Please consider the following questions:

1. Can you write?
2. Did you go to college?
3. Do you like helping others?

If you answered “yes” to the above questions then you can make a tremendous difference in an Austin student’s life – and their family and their community – by helping Austin seniors write college scholarship essays.

Thanks to College Forward, there are a number of Austin kids who are the first from their families to be accepted to college. But now they have to find a way to pay for it.

Okay, maybe this wasn’t your favorite part of getting ready for college. But you’re different now. You’ve been through college; you know what they’re looking for. And now you can finally put your college years to work! Imagine this for a moment:

Picture sitting at a desk with a student, going over her essay, helping her identify parts of the story she left out. Now picture her saying thank you and promising to let you know how it turns out. Now picture yourself finding out she’d won that scholarship - thanks to you.

How amazing would that be?

You can be one of the 40 volunteers College Forward needs to make all this happen. Here’s some information:

When: Saturdays, Dec. 5, 12, 19 and Jan. 9
Time: 10am-2pm (you’ll attend a short training session before the workshop)
Where: 312 W. Murray Ave. Manor, TX 78653

To learn more and sign up, contact volunteer coordinator Karena Rogers volunteer@collegeforward.org or 512-452-4800 ext. 225 to

P.S. Have you heard about College Forward? They’re an Austin-born nonprofit that helps low-income and first-generation students consider, apply for, navigate and attend college. Since 2003 its helped hundreds of Austin students and this year its students have been accepted to more than 70 colleges and universities  – and that’s just in this past November!

According to Jesse Noyes of College Forward, “We also help students STAY in college. A lot of our students, since they are first-generation college students, need support while they are in college and that’s a big part of what we do, supporting students while in college.”

And here’s where you fit it: These students have come so far, and now they have to pay for it! So please spend a little time this Saturday – or one of the following Saturdays – to help.

Two new collaborations kicking off this month are determined to get more Austin kids ready for college, and they could use your help.

Mentoring Austin middle school students

The first is a mentoring project called 1 Hour for Kids, which was created by United Way Capital Area to forge the efforts of eight Austin nonprofits that serve children in their middle school years. The goal is to recruit 400 volunteers by late fall to mentor an at-risk student from one of six Austin middle schools.

Why middle school? The collaborators found that there are fewer mentors and other support systems catered to this age group than others, a lost opportunity considering that research shows that middle school students with at least one supportive adult in their lives are almost twice as likely to graduate as those who do not.

The genius of 1 Hour for Kids, though, is a revelation, at least for the volunteers. If you’re considering being a mentor for a student in Austin, you’ve probably browsed the obvious opportunities, but if you dig a little deeper, you’d find many more opportunties beyond that. That’s when it gets complicated, right?

But what 1 Hour for Kids does, as evidenced even by its compelling name, is make it simple to identify the right opportunity for you. It comes down to a simple quiz that helps you figure out what you care about. And you take it online. And from there, you sign up. It’s this straightforward entry structure that demystifies mentoring a bit. I’m always on the lookout for this myself -things that inspire the people who are thinking about community engagement to take that first step – and I love when a nonprofit makes this a priority.

They’ve even taken advantage of social networking sites to let you direct friends to the cause. (And now I direct you! See the Facebook page. Join the cause. Invite @aplusk, whpever.)

Now, the process of becoming a mentor is… a process. They don’t just send you the name of a kid and you send him an email and go see a movie. There are background checks and a little training to take, etc., before they put someone else’s child in your hands. But neither do they leave you to your own devices after you’ve gone through the training. There are guidelines, suggestions, and an on-staff support person mentoring the mentor, so to speak.

But once you’ve gone through the training, you’ll find being a mentor can come naturally. Every positive effort you make to be a part of a child’s life has an enormous impact. Mentors I’ve spoken to describe how startling and significant the rewards of mentoring can be. We’re going to speak to several mentors to learn more about this in our next issue.

CLICK HERE to learn more.

College readiness workshop

The second is a college readiness workshop that kicked off this past weekend.

