 12% for those in jobs that require only a high school diploma.
Racial economic exclusion hampers the region’s economic growth. If racial gaps in wages and employment for workers could be closed, our region’s GDP would increase by 35%. With racial equity in pay, the average annual income of Black workers would double; Latinx workers would fare even better.

The report concludes that although people of color make up the majority of the region’s workers, they do not share equitably in its economic prosperity. More than 60% of workers ages 25 to 64 in Dallas and Collin counties and people of color. But Black and Latinx workers are about twice as likely as their white counterparts to be economically insecure.

Meanwhile, the cost of living has increased over the last few years. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator, a childless adult living in Dallas County needs to make $17.81 an hour to cover basic expenses and have a little money saved for emergencies. This number jumps to $33.62 if that person has a child. (Just last year, the hourly living wages were significantly lower—$15.98 for a childless adult and $31.94 for an adult with one child—proof that the cost of living has risen sharply in our community.)

“Since the start of the pandemic, everything has gotten more expensive, but wages have remained stagnant,” Mangum said. “And the workers of color in our community are up against enormous odds to find stable, good-paying jobs. That not only holds back individuals and their families; it holds back our entire community. It’s up to all of us to create and improve pathways to living wage jobs so that all of North Texas can prosper.”

United Way Improves Workforce Equity

In the “Advancing Workforce Equity” report, United Way and our partners found that we need a community-wide effort to improve racial equity in our workforce. Key steps to achieving this goal include:

Increase good jobs available for frontline workers of color
Increase the number of workers of color in pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeships
Use skills-based hiring strategies to reduce occupational segregation
Invest in digital literacy, adult literacy and integrated learning programs to reduce barriers to entry in the labor market
Increase investments in supportive resources like accessible childcare, affordable housing and efficient transportation

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, we’ve taken these recommendations to heart, expanding our existing workforce initiatives and launching new efforts to improve equity in our region’s workforce.

In the 18 months since the report was published, we’ve taken several important steps to encourage workforce equity, including:

Digital Connections: We’re working to bridge the “digital divide” by providing jobseekers and workers with access to digital literacy training, computer devices and internet service.
Career Pathways Learning Network: We’re building the capacity of adult literacy providers to better connect education programs to real-world employment outcomes.
Journey mapping: We partnered with SMU School of Design and Innovation to document the experiences of people of color who utilize local workforce development resources. The report identified opportunities to improve workers’ experiences, including providing career counselors, closing the immigration credential gap, delivering consistent digital experiences, providing coaching through transferable skills sets and building good communication networks.
Skills-Based Hiring Lab: We’re also providing resources and training for employers that are seeking to use more inclusive hiring criteria and practices.

In addition to these newer efforts, we also lead and facilitate the following programs that ensure workers of color can access good-paying jobs:

Pathways to Work, which provides training and credentialing programs to help hard-working North Texans get better-paying jobs in the high-demand fields of IT and healthcare. Most recently, our Pathways to Work healthcare partnership has helped to improve access to living-wage career opportunities in healthcare while also working to improve job quality for frontline workers.
Women in Construction, which is part of our Southern Dallas Thrives initiative, a partnership with United Way, PepsiCo Foundation and Frito-Lay North America. In partnership with Hilti North America, Women in Construction seeks to attract more women to the fast-growing construction industry by providing them with training and wrap-around services, such as childcare and transportation.
The Women’s Workforce Readiness Initiative, a partnership with CitySquare through Southern Dallas Thrives. The initiative provides 550 Dallas-area women with the social support and technical and soft-skills training needed to secure employment in high-growth industries such as advanced manufacturing and logistics, sales and marketing, and food and hospitality management.

Be Part of the Change

Income is an area that affects our entire economy. When more North Texans prosper, our region as a whole enjoys greater prosperity. In fact, if we can increase by 20% the number of young adults who earn a living wage, we’ll add nearly $800 million to our local economy. And it is our goal to do just that by the year 2030, as part of our Aspire United 2030 goals—our North Star for driving progress in the areas of education, income and health over the next decade.

