Rochelle Riley: These grads know kids deserve better

Detroit Free Press
http://www.freep.com/article/20100811/COL10/8110367/1322/These-grads-know-kids-deserve-better

This was a different kind of graduation.

This first-ever class was not children, but 250 warriors — mothers, fathers, grandparents and caregivers from across the region, all determined to live up to their responsibilities to children.

Last Friday’s graduation marked their completion of 20 to 40 or more hours of training in the United Way for Southeastern Michigan’s Early Learning Communities programs. Now they know what most teachers know — and what every mayor and every state legislator and our future governor should know — that our greatest natural resources are the coming generations of workers and leaders. And in their first 1,000 days of life, those children must get what they need to succeed.

The first graduates included Debra Prather, a grandmother who took a leave of absence to help raise her grandson, Gavin Cullens, who is 1 1/2 . Her daughter, Denise, just got a job as a bank teller, and Prather decided that she “didn’t want him to go to day care. Nobody can take care of him the way I can.”

United Way President and CEO Michael Brennan said the caregivers in the program not only completed their training, but agreed to create a network of caregivers who plan to help others.

“We’ve never had this kind of moment in the region, where you have caregivers inside the home make a decision that we’re going to improve the quality of care we’re giving to the children we’re responsible for — together,” he said.

Added Michael Tenbusch, vice president for educational preparedness at United Way: “We hope to have thousands and thousands more (graduates) in the coming years.”

Help within reach

The 250 graduates, who filled a large white tent on the grounds of the Detroit Zoo, deserve our thanks; they also deserve to be emulated.

The Early Learning Communities works with community-based partners to help caregivers make sure children reach kindergarten ready to learn.

The services are located in 29 centers in neighborhoods where caregivers can reach them. (That should be the plan to help southeastern Michigan tackle its adult reading crisis, too, placing reading centers within neighborhoods so that many of the 1.7 million working-age adults who read below a sixth-grade level can improve their skills enough to get a job.)

The project has hub partners across the region and is funded by foundations that include the Kellogg, Skillman, Kresge and Max M. & Marjorie Fisher.

A way out

That is why the program works: Participants have access to resources; those who have are giving to those who need. And people seem to finally understand that children must come first — above politics, above tradition, above themselves.

As I watched 250 superstars graduate last Friday, I watched at least one viable way out of Michigan’s economic crisis. There are others, but I was proud to see that one.

Michigan is at war with itself over how to improve its economy. Caregivers across the state are literally rebuilding Michigan’s renaissance — one child at a time. In case you need a reminder why it’s important, just look at the faces above.

Rochelle Riley will sign copies of her book “Raising A Parent: Lessons My Daughter Taught Me While We Grew Up Together” after her speech at 3:45 p.m. Saturday at the daylong YMCA Teen Successfest at Henry Ford Hospital’s main campus on West Grand Boulevard. The Successfest is designed to encourage young people to graduate high school, pursue post-secondary education and attain 21st-Century careers. To register for Successfest, call 313-309-1552. To get copies of the book, visit www.rochelleriley.com.

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Tour United Way’s Agenda for Change

Originally published in the May 2010 Leadership Giving e-Newsletter

As a leadership giver, you have the ability to experience United Way through exclusive special events and opportunities, such as our Learn United tours. These one-hour sessions are designed to help you better understand United Way’s Agenda for Change and the role you play in creating long-term change in Southeast Michigan.

Many individuals have already participated in a Learn United tour. Several donors have said that the tour helps them realize the tangible impact their donation is making in the community, while others have commented that it helps them better understand United Way’s role and where they could get involved.

Each tour takes place at United Way’s offices in downtown Detroit. To attend one of the tour dates below, please RSVP to Rebekah Gilroy (313-226-9231).

• Wednesday, June 2: 8 – 9 a.m.
• Tuesday, June 15: 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
• Friday, June 25: 8- 9 a.m.
• Wednesday, July 14: 8 – 9 a.m.
• Tuesday, July 20: 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
• Thursday, July 29: 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming session!

Moving Leadership Next forward

Originally posted in the May 2010 Leadership Next e-Newsletter

By: Chris Uhl, Assistant Vice President – Middle Market Banking, Comerica Inc.

Chris is the incoming chair of Leadership Next. Below are his thoughts on where the group has been and where it can go.

I’m not a Detroit native so I saw living here as a stop along the way to other things. However, when my daughter Ava was born three years ago, my wife and I decided to raise her here among family and friends. I want the world for Ava and that includes the ability for her to grow up in a thriving metropolitan area. I couldn’t help but feel guilty that Detroit doesn’t offer what other communities do, so I decided to play an active role in re-inventing Detroit.

That’s when I crossed paths with Leadership Next. I saw how they were mobilizing emerging leaders to make an impact in Education, Income and Basic Needs — the three things we all need for a good quality of life and the core of United Way’s Agenda for Change.

As chair of the group, I look forward to building on past success and positioning Leadership Next as the region’s premiere organization for emerging leaders. My biggest goal while leading the group is to structure it so that more members can get engaged in our work. This can only help us enhance our impact while identifying the leaders who will drive our group into the future.

