United We Fight. United We Win
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UNITED WE FIGHT. UNITED WE WIN. 2017 COMMUNITY REPORT PROBLEMS. THE ONES NOBODY TALKS ABOUT. THE ONES THAT CAN’T BE SOLVED. WE GO LOOKING FOR THEM. IN UNFORGIVING CITIES, DESOLATE NEIGHBORHOODS, AND SEEMINGLY DOCILE SUBURBS. WE FIND EVERY DOLLAR WE CAN TO ADDRESS THEM. BUT WE ARE MORE THAN THE FUNDRAISERS. WE ARE THE HAND RAISERS. THE GAME CHANGERS. THE STOP TALKING START DOING BAND TOGETHER AND TAKE ON THE IMPOSSIBLE TASK MASTERS. The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley will create positive change by collaborating with partners to educate and empower children and families in the Mahoning Valley. DEAR FRIENDS: 2017 was a year of growth for the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. We expanded our Success After 6 work from two elementary schools to seven. This includes our first Success After 6 initiative outside of Youngstown, with the expansion into Girard’s Prospect Elementary School. Although we do work in afterschool, SA6 is much more. We have a coordinator in each building, and the goal is to work on eliminating the students’ barriers to success. More than 2000 students were touched by an aspect of the Success After 6 initiative in 2017! Academics will always be a focus; however, SA6 also provides each student with creative and unique enrichment opportunities that they may not otherwise experience. Together with SMARTS, Jewish Community Center, Chess is Life, OH WOW, and other valuable partners we provide a fun learning environment. We want the child to be excited to attend afterschool and look forward to being part of something special. It was also a year of growth with our volunteers, with many companies and individuals giving of their time to support our work. Volunteers are a critical piece to our Community Impact work. We will never reach and exceed our goals without a strong volunteer base. For instance, Report Card Mentoring has become a huge success, where volunteers from the community meet with the same four to six students after each grading period. These volunteers encourage the students to improve their grades while serving as a positive role model. We have more and more volunteers sharing with us that they are getting just as much out of the programs as the children! Campaign success will always be a major part of United Way, raising money to do the work and provide quality programming and staffing is essential. We raised more than $3.1 million for the annual campaign, and increased our fundraising by more than $140,000 from the previous year. That speaks volumes about our generous community. A big thank you to all of you who continue to believe in our mission. What excites us the most is that we are so much more than fundraisers. We are the hand raisers. We are the game changers. There is no better part of our day than visiting one of our schools to see the children laughing, learning, becoming better students, and improving their behavior. We are confident we are changing lives for the better. We aren’t slowing down in 2018, we will expand our footprint to provide opportunities for more children. We are also fortunate to fund 31 partners who making a real difference. On behalf of our staff and Board of Directors a sincere thank you for LIVING UNITED. Sincerely, Bob Hannon, President Garry Mrozek, Board Chair UNITED WAY of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley fights for the future UNITED of our children by funding initiatives and programs that focus on early childhood education. Today more than ever we need to invest in our children’s future. The early years are the learning years and early investment matters to WE everyone. Quality early learning increases not only STAND UP success in school but graduation rates, workforce readiness and job productivity. FOR A child who has difficulty reading in third grade is less EDUCATION likely to catch up. We want to make sure our students are ready and can get the help IN THE they need to succeed. MAHONING We fight for Leland… VALLEY. We met Leland at Campbell Elementary School where he’s a little super star. He came into the room with a huge smile on his face that was contagious. The morning we met him, he was a “guest host” for the morning announcements. And you could tell he was quite the little celebrity at the school. In the summer of 2017, Leland was a Success By 6 student. His mom, Alyssa, didn’t know what the program was until she brought him in to get tested for Kindergarten. SUCCESS BY 6 is a Once she learned about Success By 6, she decided to send her 5 year old. pre-kindergarten readiness program that helped 683 “It’s a great program to start off with,” said students at 24 sites across 18 Alyssa, “It helped him adjust