We invite you to join our movement and create opportunity for all North Texans. You can have a direct impact on workforce development in our region by:

Volunteering to be a digital literacy coach. You’ll coach and motivate digital learners with tasks such as setting up an Indeed and LinkedIn profile and alerts, navigating through Microsoft Office programs, and other various professional technology skills.
Making a donation to United Way, which will help support workforce development initiatives like the ones outlined above.

Supporting North Texans During an Inflation Crisis

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on August 11, 2022. Posted in News & Updates. No Comments on Supporting North Texans During an Inflation Crisis

Across the country, rapid inflation has increased the cost of everything from food and gas to electronics and housing. Americans are struggling to pay for necessities while keeping up with their rent or mortgage, bills and other demands.

In North Texas, these trends have become a significant challenge for many of our neighbors. At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, we’re working to mitigate the effects of inflation on individuals and families. By leading a movement to improve access to education, income and health, we are creating opportunity for North Texans to thrive—despite the difficult economic conditions.

Read on to learn more about how inflation is affecting our region, as well as some of the ways we work to uplift people throughout the community.

North Texas Is Experiencing Record Inflation

The consumer price index is a good indicator of how the price of goods is impacting individuals. The index is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a variety of consumer goods and services.

Over the last 12 months, our region’s consumer price index has risen 9.1%—the largest increase since December 1981—according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The price of fuel and food are hitting North Texans the hardest. Energy prices have jumped 40.2% and food prices have increased 11.6% since summer 2021.

Meanwhile, the cost of rent in our region is up 17% year-over-year and 22.8% since the start of the pandemic, outpacing the national average.

For an average family in North Texas, that can mean spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars more every month to pay rent, buy groceries, cool their home and run errands.

The Effects of Inflation

As the cost of rent, goods and services continues to increase, North Texans need to make more money just to achieve a living wage. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator, an adult living in Dallas County with one child needs to make $33.62 an hour to cover basic expenses and have a little money saved for emergencies. Just last year, the hourly living wage for a single parent was $31.94—proof that the cost of living has risen sharply in our community.

Unfortunately, North Texas has a shortage of good-paying jobs, and every year more occupations require a degree or certification. As a result, 74% of young adults in North Texas don’t earn a living wage.

Understandably, the results of the current inflation crisis are particularly devastating for workers who don’t have a stable income and lack financial security. Inflation and rising prices have had a significant impact on buying power, especially for families that are food insecure. As a result, 800,000 people in North Texas face food insecurity, according to North Texas Food Bank. Meanwhile, rising rents have put even more of our neighbors on the brink of eviction.

United Way Is Empowering North Texans Against Inflation

Inflation can easily impact all areas of a person’s life, including our three focus areas of education, income and health. For example, higher transportation costs make it more expensive for parents to take their children to school, rising prices make it more important than ever that workers make a living wage, and factors like the cost of food make it more difficult to stay healthy.

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, we lead and invest in a variety of programs that create opportunity for North Texans. Together with our dedicated supporters, we are improving access to education, income and health, a mission that is as important as ever during these challenging times.

As Susan Hoff, chief strategy and impact officer at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, explains, “Today’s astronomic inflation rates have a significant impact on North Texans, particularly those with low to moderate incomes. United Way helps hard-working families bridge the immediate gaps with programs that provide rental assistance, health insurance coverage, groceries and school supplies. And our job training and certification programs like Pathways to Work and Women in Construction offer long-term solutions, equipping adults to get and keep living-wage jobs.”