While my focus is on increasing engagement, our main tenets will remain.

We will continue to tap into the deep intellectual capital of emerging leaders to create innovative solutions for the region’s problems. Our region’s emerging leaders have refuted the notion of the “Brain Drain” and we must lift up their voices to bridge the silos that exist between businesses, government, and the nonprofit sector.

To do this, we’ll continue connecting emerging leaders to existing community leaders through networking and engagement sessions like our CEOs: Off the Record series. We’ll also work to create more impactful opportunities for the business community to engage directly in United Way’s work.

Our work at Detroit’s Cody High School shows our hope for the future of corporate engagement. This school is part of United Way’s efforts to turn around failing high schools, and Leadership Next’s education team has done a tremendous job of connecting the business community to programs that help Cody’s students succeed. Our intention is to improve upon this work and develop a scalable model that can be used as a road map for large scale partnerships between the business community and the region’s schools.

Past solutions to Detroit’s woes have not worked. In order to more effectively solve our problems, we need to completely recreate the relationships between large and small businesses, nonprofits, and government. To do this, we need a new generation of leaders who are willing to learn from the experiences of prior generations while forging our own path. I firmly believe Leadership Next can play a role in making that a reality and I look forward to working with you to make that happen.

American Express gives back

Originally published in the May 2010 Employee Campaign Coordinator e-Newsletter

This corporation is being recognized as part of United Way’s monthly volunteer recognition, which honors outstanding individuals and groups. To see all of our honorees, click here.

To make a meaningful impact, it doesn’t take a lot of money. However, it does take a lot of commitment from volunteers and members of the community.

American Express has a long history of supporting causes that are important to its customers and the organization is committed to making a difference where its employees live and work. That’s why they’ve joined United Way to further our efforts to turn around failing high schools.

“We know that schools are at the heart of every community, and are a resource that our customers care about, so we wanted to support a cause that is near and dear to them,” said David Rabkin, vice president, Delta Co-brands, American Express. “We like volunteering in high schools because the students are at an age where they can really contribute toward the effort and make a meaningful impact in their own schools.”

United Way and American Express have been working together locally since last year. The response American Express has gotten from its employees and affiliates demonstrates their commitment to service and their ability to mobilize a group of people against a common goal.

In fact, one affiliate employee was so moved by a previous project she had worked on that she made the trip from Atlanta all the way back to Detroit to volunteer at her former high school, bringing her kids along for the fun!

The work that American Express is doing in the Metro Detroit community will leave a lasting legacy. The most recent project the company completed occurred last weekend at Brenda Scott Middle School and Osborn High School, on Detroit’s east side. Over 60 volunteers from American Express and the surrounding community worked to create an urban garden for the schools and neighborhood as a whole to enjoy.

Lace up your running shoes for United Way

Originally posted in the May 2010 e-Newsletter

For the second year, United Way for Southeastern Michigan is a participating charity in this year’s Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon on Oct. 17. Events include a 5K, relay, half and full marathon races.

Making United Way your charity partner for the race is a great way to get your friends and family involved in your training while supporting our work to end the food crisis in Southeast Michigan. Participants will be cheered on by United Way volunteers at spirit stations along the course and those runners who donate or raise $35 or more will receive a free Live United running jersey to wear on race day.

To donate to United Way or host a fundraiser in conjunction with your marathon training, follow these steps:

• Log on to www.freepmarathon.com
• Click on Registration Information
• Click on the registration link
• Follow the directions to select the event of your choice
• In the Participant Information section, fill in your personal information
• When you get to the Official Charity Partners section, select United Way for Southeastern Michigan from the drop down list.
• If you are making a donation, enter the amount of your donation in the corresponding box in the Charitable Donation section
• If you are doing a fundraiser, select United Way from the Please Designate a Personal Charity drop down list (located at the bottom of the Participant Information page).

If you’ve already registered for one of the marathon events, but still want to make a donation or host a fundraiser for United Way, contact Megan Bracket.

Campaign clues: Helping you improve your campaign

Originally published in the May 2009 Employee Campaign Coordinator e-Newsletter

“Campaign clues” is a new series that will provide you with quick and easy tips and tricks to improve your workplace campaign and engage your employees in the work of United Way.

Clue: Leverage 2-1-1

United Way’s 2-1-1 call center is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help people get help or give help. You can dial 2-1-1 (or 800-552-1183) to get information about utility assistance, job training, health care, food assistance, and over 20,000 additional resources. In addition, callers can also dial 2-1-1 to give help — either by signing up to volunteer, donating items they no longer need, or donating money.

How can 2-1-1 benefit your employees and your company?

• Dial 2-1-1 to find resources for a struggling employee
• Log on to 2-1-1’s new online database: 211.UnitedWaySEM.org. It allows you to search thousands of resources and find information to help your employees.
• Share information with your employees. We’ve got posters and pocket cards that can be ordered for free and displayed in your office or distributed to employees. To get materials, contact Maria Williams.

In today’s economy, more and more people need an extra hand, but aren’t sure how to navigate the complicated web of resources. With 2-1-1, callers can leave the navigation to us and easily get the help they need.