to school life school districts in 2017. These and how to ride the bus, how to get to class. children not only excelled It’s helped him a lot!” socially and emotionally, but Alyssa noticed a big difference from the time over the four week program Leland started Success By 6 to the time he they also saw a 13 point finished. And she knows he’s doing well in average gain in their literacy school now because of this preparation. assessment. “My sister and I were readers. We were always readers and I truly believe children need books in their hands. They need to see people reading to them.” said Elba Navarro. The Navarro family joined our fight by donating $25,000 to the Imagination Library so more children in Mahoning County have access to free books. “They need the help. Yes, they need help financially, but they need books,” said Navarro. “They need to hold books in their hands. It’ll open up new worlds to them.” IMAGINATION LIBRARY hit an important milestone in 2017— 5,000 children under the age of 5 are receiving free books once a month. Through our partnership with the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, we hosted 5 “Imagine with Us” events where we provided valuable literacy tips for 150 children and their families. Two school districts adopted the Imagination Library Reading Buddy volunteer program, in which 5th and 6th graders read to 1st and 2nd graders, impacting 986 students total! IMAGINATION LIBRARY SUPPORTERS The Navarro Family Covelli Enterprises Ohio Children’s Foundation James & Coralie Centofanti Charitable Foundation SUCCESS BY 6 SUPPORTERS William M. Neckerman Jr. Foundation Jane F. Lamb Charitable Foundation PNC Foundation The Italian Education Foundation Nordson Foundation The Youngstown Foundation Zita M. & Joseph DiYorio Foundation UNITED WAY of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley fights for every UNITED student and their families. We stand up for education through our Success After 6 initiative, which focuses on education and provides wraparound services to WE children in Youngstown and Girard. STAND UP FOR EDUCATION IN THE SUCCESS AFTER 6 SCHOOLS IN THE Youngstown Community School Taft Elementary School MAHONING Williamson Elementary School SUCCESS AFTER 6 McGuffey Elementary School afterschool served 550 VALLEY. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School kindergarten through 6th grade students in 2017 Paul C. Bunn Elementary School by bringing together key Girard Prospect Elementary School partners to provide While we are in the first year additional academic While we are in the first year at a majority of our Success resources and support. at a majority of our Success After 6 afterschool sites We are tracking After 6 afterschool sites and we are waiting for the attendance, social- and we are waiting for the students assessments, our emotional, as well as students assessments, our pilot school—Youngstown reading and math pilot school—Youngstown Community School— is in assessments. Success Community School— is in its third year and continues After 6 students in its third year and continues to show progress. During Youngstown have a 95% the first half of the attendance rate for the 2017-2018 school year, first half of the year. They 79.5% of Success After 6 are showing improvement afterschool students in their grades. 74% of improved their STAR the students have either Reading Scores while 92% maintained their reading improved their STAR Math and math grades or scores. 39% of the students improved them from the are on honor roll and 21% first quarter to the have perfect attendance. second. We fight for Danielle, Quintana, and Faith… These 5th graders are part of our Young Women’s Mentorship and Success After 6 afterschool programs at Taft Elementary School. The girls not only get all A’s on their report cards, they are also true leaders in their school. Recently, they got fed up with how some students were treating their teachers and fellow classmates. “We’re trying to help them be more respectful. They’re making bad choices. They’re not bad people. They are just making bad choices.“ said Quintana, “We want to help them make better choices. We want Taft to be a better school.“ The three friends came up with a cheer to inspire their classmates to be better students. “We want kids to learn and follow directions,” said Faith, “We want them to get an education and learn! “ All three of the girls say they are thankful to be a part of Young Women’s Mentorship and Success After 6. They have gained the self-confidence they need to not only achieve their own goals, but help others believe in themselves as well. YOUNG WOMEN’S MENTORSHIP is at Boardman Center Middle School, Taft Elementary, and expanded to Williamson Elementary for the 2017-2018 school year.