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Make a big difference right where you live with small change. Introducing United Way Pennies for Change. Montecito Bank & Trust is teaming up with United Way so you can donate one penny every time you use your credit card. Ask a Montecito Bank & Trust associate how you can get started today! | |
| Save The Date |
Annual Awards Celebration
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
6:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Four Seasons Biltmore
Loggia Room
For more information or to RSVP please contact Courtney Jue at cjue@unitedwaysb.org or (805) 965-8591 ext. 110
For photos & highlights of past events, click on the links before:
Annual Awards 2007
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General E-News
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February 2008 |
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Volunteer SBC!™ Launches and Gives Drawing Winner a Biltmore Brunch for Two
United Way of Santa Barbara County recently launched a free, interactive, county-wide volunteering website Volunteer Santa Barbara County! ( www.volunteersbc.org). This user-friendly technology provides a way for service agencies to find prospective volunteers and board members who are the right fit for their organizations. Community members using Volunteer Santa Barbara County! may choose from a variety of agencies and volunteer opportunities based upon their interests, skills, age, location and more. Prospective volunteers are offered the best matches based on their personal interests and strengths. They can even choose to receive email updates when new or revised volunteer opportunities are posted.
As a promotion to encourage service agencies in our community to get started with Volunteer Santa Barbara County! United Way of Santa Barbara County offered a prize of Sunday brunch for two at the Biltmore. The winner, Santa Barbara Public Library System, was drawn from names of 70 + registered agencies on December 21, 2007. Beverly Schwartzberg, Adult Literacy Program Coordinator, accepted the Gift Certificate for Sunday brunch for two at the Biltmore on behalf of the Library. Representatives from United Way of Santa Barbara County, Terry A. Miller, Director for Community Impact, and Ruth E. Mudge, Volunteer Systems Coordinator, made the presentation. |
Southern California Gas Company Donates Large Corporate Gift to Fun in the Sun
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| Paul Didier and Tim Mahoney in front of United Way of Santa Barbara County |
On behalf of Southern California Gas Company, District Manager Tim Mahoney has most generously donated a corporate gift of $7,000 to United Way of Santa Barbara County. The gift has been designated towards Fun in the Sun, a children's summer enrichment program that serves more than 300 children living in Santa Barbara County. Each year the program provides services such as reading and writing classes, dental checkups and health screening, nutritious meals, swim lessons, and expression and team building through rhythm and dance. The Gas Company has been partnering with United Way of Santa Barbara County for many years, and this year their gift will help to aid in the expenses of this seven week program that is provided to participants free of charge. Tim Mahoney, as well as other company employees, are active participants in community based organizations, all with the goal of enhancing and improving quality of life in Santa Barbara County. |
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Dos Pueblos High School, ROP Electronics Technology class |
Students Learn to Build Electronics While Working on Community Service Project
Students from teacher Al Soenke's Regional Occupation Program Electronics Technology classes at Dos Pueblos High School have been busy working on a Service-learning project for United Way of Santa Barbara.
Service learning is a way the students learn while performing community service projects. These students are in their second year of building and testing an electronic game for United Way that works a lot like the Television game show Jeopardy.
With these "game controllers" a teacher can give the answer to a question while playing with up to 8 students at a time. If a student thinks they know the "Question" they push a button on the game box each student holds. The purpose of the control box is to decide which student gets to ask the "question" first.
The United Way of Santa Barbara,under direction of Volunteer Bob Uradnicek, has has provided materials for the class. Students Haroon Azizy, Alex Star, Julian Lord, Nicholas Conti, Alexander Wolff, Joshua Granada, Anthony Maddalon, Raymond Diec, and Michael Ringwald have started this year's activity providing the manpower with training provided by teacher Al Soenke. A new class this spring adds students Santos Malvaez, Charlie Blancarte-Raley, Johhny Fierro, Keanu Lawrence, Luis Mendoza, Jose Reyes, Nels Hernandez, Elijah Wright and Alexander Lao to the team.
So far this year, students have been busy building and assembling the next batch of 25 more game sets in the project. The completed game sets will be complete and ready to turn over to United Way for distribution among Santa Barbara area schools. The word is out that the games are very popular with the students and their teachers. While enough are being built to make sets available for all the classrooms, they will be used on a checkout system at each campus.
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 Helping Hands: A Counseling Success
Alicia* was 16 when she first began counseling at United Way of Santa Barbara County's partner, the Family Service Agency two years ago. She was living with her single mother and had some contact with her father. Alicia's mother brought her to the agency because of fears about the girl's depression and acting out behavior. Alicia had been actively "cutting", had run away from home on numerous occaions and had made a suicide attempt 2 years prior to the counseling session. Academically she was barely passing, with C's and D's.
Some time was required for Alicia to learn to trust and open up to her therapist. Art, play and music therapy were used. As was with talk therapy, which focused on getting Alicia to see how her actions impacted others and assisting her to identify her own needs and desires and to give them an appropriate voice rather than acting out inappropriately or self-destructively.
Alicia's mother was brought in to speak alone and with her daughter. Later, she went on to receive therapy to address her parenting and to learn to restructure her relationship with her daughter. As a result, Alicia's mother is now in a satisfying relationship and has reduced her dependence on her daughter for support and social interaction.
Two years after beginning the therapy at the clinic, Alicia has graduated from high school. She has a part-time retail position and has applied to art school. She is no longer subjecting her body to self-injury and she has not attempted suicide since treatment began. She receives feedback more openly and does not immediately reject ideas, recommendations of compliments. Alicia presentated herself as a hopeless victim of circumstance- as someone without choices and internal resources to pull herself out. Now she is taking an active role in creating a positive and desired future for herself.
*name has been changed for confidentiality purposes
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| Contact Information |
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320 East Gutierrez Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone: (805) 965-8591
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| About Us
Through the Power of Partnership™, whether a neighborhood project or a community-wide initiative, United Way of Santa Barbara County unites people from government, business, education, faith groups, non profits, as well as ordinary citizens, to develop innovative strategies for community change that will have an impact for years to come.
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