Teach For America will be good for Detroit

Originally published in the May 2010 e-Newsletter

Earlier this month, Teach For America (TFA) announced that it’s returning to Detroit with 100 corps members who will work in both the Detroit Public School System and charter schools in the city. United Way and our partners worked diligently to line up the policies and funding needed to bring TFA back to the region and we continue to celebrate what their return will mean for Detroit’s students.

TFA is the national corps of top college graduates and professionals who commit to teach for two years in under-resourced schools and become lifelong leaders in the pursuit of educational equity. Members are selected from an applicant pool of more than 46,000, of which are 12 percent of all Ivy League seniors.

Bringing TFA back to Detroit is critical to improving the education Detroit’s students receive.

TFA has a proven track record of closing the achievement gap in the schools where they teach. An Urban Institute study published in 2008 and updated this year found that high school students taught by Teach For America teachers outperformed their peers, even those taught by fully certified teachers.

TFA teachers will pay union dues when they work in union schools. In addition, the 25 teachers who will work in DPS represent less than one-half of one percent of the district’s overall teaching force.

In addition to making strides to give our kids a better education, bringing TFA back to Detroit means more Michigan graduates will remain in our state.

This year’s TFA applicant pool includes more than 1,300 graduates from across Michigan. In fact, the University of Michigan was the top producer of Teach For America corps members in 2009. In the past, these Michigan graduates had to leave our state to pursue their dreams in education, but with TFA back in Detroit, they now have the option to stay.

As Michael Tenbusch, vice president, Educational Preparedness, wrote in his blog: “Teach for America’s return to the region signals to the nation that Detroit is a vibrant center for real educational reform and a region that draws the best and the brightest to it, not sends them away.”

To learn more about what TFA will mean for Detroit, check out our online resource center.

Tocqueville Society re-imagines itself under new leadership

Mark Petroff, president and CEO, Marketing Associates, is motivated by a challenge. So, it’s no surprise that he jumped at the opportunity to chair United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society in a time when our community faces unprecedented challenges.

The Alexis de Tocqueville Society is a leadership giving group open to individuals who give $10,000 or more annually to United Way. Alexis de Tocqueville Society members are the largest and most significant individual donors to United Way’s work.

“Expanding the Society is critical to advancing United Way’s work to improve our community over the long-term,” commented Mark. “To do this, we must increase engagement opportunities for members. It’s my hope that our members will be the most connected individuals to United Way’s work.”

To further this goal, he has implemented a survey to gauge member interests and has helped current and potential members connect to United Way through face-to-face meetings and tours.

The Tocqueville Society is a great option for donors looking to gain a higher level of access and information about their investment in United Way. There are many ways to connect to the Society, including a Fast-Track option that allows donors to work their way up over time to the full $10,000 investment.

To learn more about the Society, contact Doug Ferrick, United Way’s Senior Director of Donor Relations.

For school reform, look to early education

A movement began last month. While it didn’t make a big media splash, it’s creating a groundswell of support that will continue to grow throughout the upcoming year.

On March 31, approximately 300 educators, parents, and caregivers came together at the first early childhood education summit. The event offered an opportunity for education leaders and advocates to take a stand for early childhood education.

Attendees heard from national, state and local early education leaders about the need for a strong early education presence. United Way also presented its early education strategy to ensure all children ages 0-5 who live in Southeast Michigan have access to educational opportunities.

Why early education?
“Early childhood education is more than just a nice thing to do,” said Dr. Jacqueline Jones, U.S. Department of Education Senior Advisor. “It’s what you do if you’re serious about school reform.”

Local headlines focus on school reform and the changes that need to be made to our schools and school districts. But reform doesn’t end with improving the dropout rate or turning around a failing district. A child’s success in life is largely determined by the experiences he/she has before stepping foot in a classroom. In fact, 90 percent of our brain develops before our third birthday. If the groundwork for proper learning and development isn’t laid by the time a child enters kindergarten, he or she will already be behind.

If we truly want to reform our schools over the long-term, early education is obviously key.

Next steps
Summit attendees are taking the messages they heard at the summit and mobilizing their networks to advocate for early education. However, these efforts are only one part of the process. Early education is continually at risk of cuts at the state level. State funding is a critical part of the early education system and must be maintained, if not enhanced. If you believe early education is important to the future of our state, contact your elected officials to advocate for its continued funding.

Enjoy the weather, do something together!

Spring has sprung, and you’re probably looking for a way to enjoy the weather while making a difference. Together with City Year Detroit and American Express, United Way has created the perfect opportunity!

Date: May 22
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Location: Brenda Scott Middle School & Osborn High School, on Detroit’s east side.

Volunteers will be cleaning up the grounds, planting flowers, building park benches, and creating an urban garden for students and the community as a whole to enjoy.

American Express, which is the exclusive sponsor of this event, is committed to helping young people learn about new cultures, connect with others, and inspire students to become strong global citizens. Through this project, American Express will be promoting cultural diversity and world arts, and encouraging cultural exploration within the student populations of both schools.

Space is limited. Sign up today to volunteer!