btrimarco, Author at United Way of the Bay Area

Community School Sets Teen on Path to Success

April 15, 2013 by btrimarco

Domestic violence in the home creates deep wounds in children which can prevent them from succeeding in school and in life. Fortunately for Jenna*, a young victim of domestic violence, help was readily available at Belle Haven Community School, and her healing process was able to begin.

Thirteen-year-old Jenna lived with domestic violence throughout much of her young life. When her parents divorced, Jenna’s mom took on the challenge of raising the children as a single mom without support from her father. The trauma of the abuse from her father coupled with a difficult relationship with her mother led Jenna to start cutting herself, a way in which some youth try to cope with the pain of strong emotions. Unfortunately, Jenna’s self-harm progressed until she attempted suicide and was hospitalized.

Jenna desperately needed life-saving mental health services, and her family’s economic challenges made accessing such services nearly impossible. Fortunately, Jenna’s attendance at Belle Haven meant that free counseling was readily available to her. Jenna began seeing Dr. Robin Schulte, and she began developing healthy coping skills, better communication and stronger self-esteem. Dr. Schulte also helped Jenna establish a strategy to address her self-harm and connected her to temporary housing for youth experiencing severe family dysfunction. This provided Jenna with a solid support network and a safe place to live until family issues could stabilize.

Through the combination of intensive support services, Jenna started functioning better, her self-cutting decreased and she smiled more often. She even started to come out of her shell and make friends.

But Jenna’s mental health challenges had also taken a toll on her academics. At the end of the school year, she received news that she was in danger of not graduating from 8th grade. At first Jenna found her schoolwork overwhelming. She lacked the motivation to complete the required assignments and appeared to be giving up. But Dr. Schulte and the Belle Haven team united around her. Because of their consistent, caring support, Jenna rallied, found the strength to complete her assignments and was able to graduate on time with her class. She was accepted to a charter high school in the summer of 2012, and her future is looking bright.

Jenna’s story is one of many at Belle Haven, which has an extensive mental health program for students and their families. The school is one of seven in the Bay Area that United Way supports through its Community Schools Initiative. Based on the premise that youth learn better when their families are stable, Community Schools provide families with social services such as food pantries, health care, parent education and financial counseling. Children can’t learn and succeed if they’re hungry, sick or burdened with economic challenges at home. Through Community Schools, more families have access to the support they need so that children can focus on their studies, and be prepared for a lifetime of success.

For more information on United Way’s Community School Initiative, click here.

*name changed to protect teen’s identity

Filed Under: Newsletter Tagged With: community school

A Single Dad Gets Resources to Support His Daughters’ Education

April 15, 2013 by btrimarco

When Angel Lopez was growing up in Napa, attending McPherson Elementary School, there were very few resources available to his immigrant parents to get them connected to his education. Now that Angel is a single-parent of two young girls, McPherson has a world of resources, allowing him to get financial support and be more hands-on with his kids’ education.

Two years ago, Angel was severely injured at work with his grounds maintenance job. Angel had to stop working due to the injury and has been raising his daughters on workers’ compensation ever since, so money is very tight. Luckily for Angel, McPherson has a Family Resource Center (FRC) with a full-time staff to help him with his finances and connect him to other resources provided by the school. “The County was a dead end for me and closed the doors on giving me any assistance,” said Angel. “But at the FRC, they helped me get on food stamps and apply for Section 8 housing. More importantly, they gave me classes on health, parenting and how to support my daughter when she’s taking standardized tests.”

The FRC has a parent “university” with more than 40 classes throughout the year, and over 300 parents participated last year. There is also a volunteer program aimed at getting parents into classrooms so they can better understand their child’s school day which draws 250 participants. Angel has been one of them.

“With the classes and volunteering, I have knowledge of what my daughter is doing in school – I’m not limited,” said Angel. “It’s so different than when I was growing up because my parents couldn’t help me with my homework. The FRC is a program you can invest in because it’s about the future of my children.”

The FRC is part of the Community Schools Initiative which United Way co-sponsors. Community Schools provide support to struggling families so children can focus on school. Many students from low-income families go to school hungry, sick or poorly prepared, resulting in poor academic progress. The Community Schools Initiative transforms public schools into neighborhood hubs that bring health care, food pantries, after-school programs, parent education classes and other services directly to school campuses. There are seven United Way Community Schools in the Bay Area.