Take a look at how many of our programs are having a positive impact on our neighbors during this time of historic inflation:

Dallas Rental Assistance Collaborative: In 2020, the City of Dallas chose us as a trusted partner to lead this collaborative, which provides rental and utility assistance so people can stay in their homes. Since the start of the pandemic, DRAC has provided thousands of households with rental and/or utility assistance and distributed millions of dollars in assistance to affected families.
The Dallas Technology Training Consortium: Funded this year through a $2.2 million grant from the City of Dallas, this initiative is providing IT and technology skills training to individuals impacted by the COVID-19 recession, opening workers up to new and better-paying job opportunities. The program will serve 630 Dallas residents over a two-year period, in partnership with Goodwill Industries of Dallas, NPower and Per Scholas.
Digital Connections, powered by AT&T: Starting in January, United Way began to distribute laptops and hot spots through AT&T’s $1 million grant to provide K-12 students and young people ages 18-24 across Southern Dallas with the resources needed to access education, further their learning, and stay connected in the classroom and beyond. We also partnered with Compudopt to provide refurbished laptops that come with two years of warranty and bilingual technical assistance. To date, we have distributed 1,500 hotspots and 730 laptops across Southern Dallas, creating new opportunities for students and young workers to learn key digital skills and secure a path to a good-paying career.
Healthcare navigators: At a time when rising costs may force some families to drop their health insurance coverage, United Way helps North Texans find and enroll in affordable plans that work for them. Our navigators assist with enrollment applications for coverage and financial assistance through the ACA Marketplace, Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), ensuring each client receives all the financial benefits for which they are eligible.
North Texas Summer & Supper Council: This summer meals program ensures students who rely on subsidized meal programs during the school year continue to get daily, nutritious food during summer months. During the past year, the program provided a total of 12.2 million summer meals to students across Dallas and Collin counties to combat summer hunger. Over the last few months, summer meals have provided much-needed relief for countless families who are coping with increased food prices while their children are out of school.
Pathways to Work, which provides training and credentialing programs to help hard-working North Texans get better-paying jobs in the high-demand fields of IT and healthcare. In our current economy, programs like this are increasingly important, since in the wake of the pandemic more employers are “up-credentialing” jobs by requiring additional preparation or training.
Stock the School and Stock SOC: Inflation has increased the price of nearly everything, and today the average family spends $660 on school supplies. To help our neighbors prepare for the new school year, we recently hosted Stock the School and Stock SOC, two volunteer events that enable community members to work together to ensure all students (and their teachers) have the resources they need to succeed. Each year, these types of volunteer events benefit thousands of students and educators, setting local children up for a positive experience in the fall.
Women in Construction: This workforce development program is part of our Southern Dallas Thrives initiative, a partnership with United Way, PepsiCo Foundation and Frito-Lay North America. In partnership with Hilti North America, Women in Construction seeks to attract more women to the fast-growing construction industry by providing them with training and wrap-around services, such as childcare and transportation.
The Women’s Workforce Readiness Initiative: This partnership with CitySquare through Southern Dallas Thrives provides 550 Dallas-area women with the social support and technical and soft-skills training needed to secure employment in high-growth industries such as advanced manufacturing and logistics, sales and marketing, and food and hospitality management.

See How You Can Positively Impact Your Neighbors

Amid rampant inflation, so many of our neighbors could benefit from support from the community. We invite you to join our movement and create opportunity for all North Texans.

You can have a direct impact on workforce development in our region by:

Making a donation to United Way, which will help support important initiatives like the ones outlined above.
Volunteering to be a digital literacy coach. Digital literacy opens the door to new job opportunities and higher-paying careers. In this volunteer role, you’ll coach and motivate digital learners with tasks such as setting up an Indeed and LinkedIn profile and alerts, navigating through Microsoft Office programs, and other various professional technology skills.

Checking in on Pandemic-Related Learning Loss

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on July 26, 2022. Posted in News & Updates. No Comments on Checking in on Pandemic-Related Learning Loss

For parents and teachers alike, learning loss has been a leading concern since the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. With all the stress and disruptions of 2020 and 2021, we all feared that the students in our community would fall behind, potentially for years to come.

While many students did experience learning loss in the first years of the pandemic, the Texas Education Agency recently released some very welcome news: This spring, Texas students’ standardized test scores in reading and math moved closer to pre-pandemic levels. That’s especially notable considering that in 2021, the same test results fell to levels not seen in at least 10 years.

This is good news for United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and our supporters, as we work toward ensuring more students in North Texas graduate ready for success in college or a career.