Saturday was the first of eight full-day workshops for Austin students accepted or enrolled in college. Now, if you went to college and think back on the many opportunities you had to totally blow it, you can see why a little extra direction from wise elders might help. So a group of them, lead by E3 Alliance, The Blueprint for Educational Change, and the University of Texas Institute for Public School Initiatives created a series of workshops to cover all those non-academic challenges. 

The workshops will cover topics like financial aid, social life, money management… lots of things I wish someone had prepared me for. And the information will be presented by experts as well as other college students. The audience will consist of 250 students who come from low-income families and may be the first from their families to attend college.

And here’s some interesting information: As an added incentive, the UT System donated a total of four $1,000 scholarship awards to be drawn during the event on June 27th. These awards are for parents/guardians in attendance on either day may enter. The winners must be a parent/guardian of a student attending a college anywhere in the U.S.
 
In addition, Advance Micro Devices (AMD) and Applied Materials have each contributed a $1000 scholarship, available to any student who is registered and participates in the CTC program on any of the other dates.

When and Where:
June 20: UT School of Social Work, Room 2.112

June 25: ACC Highland Business Center, Room 220

June 26: ACC Highland Business Center, Room 220

June 27: UT School of Social Work, Room 2.116

July 1: ACC Highland Business Center, Room 220

July 2: ACC Highland Business Center, Room 301

July 16: ACC Highland Business Center, Room 301

July 17: ACC Highland Business Center, Room 301

CLICK HERE to learn more.

Please share these opportunities with people you know.

It’s a movement. It’s an opportunity. It’s an event.

It’s a lot of things. So to clarify, I talked to Armando Rayo of Hands On Central Texas (which is part of United Way Capital Area) about Vivir Unidos.

Q. So what is Vivir Unidos? 

Mando: It’s basically a volunteer fair for Hispanics. But it’s also a celebration of our culture and an opportunity for anyone to connect with the Hispanic/Latino culture in Austin.

There’ll be about 30 nonprofits there, reaching out to attendees to talk about volunteer opportunities. We’ll also have several local restaurants serving up food from all kinds of Hispanic cultures. There’ll be music and dance, of course, and Loteria. Plus we’re hear about the city’s Hispanic Quality of Life Initiative and our own report about Hispanic volunteering and community engagement.

Q. Wow, so there’s going to be plenty to do, but who’s it for?

We’re hoping to attract Hispanics and Latinos in Austin who are looking for ways to support their community. But it’s also a great opportunity for local nonprofits to get to know the culture and what drives Hispanics and Latinos to volunteer. Traditionally, I would say that Hispanics/Latinos are not asked to serve. Maybe it’s because so many of the people that are served are Hispanic/Latino, but I also think it’s because nonprofits need to gain a better understanding of the motivations and hurdles Hispanics and Latinos have for volunteering.

It’s absolutely essential to include Hispanics/Latinos in the service to that community. Not only do they understand the culture and language better, but they can be visible role models who demonstrate that Hispanics/Latinos in Ausitn need to be part of the change.

We definitely hope to see the Hispanic community represented, but anyone can attend. Families and children welcome!

Q. So what will attendees get out of it?

Mando: Well, they’ll have fun. It’s at the Mexican American Cultural Center, which is a few blocks south of the Convention Center and just off the west side of I-35.

And, really, the main goal is for people to learn what they can do to make a difference. They’ll come away with a list of resources for becoming more engaged, and they’ll learn a little bit more about the culture.

Q. GivingCity will be there. But now’s a good time to talk about details.

Mando: You’d better be there! Okay, here are the details…

VIVIR UNIDOS!
Thursday, June 18, 2009 
6:00 – 8:30 PM
Mexican American Cultural Center
600 River Street, Austin, Texas 78702

An event hosted by United Way Capital Area and Hands On Central Texas. Come learn about how you can get involved in the community, and enjoy activities for the whole family!
* Vivir Unidos Loteria (which is basically Mexican bingo)
* La Feria de los Voluntaries (the Volunteer Fair part)
* St. Edward’s Ballet Folklorico (dance performance)
* La Esquina de HEB (HEB Corner)
* Comida Latinoamericano (Nom, nom)
* Special presentation of “Making the Connection Volunteer Report” by
Hispanic Community Leaders.

