Strong support for programs like RE4TA is why BRE Properties was recently named Spirit of the Bay award winners

For the last three years, MatchBridge has teamed up with the real estate industry to offer the youth they serve an leg up in finding positions within the industry. The program is called Real Estate 4 Tomorrow’s Adults (RE4TA) and is a partnership between MatchBridge, United Way of the Bay Area, and the San Francisco Real Estate sector.

While RE4TA has created many outstanding partnerships for MatchBridge, one company has stood out in its dedication to the community and youth employment. Year after year, BRE Properties has gone above and beyond for the RE4TA initiative. This is why they are MatchBridge’s employer of the month!

In its first year, Connie Moore, BRE Properties’ CEO, stepped up to head the Founders’ Circle, comprised of many prestigious firms including: AMB Property Corp., BRE Properties, Cushman & Wakefield, Sares Regis Group, Sunset Development, TMG Partners, Webcor Builders and UDR Inc. Since then, Connie has provided steady leadership, spoken on behalf of the program on numerous occasions, and has gone above and beyond behind-the-scenes to support the MatchBridge program at every opportunity.

Throughout the years, BRE Properties has broken the record for creating the most placements for young jobseekers interested in the industry. BRE’s aggressive approach to creating opportunities for young jobseekers truly exemplifies the concept of building up the workforce of tomorrow.

In the past, Connie Moore has even personally come in with a team of managers to lead RE4TA seminars to help guide and instruct the interns as they start their careers.

This summer, 36 internships were provided by MatchBridge’s RE4TA program, five of them with BRE Properties. During their term, interns have the opportunity to look further into real-estate specific roles like property management and residential sales or they can choose to sign onto more general departments like marketing, office management, and outside sales.

RE4TA, and the experiences of its participants, would not be possible without the continuing dedication and support of companies like BRE Properties. MatchBridge thanks all of the volunteers, companies, and interns for taking part in this year’s program and investing in tomorrow’s workforce.

As our economy struggles to recover from the Great Recession, which know has meant rising levels of children living in poverty, reports like this are discouraging. In California alone, nearly a quarter of the state’s children could be living beneath the federal poverty line due to the recent recession.

Almost of half of all children born into poverty remain in poverty as adults

The report suggests that helping provide families with multiple supports such as income assistance, child care subsidies, and opportunities for education can help mitigate the chance of passing poverty on to the next generation. This is very much in keeping with our strategies for poverty reduction through programs like our SparkPoint Centers which combine multiple programs over time, to help families.

Some of the report’s other findings include:

• 13 percent of all children (40 percent of black children and 8 percent of white children) are born poor.
• 37 percent of children live in poverty for at least a year before reaching age 18.
• 10 percent of children spend at least half their childhood years (9 years or longer) in poverty.
• Black children are 9 times more likely than white children to be poor for at least three-quarters of their childhoods — 18 percent versus 2 percent.
• 69 percent of black children and 31 percent of white children who are poor at birth stay poor for least half their childhoods.

Caroline Ratcliffe and Signe-Mary McKernan, the authors of “Childhood Poverty Persistence: Facts and Consequences, go on to say that “Because poverty status at birth is linked to worse adult outcomes, targeting resources to children born into poverty and their families would help particularly vulnerable people. “

50% of all food distributed by Second Harvest Food Bank is perishable and includes a large amount of produce

United Way of the Bay Area recently awarded Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties a $28,000 grant to provide infrastructure and capacity upgrades for their partner emergency food pantries.  As opposed to a soup kitchen, an emergency food pantry is a program which provides non-perishable and perishable food to families and individuals to take home and prepare.

Because 50% of all food distributed by Second Harvest Food Bank is perishable and includes a large amount of produce, local pantries have a need for additional cold storage capacity and shelving.

“With this grant we will purchase and deliver refrigerators, freezers and shelving to 12 of our partner food pantries, thereby increasing their efficiency and effectiveness in storing  and distributing food,” said Tami Cardenas, Director of Development for Second Harvest Food Bank. “In this way we will help strengthen the food safety net in San Mateo County.”

Immediate and long-term outcomes of this grant include: increasing the number of people served by these 12 pantries by an average of 5%, to 10,874 people annually; and increasing the amount of produce and perishable food available at these 12 pantries by an average of 10%, to 159,322 pounds annually.

“We are grateful to United Way for their support,” said Cardenas. “We rely on our pipeline of partner agencies to help us distribute food to people in need in our community.”

Second Harvest Food Bank is the primary source of donated, surplus, and purchased food for nonprofit agencies in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.  Food pantries partners receive an average of 83% of the food they distribute to clients from Second Harvest.  The Food Bank is committed to providing ongoing infrastructure and capacity support to the Emergency Food Network in order to efficiently alleviate local hunger.

This piggy bank introduces the notion of charity and directs attention toward others less fortunate

Some problems require looking at things with a new perspective. We live in a country with a very low savings rate but a new piggy bank for children might be able to teach good habits to them at a young age. The banks were designed by a studio called Materious and have an interesting concept that links savings and philanthropy.

The larger bank is for the child’s own money and the samller one is for charitable giving and “the two nestle together as a reminder that generosity and wealth should be linked. This is a really good idea as it marries the two concepts together very well. At our Sparkpoint Centers, we hand out piggy banks to clients to remind of the importance of saving. Part of reaching financial stability, along with a reducing debt, and getting a good credit score, is having three months of savings.

The piggy banks can be purchased here.

(thanks to the Good blog for alerting us to this. )

Tonight,  Monday, June 21 from 8-10 pm ET, CNN will air a telethon on Larry King Live to raise funds and awareness for the United Way Gulf Coast Recovery Fund and two other charities working to respond to the crisis. The program will repeat 12-2 a.m. Viewers will have the opportunity to give to three areas of need:

1. People, through United Way Gulf Recovery Fund,

2. Animals through National Wildlife Federation,

3. Environment through The Nature Conservancy.

United Way is helping families along the Gulf that are facing financial, educational and health-related challenges as a result of the oil spill. The United Way Gulf Recovery Fund will provide emergency assistance, such as help with food, rent and utilities, and support long-term recovery efforts to rebuild people’s lives and the affected communities.

The United Way movement has mobilized to respond to the Gulf Coast’s immediate needs, while also preparing for extensive long-term needs. To date, thousands of families have received help with food, clothing, utility assistance, rent and mortgage relief, and access to health and mental health care.  United Way’s 2-1-1 help line in the Gulf region reports a dramatic spike in calls, both from people who need help and who want to volunteer.

The tragic oil spill in the Gulf and it’s affects on everyday people and wildlife will certainly be felt for years to come. I hope you will consider sharing this opportunity with your coworkers, friends and family, and join United Way, Larry King and other celebrity participants such as Harry Connick Jr., Sting, Robert Redford, Ivanka Trump, Aaron Neville, and many, many more to take a stand for the Gulf Coast tonight!

Read more about the telethon, and please pass this on to your family, friends, coworkers and anyone who wants to help.