Learning Loss by the Numbers

Unfortunately, early pandemic-era testing numbers indicated that students were struggling to adjust to the new normal. In the fall of 2020, the Texas Education Agency found that Texas elementary students had experienced significant learning loss in reading, math and science. Fifteen percent fewer third graders were reading at grade level, and 31% fewer fourth graders were meeting their grade level for math.

This was a huge step back for our students. However, in the last two years, parents, teachers, community organizations like United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the community as a whole have come together to support kids in their learning journey. Students attended longer class days and took on extra assignments. Parents worked more closely than ever with their kids to get them caught up. United Way and other organizations launched and expanded reading programs and experiential learning initiatives to ensure students bounce back from the pandemic.

As a result of these efforts, this year’s results for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test show noticeable improvement in the areas of reading and math:

In reading, 52% of all students met grade level or above, representing a 9-percentage point increase from the previous year.
In math, 40% of all students in grades 3-8 met grade level or above this year, a 5-percentage-point increase from the previous year.

In North Texas, STAAR results tended to mirror the state-wide trends, with up to 10% improvement in the percentage of students meeting expectations for their grade.

Creating Opportunity for North Texas Students

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, we’ve led a movement to improve access to education—as well as income and health—for nearly 100 years. We recognize that education is one of the building blocks of opportunity, affecting everything from how much a student will go on to earn in their career to the quality of health insurance their family will one day enjoy.

When COVID-19 hit North Texas, we quickly saw the importance of supporting students throughout the pandemic and beyond. We ramped up existing programs that promote early literacy and launched new initiatives aimed at reengaging students with school. Through this and other work, we gave the entire North Texas community an opportunity to lift up students who were at risk of falling behind.

Examples of these efforts include:

Once Upon a Month: This partnership with Ferst Readers and The Boone Family Foundation provides children ages 0-5 with one free children’s book every month for a year, along with parent guides in both English and Spanish. The resulting interactions stimulate curiosity, language development and the learning skills needed for kids to succeed in both school and life. Since May 2017, more than 10,000 children have enrolled in the program and more than 46,000 books have been distributed.

Vooks partnership: We’ve partnered with Atmos Energy and Vooks, the leading streaming service for children’s books, to provide access to a free, one-year subscription for children ages 3-6 and early education teachers. In the first year of the program, 1,025 parents and 100 early education teachers signed up for subscriptions, helping improve early literacy for nearly 4,000 North Texas children.

Heal Play Learn: Funded by Texas Instruments Foundation, this partnership with Educate Texas and CoSpero Consulting is designed to encourage students’ social and emotional wellness, physical activity and engagement with science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM). In the second summer of programming, about 1,000 students in Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Lancaster school districts get to enjoy incredible, world-class programming that includes science experiments, cooking classes, dance and music classes, and more.

Southern Dallas Thrives student support: As part of our partnership with The PepsiCo Foundation and Frito-Lay North America in Southern Dallas, we engage high school students by providing academic enrichment, career mentorship and workforce centered experiences to increase youth workforce preparedness. In addition, Southern Dallas Thrives works with our corporate partners to expose students to college resources and opportunities to encourage academic success after high school.

These and other United Way programs directly engage students with school and encourage them to fall in love with learning—which today is more important than ever.

“This has been an incredibly disruptive couple of years, with the pandemic and so many other things that have affected all of our lives, but most particularly the lives of students,” says Susan Hoff, chief strategy and impact officer at United Way of Metroplitan Dallas. “With the disruption in learning—our brains can only do so much when we’re stressed. Getting kids reconnected—through social-emotional support, through hands-on learning, through fun activities—is critically important for their long-term learning and addressing learning loss.”

Join Our Movement to Improve Education in North Texas

Together, we can continue to ensure more local students have the resources and support necessary to succeed. Join us today to make a lasting impact on education right here in our community.