PS: There’s still time to be a sponsor! Sponsorship levels from $200 to $5000. Get creative and email Mando Rayo with your sponsorship inquiries.

Check out how Austinite Linda Medina rolls with community engagement…

How I LIVE UNITED: Linda Medina from elmundodemando on Vimeo.

See? I was just talking about this exact thing the other day: A public recognition site for volunteers. Except the RecognizeGood people have made a site with the potential for much more than that.

I’ve tried the site. First you register – name, city, etc – then you just fill out the thank you. You include the person’s email address so they can be informed about the thank you, and it’s otherwise totally obvious what to do.

You have the option to make a donation on the site, and that goes to the site’s hometown beneficiary, in this case Samaritan Counseling Center of Austin. But what’s cool about your donation is matched by the site’s corporate sponsor – and that part of the donation can go to one of 10 partner nonprofits. And the thank-you beneficiary gets to choose which one.

I spoke to Nancy Blaich of the Samaritan Counseling Center of Austin , founding beneficiary and lead nonprofit for the site, for a little more information.

Why this site now?
“I don’t think we say thank you enough. There are thousands of act of unselfishness that go unacknowledged, and we wanted to create a public forum for these thank-yous. We think that the stories of kindness and charity – all of our stories put together in one place have got tremendous power, the power to create a movement toward more kindness in the world, a cultural shift.”

How it started.
“In 2007, we gave our Ethics in Business Award to Tyrex Group. John Bosch, the principal an d co founder of Tyrex, at the same time he received this award from us, had some things occur in his personal life for which he received extraordinary acts of kindness. And he didn’t feel like thank you was enough. He wanted someplace public to tell the world what people had done for him. That inspiration combined with Samaritan Center honoring him inspired him to come to us as a business partner to develop this social media site.”

What you can do to help.
“Use the site, first of all. But also, help us spread the word! Take advantage of the Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, and other social media tools on the site to share it with friends.

“Our goal is to have 15,000 thank-yous. We also hope to take the site worldwide. Austin is just the first host city; our goal is to invite 500 other host cities, each with their own host nonprofit and then each of those sites will have their own nonprofit partners. We have 10 nonprofit partners… so if we can get thousands more nonprofits involved in this worldwide, that would be exciting.”
 
“We’re also looking for community reporters. These are people who will commit to finding five acts of kindness a week and reporting about them to us for the site and a future newsletter.” (If you’re interested in helping, contact Nancy at the Samaritan center.)

Check out RecognizeGood and let us know what you think.

Received this email from Linda Medina. I know there are lots of you out there who could expose a high school student to a career they might have never considered. This is a great opportunity to inspire Austin young people.

Dear Friends,

I hope this email finds you well.  Volunteers are needed to participate in the Travis High School “Real World Connections” Speaker Series on Friday, March 27th at 11:30 a.m. The time commitment for the event will likely be no more than 90 minutes. We would very much appreciate if you could serve as a special guest or help recruit speakers in Media, Engineering & Technology fields.
 
To prepare for the 21st Century, students need real-world experiences.   They need to hear first-hand from professionals about the skills that are needed to succeed in different career fields.   Most importantly, students need to understand the incremental steps it takes to prepare for careers.  This luncheon will provide students with a great opportunity to learn about Media, Engineering & Technology careers and what it takes to succeed in that field.
 
Friday, March 27th
Travis High School
1211 E. Oltorf
11:30 a.m.

If you are interested in participating or know people that would, please contact Courtney Bensch, School Improvement Facilitator for Travis High School, at 414-6355, cbensch@austinisd.org or Raul Alvarez, Grassroots Community Coordinator for the Office of Redesign, 414-8729, raul.alvarez@austinisd.org
 
 
Seguimos Adelante,
 
Linda Medina, M.Ed.
Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Education Foundation
512.462.4311 direct line
2800 South IH 35, Suite 260
lmedina@gahcc.org
www.gahcc.org

You did it: 1,000 of you pledged to donate, volunteer, or spread the word about Pledge to End Hunger, and as a result, Tyson’s sending a semi-truck loaded with 140,000 meals to the Capital Area Food Bank on Monday, March 16. Way to go!