Filed Under: Newsletter Tagged With: community schools

A $3,000 Tax Refund for Bills and a Little Extra Sunshine

March 19, 2013 by btrimarco

Every year MaryAnn, a young single mother, walks through the doors of an Earn It! Keep It! Save It! (EKS) free tax preparation site, hoping for a sizable tax refund. She has a full-time job, but it’s not enough for Mary Ann and her seven-year old son Aaron to meet their basic needs. She depends on her tax refund to pay some of her bills and put a small emergency fund into her bank account.

“In the Bay Area, it’s tough to get by,” said MaryAnn. “Even with a full-time job I struggle, and I’m not able to give Aaron all the things that other kids have.”

Kelly, MaryAnn’s EKS volunteer tax preparer, remembers Aaron every year as they share a birthday. “I usually ask Aaron what he is doing for his birthday, and he never has a party,” said Kelly.

This year, however, MaryAnn was able to get more hours at work which meant a larger earned income. She was able to claim a higher Earned Income Tax Credit, a credit given to low-wage workers, resulting in a much-needed increase in her tax refund. For MaryAnn and Aaron, this translated into a refund of almost $3,000! MaryAnn was ecstatic as it was double what they had received in the past.

“Now we can have a birthday party!” exclaimed MaryAnn. “With Kelly’s help, we were able to make Aaron smile from ear to ear.”

For Kelly, stories like MaryAnn and Aaron’s make volunteering worth it. “I know these tax refunds boost a struggling family’s annual income, and it helps them pay for basic necessities like rent and food,” said Kelly. “I often forget about the small things like birthday parties that little kids should be able to enjoy every once in a while! I am happy that Earn It! Keep It! Save It! could make that happen for Aaron.”

In 2012, 3,600 EKS volunteers prepared tax returns for more than 63,000 households at its 200 sites throughout the Bay Area. The program helped bring back $68 million in refunds to Bay Area residents, including $22 million in the Earned Income Tax Credit. EKS expands every year, and for 2013, those numbers are expected to grow, impacting the lives of even more families like Mary Ann and Aaron.

Read more newsletter articles:

Meet Lisa: A Chevron volunteer tax preparer walks the walk on corporate social responsibility.
Meet Jane: A United Way donor who traveled to Washington D.C. to advocate for fair tax policy.

Filed Under: Newsletter Tagged With: earn it! keep it! save it!

Using Our Voice is a Responsibility

March 18, 2013 by btrimarco

With all the gridlock in Congress, Jane Whitfield, a United Way donor and advocate, hasn’t forgotten that in the United States we have access to our elected officials and need to press them for what we think is right.

“We can all talk about the problems with our government,” said Jane. “However, it’s our privilege and responsibility to make our voices heard.”

Jane is a founding member of United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council and recently went to Washington D.C. as part of an Advocacy Day. She and other United Way supporters and staff lobbied members of Congress to protect programs for the poor as well as the charitable tax deduction.

“Giving to charity is personally rewarding – it feels good,” said Jane. “However, the charitable tax deduction is the government sending a powerful message that we value giving to others and that it’s something we want to hold up as a society.”

The charitable tax deduction was recently on the table during Congressional negotiations surrounding the fiscal cliff and remains in jeopardy in its current form during budget talks. Programs that benefit our community which have already been cut during sequestration could face additional cuts as Congress looks to compromise on a budget. United Way will be advocating for key programs and anyone can get involved to have your voice heard.

“Getting involved with United Way gives us the opportunity to make a difference where we live,” said Jane. “We can plug into a larger network and have a larger voice on policy, including distribution of tax dollars that come back and help our community. I have great fulfillment being part of that larger voice.”

Click here to take action today and tell Congress what you think!

Read more newsletter articles:

Meet MaryAnn: A low-income single mom who used her $3,000 tax refund to provide her son with something he never had.
Meet Lisa: A Chevron volunteer tax preparer walks the walk on corporate social responsibility.