Give: Sign up to make a monthly donation to United Way of Metropolitan Dallas to directly support our community-wide movement. It doesn’t take much: For example, just $36 a month provides a child with 12 books a year through Once Upon a Month, preparing them for school and early reading.
Advocate: Subscribe to our Advocacy Updates, and we’ll provide timely information on our top policy priorities, plus notifications on when and how to contact your elected officials.

Supporting Kids with School Supply Drives

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on July 18, 2022. Posted in News & Updates. No Comments on Supporting Kids with School Supply Drives

Message from 2021-2022 Women of Tocqueville Chair

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on July 15, 2022. Posted in News & Updates. No Comments on Message from 2021-2022 Women of Tocqueville Chair

In partnership with the incredible United Way of Metropolitan Dallas professionals, led by Susan Hutcheson and Deborah Arango, the 17 dedicated WOT Steering Committee members charted a challenging course for the year with our intentions focused on reaching for the stars by giving, advocating and volunteering in meaningful ways. I’m happy to report that we achieved everything we set out to and more! Through your outreach efforts such as alumni events, workplace campaigns, and connections functions at Tory Burch and Lela Rose, we added 54 new WOT members to our ranks.

Together, we aligned 13 WOT activities with our North Star – the UWMD Aspire United 2030 goals – to foster those building blocks of opportunity – Education, Income, and Health – through impactful and innovative solutions. We unleashed our members to cultivate and broaden our outreach to the diverse ethnic, industry and community sectors around us. WOT members were deeply engaged in both the hallmark and new initiatives – dedicating over 726 volunteer hours to connect, mentor, advise and advocate during a time of primarily virtual events.

Your engagement and impact were evident in our key events like Most Generous Next Generation, which highlighted the investment in the Southern Dallas sector, sponsored by PwC and Vistra Corp., Reading Day presented by EY, and Bench & Bar sponsored by FTI Consulting, as well as our newer programs like State of the Regional Economy sponsored by Bank of Texas, WiNGS Baby Shower, Agape Resource & Assistance Center day of painting, and Summer Snacks Kit assembly.

Recognizing that our own well-being is imperative as we serve others, we started the Steering Committee retreat at My Possibilities with a time of meditation and self-reflection and then opened each Steering Committee meeting with a reflective and inspirational quote. That introspection and social awareness continued as we participated in the Dallas Children Theater’s Social Justice Initiative and introduced our Steering Committee to DINE! an initiative to discover differences by including one another to navigate new perspectives.

The extraordinary significance of over $4.6M in gifts, which supported over 118 community partners. I’m especially pleased with the WOT Fund for Women and Children that has raised more than $16M and made its first disbursement to provide targeted financial and skill-based investments for women entrepreneurs in partnership with LiftFund and Comerica.

I know that I speak for all of us in saluting and extending my/our sincerest gratitude to the Women of Tocqueville Steering Committee. I am especially proud to hand over the Chair reins to one of the brightest lights with a generous spirit and the most giving heart, Mandy Austin, Dallas Market President of the Bank of Texas, who has been by my side as Chair-Elect throughout the year. Mandy is a brilliant business and community leader with a passion for our North Texas neighbors. She will continue to be an incredible force for good as the 2022-2023 Chair!

Endowing the Future of North Texas

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on July 12, 2022. Posted in News & Updates. No Comments on Endowing the Future of North Texas

What Is an Endowment?

Clearly, achieving a $100 million endowment is a huge win for our community. But what exactly is an endowment?

An endowment, quite simply, is philanthropic investment set aside to earn revenue to fund future charitable activities. In the case of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, our supporters invest money in our endowment fund, which is then managed United Way Foundation of Metropolitan Dallas. The foundation’s investment committee stewards the endowment funds, much like an individual retirement account, working to get the best possible return each year.

It’s common to think that endowments equal cash assets, when in fact United Way can only access the funds generated by the performance of the assets. An endowment is set up to steward funds in perpetuity, so each year we can only access the money we earn from our investments.

Setting Our Big Goal

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has been an important part of the North Texas community for nearly 100 years. Although new challenges emerge each year, we remain consistently committed to our North Star– improving access to education, income and health for every North Texan.

Of course, as the last few years have demonstrated, success, is dependent upon leadership’s ability to focus on building the capacity of the organization to rapidly adapt, live its purpose, and grow.

Our leadership understands that regardless of what the future holds, it is vital that United Way secures the funding to address the unexpected and drive measurable impact in our region for generations to come.

As Sampson recalls, the idea for the endowment campaign was born out of a desire to secure the organization’s future.

“The motivation was to build a permanent source of funding that would enable us to drive measurable impact in our community in perpetuity,” she said. “The endowment provides funding stability during times of economic uncertainty and volatility. It also allows us to make commitments far into the future, knowing that resources to meet those commitments will continue to be available.

In 2014, United Way and our Foundation leadership launched the Unite Forever campaign—the first endowment campaign in United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’ history—with a goal of raising $100 million in 10 years. In the year of our 90^th anniversary, we officially kicked off the campaign, led by co-chairs Ed Galante, a long tenuered Exxon Mobil executive; Roger Staubach, the legendary Dallas Cowboys quarterback; and the late Ruth Sharp Altshuler, an iconic and beloved philanthropist.

Galante explained why he stepped up to help lead the campaign: “I have long been a strong believer in United Way’s business model of harnessing the collective capacity of the community to give and then depending upon a capable staff and cadre of dedicated community volunteers to put those contributions to good use. The Unite Forever campaign was intended to ensure that this good work continues in perpetuity. For me it was a no-brainer to be involved.”

Galante, Staubach and Altshuler, along with United Way Foundation members and some of our most loyal supporters, made significant, pace-setting investments that inspired more than 2,000 others to join them during these last seven years. Early giving to the campaign exceeded $20 million and established incredible momentum.

Following the passing of Ruth Altshuler, Mary Templeton answered the call to serve as co-chair along with Galante in the final closing years of the campaign. The two co-chairs, along with United Way Foundation Board Chair, Terri West, re-energized the volunteer leadership of Unite Forever vice chairs in 2020 with a goal to close the Unite Forever campaign by May 2022.

Unprecedented Support from the Live United Movement

Thanks to an incredible degree of support from change-seekers across North Texas, we achieved and even slightly exceeded the $100 million goal just in time for our 2022 United Way Awards event, held May 12. As Sampson explains, not only is it remarkable to meet the $100 million goal, but it’s almost unbelievable to have reached it three years ahead of schedule.

“When we started this process, meeting a $100 million fundraising goal for an endowment seemed nearly impossible,” she said. “It was counter to our historical annual fundraising activities to support grants for community impact. But we made the impossible a reality—so much so that we finished the campaign three years early, and we exceeded the goal.”

Galante, who helped advance the Unite Forever campaign since its inception, says he is proud of the results of more than seven years of hard work—and what it means for North Texas.

“Surpassing the goal three years ahead of schedule demonstrates that the premise of our endowment campaign resonated with donors,” he said. “It shows how our community feels about the good work that United Way does and how people want to see that good work continue. The success of the campaign is also a testament to the hard work of our staff and campaign cabinet that helped to make it all happen.”

To Sampson, surpassing the campaign goal in just seven years means one thing: The Live United movement is energized, engaged and aligned on the best way forward for creating opportunity for all North Texans.

“People believe in United Way’s mission passionately, and they are willing to invest in our ability to drive measurable community impact forever,” she said. “It’s a record-breaking achievement. It’s breathtaking to realize that our endowment campaign is the second largest in the United Way universe. Only the United Way of King County, in Seattle, will have a larger endowment, and that is thanks to an $85 million kick-start from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

Thank You for Living United

This incredible achievement and historic moment is only possible thanks to you: the unstoppable Live United movement, our friends and neighbors who are leading change in North Texas.

Thank you to our Unite Forever leadership, our Board of Directors, and each and every donor who made this campaign a success. Your commitment will support individuals and families across our region in perpetuity, making our community a better place for generations to come.

Interested in joining the movement to improve access to education, income and health? Although our Unite Forever campaign is closed, you still have an opportunity to Live United by making a donation, advocating for policy change or volunteering with United Way.