Filed Under: Newsletter Tagged With: advocacy, women's leadership council

Chevron: Taking Corporate Social Responsibility to Heart

March 18, 2013 by btrimarco

Chevron takes being part of the community seriously. According to Lisa Duncan, a Chevron Environmental Specialist, “The feeling around Chevron is that we live and work in the area and should be part of improving the community.” That’s one of the reasons why Lisa became a volunteer with United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! free tax preparation program as a tax preparer.

Lisa was looking for an interesting way to volunteer and at Chevron, she found it. Every year, Chevron holds a nonprofit expo where organizations come to connect with potential volunteers. Lisa met with one of the Earn It! Keep It! Save It! partners, Brighter Beginnings. “I wanted to help people, and I wanted it to be interesting. I’ve always done my own taxes, and so I thought it was a skill that I could share with the community.”

That was three years ago, and since then, Lisa has prepared scores of free returns. “It doesn’t matter if I am getting someone a $300 refund or a $5,000 one, client reactions are always the same,” said Lisa. “They are always so kind, so polite and so grateful.”

A common story that sticks out in Lisa’s mind is how clients often bring last year’s returns in from paid preparers, and she can see the difference she is making. “Right on top of their return will be the fee they paid,” said Lisa. “And for many people that fee is the same as the refund they would be getting. So by coming to me, they get to leave with $300 instead of nothing.”

“Chevron makes volunteering truly accessible and easy to do,” said Lisa. “I’m proud to work somewhere that is investing in the community.”

In addition to promoting volunteerism, Chevron is a long-time corporate sponsor of United Way’s programs. This year, the company gave $1.5 million dollars, which helped fund Earn It! Keep It! Save It! in addition to three SparkPoint centers. Chevron is the founding sponsor of SparkPoint Richmond. Healthy businesses and healthy societies are tightly linked, and Chevron recognizes that working with nonprofit partners can help foster economic prosperity and improve the quality of life in the communities where Chevron operates.

United Way thanks Chevron for both its financial support in the movement to cut poverty as well as for providing a pipeline of volunteers to Bay Area nonprofits.

Read more newsletter articles:

Meet MaryAnn: A low-income single mom who used her $3,000 tax refund to provide her son with something he never had.
Meet Jane: A United Way donor who traveled to Washington D.C. to advocate for fair tax policy.

Filed Under: Newsletter Tagged With: chevron, earn it! keep it! save it!, partners

Operation Hope Provides Hope to Low-income Residents

February 7, 2013 by btrimarco

“Financial education can mean the difference between financial freedom and financial slavery,” said Tyrone Cosey, President of the Oakland Market of Operation Hope. And financial education is exactly what Operation Hope brings to United Way’s SparkPoint.

To cut poverty, it takes a village, and it takes no less than 77 nonprofit partners to implement United Way’s poverty-cutting SparkPoint Initiative. We’d like to honor Operation Hope, a partner who’s been there since SparkPoint’s inception in 2008.

Operation Hope is a global nonprofit dedicated to the eradication of poverty through financial literacy. They’ve lent their time, talent, and services to getting SparkPoint Oakland, the original SparkPoint, off the ground. Their financial coaches have worked to provide credit and money management, home-ownership workshops, and foreclosure prevention, as well as setting free or low-cost banking services for those who cannot afford an account or have been turned down by mainstream banks.

Operation Hope’s mission is driven by what they refer to as the “silver rights movement.” “Martin Luther King knew that there was a relationship between civil rights and what we like to call ‘silver rights,’” noted Cosey. “The next step in the civil rights process is economic justice and making capitalism work for the poor.”

According to Emily Harpster, Director of the SparkPoint Initiative, Operation Hope has played an integral part in the success of SparkPoint. “Operation Hope has vision and commitment,” said Harpster. “They’ve had a willingness to take a risk when they didn’t know how much time and in-kind resources would be necessary, but saw it as an opportunity to serve low-income people. They share United Way’s goal of cutting Bay Area poverty in half by 2020.”

United Way thanks Operation Hope and the hundreds of partners from the nonprofit, business, government, and labor sectors who help keep all of our programs running.

Filed Under: Newsletter, Sparkpoint Tagged With: partners, sparkpoint