Ensuring Students Bounce Back from the Pandemic

Written by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas on June 21, 2022. Posted in News & Updates. No Comments on Ensuring Students Bounce Back from the Pandemic

For many students across North Texas, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their lives more than any other single event. For the last two years, they’ve dealt with stress and uncertainty, learning disruptions, social isolation and more. And it’s no surprise that children may struggle as our community works to return to “normalcy.”

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, we recognize the challenges kids are up against today. Now more than ever, we need our students to feel engaged with and inspired by school, so they can graduate prepared for success in college or in their career. We have identified education, income and health as the building blocks of opportunity, and it’s incredibly difficult to thrive in the latter two areas without a firm foundation in the first.

That’s why last summer we helped launch Heal Play Learn, an innovative program that provides both entertainment and educational opportunities to students in southern Dallas County. The goal is to encourage kids to re-engage with learning through exciting, hands-on group activities.

Learning Loss and Disengagement

The stress and disruption of the last few years have had a very real impact on local students. At the height of the pandemic, the Texas Education Agency found that children had experienced significant learning loss in reading, math and science, with up to 36% fewer students achieving grade-level proficiency in each subject.

Meanwhile, kids have struggled with the social and emotional challenges, as well as the fear and uncertainty, of the pandemic. Many local students lost family members to COVID-19. It’s no wonder local educators say their students are disengaged, frustrated and listless.

It will take years for our students to fully recover from the learning loss and the social-emotional toll of the pandemic. That’s especially true for the Black and Latinx populations, which were among the hardest hit communities in North Texas.

Getting Kids Excited About Learning

With these challenges in mind, last summer United Way of Metropolitan Dallas partnered with Texas Instruments Foundation, Educate Texas and CoSpero Consulting to launch Heal Play Learn. The program focuses on the whole child and is designed to encourage students’ social and emotional wellness, physical activity and engagement with the arts and science.

As Susan Hoff, chief strategy and impact officer at United Way of Metroplitan Dallas, explains, “We focus on STEAM—which is science, technology, engineering, arts and math programming—coupled with social-emotional learning and physical activity. It’s a whole-child approach to help kids get energized, excited and reconnected to school.”

With Heal Play Learn, students in Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Lancaster school districts get to enjoy incredible, world-class programming from local organizations. Each day, it’s something a little different, and the students get to cook, do science experiments, learn about dance and music, and just have fun.

Hoff says this type of experiential learning is a great way for kids to engage with learning.

“This has been a very disruptive time, especially for children,” she says. “And our brains only do so much when we’re stressed. Getting connected again, giving kids a safe space to feel their feelings, as well as to move and experiment, really drives academic outcomes. That’s the whole focus of Heal Play Learn. And we know the results will be better outcomes when they come back in the fall.”

Our Collective Impact

Last summer, during its first year of programming, Heal Play Learn reached a total of 15,176 students from Cedar Hill and DeSoto ISD, delivering 36 hours of engaging programming. This summer, the program has expanded to also include Lancaster ISD, enabling it to reach even more students.

Heal Play Learn is just one of the ways in which United Way and our supporters are working to improve access to quality education for everyone in North Texas. Programs like Heal Play Learn have a ripple effect—not only on the lives of the individual students, but also on our community as a whole.

“United Way is laser focused on building a community where everyone has the opportunity and access to thrive,” Hoff explains. “We do that by focusing on education, financial stability and health. Heal Play Learn sits right in the center of those areas. Kids who are healthy, who have the opportunity to learn and connect with their community, are going to grow up to be those citizens of the future who have strong careers and jobs and can support themselves and their families well into the future. It’s a great investment for every one of those kids, but also for all of us.”

You Can Support Local Students Affected by COVID-19

As local students work to reengage with school, initiatives like Heal Play Learn can make a huge difference in their attitudes toward school, their connections to other students, and even their social and emotional health. Thanks to dedicated supporters like you, we can all work to ensure more students have access to impactful programming like this.

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Author: United Way of Metropolitan Dallas