Now we have a chance to send two more Tyson food trucks to a food bank, and it’s so easy to do.

Just go to Pledge to End Hunger and click one of three options:

GIVE – Make a donation on the Share Our Strength website. $35 can help feed a child three meals a day for more than a month.
VOLUNTEER – Enter your zip code to find a food bank or pantry to donate your time.
SHARE- Twitter, blog, e-mail… just get talking about the Pledge to End Hunger. Get other people to pledge, too.

The two states with the most pledges will also get a truckload of food . So keep going. Send this post to everyone you know and urge them to take time out and make a pledge. Call it your good deed for the day.

Monday was overwhelmingly positive and energizing.

I had my first meeting as part of Hands On Central Texas’ Advisory Council. It’s ridiculous how much volunteer manpower the people in that room represent, and it’s also inspiring to imagine how they can push a large number of people into actionwith just a couple of precisely composed e-mails and their sheer will. I’m not sure what I can bring to the council, but I am there to support HOCT and the members of the council however I can, even if that means I have to volunteer Torquil for an entire weekend. (Har.)

At that meeting, I met (finallly) Alissa Magrum, director of volunteer services for Communities in Schools. I’d seen her name around and had been looking for a way to reach out to CISbecause they’re one of Austin’s finest nonprofits. (CIS is a dropout prevention program.) Alissa was stoked about “Team CIS,” a group that formed over the Austin Marathon and Half Marathon. Apparently, a number of people who ran for the CIS cause had never done more than a few miles before, and now they were hooked – not just on running but on raising money for CIS. The small team of runners raised more than $30,000, and they were looking for their next event.

She invited me to their happy hour celebrating their accomplishment. They also were making plans to grow the team and establish an ongoing series of athletic fundraisers.

“We have big plans to make this team an ongoing and sustainable fundraising/wellness vehicle for CIS and our team members,” she said. ”The potential for Team CIS is unbelievable.”

Doesn’t this sound fun? Learn more about CIS and contact them about joining the team.

If you’re going to put yourself out there, try to meet new people, find new opportunities… you might as well wipe some  cans and sort some peanut butter.

Scott Ingram of NetworkIn Austin and Austin TopGuns came up with this pairing of networking and giving/volutneering, and they’ve chosen the Capital Area Food Bank as the recipient. There are two ways to be a part of this effort:

1. First, you can make a donation. Between now and the end of the month, you can make a financial contribution (from $5 on up!) to the Virtual Fund Drive. Every little bit helps, and you’ll see that all dollars contributed to the Food Bank go a very long way. Please give generously!

2. Second, you can volunteer. They’ve set up 4 volunteer shifts (see below).  Their goal is to completely fill all 185 volunteer shifts, a contribution of 505 volunteer hours!

Thusday – 2/26: 6:00 – 9:00pm 
Friday – 2/27: 7:30 – 9:30am 
Friday – 2/27: 9:00am – Noon 
Friday – 2/27: 1:00 – 4:00pm

What a cool idea, huh? If you’ve never volunteered at the Food Bank before, you’re going to find it fascinating. They do a great job of training you, and eveyrone seems to enjoy the “Lucy Ricardo at the chocolate factory” atmosphere. Sign up, and bring a friend!

This number amazes me: Last year, Foundation Communities engaged 470 volunteers helping with 17,284 tax returns with $21 million in tax refunds!

This year, they are looking for 500 volunteers to prepare 20,000 returns – and aiming for $26 million. That’s $26 million for Austin in 2009. It’s not $700 billion, but it’s still a nice chunk of change.

Want to help?

Community Tax Centers provide free income tax preparation services to Austin’s low-income families.  Volunteers can give the working poor in our community a chance to build a financial future by helping them claim eligible tax credits.

What do Volunteer Tax Preparers do?
- Learn how to prepare simple tax returns using a commercial software program in 8 hours of training – training starts in December
- Become certified as an IRS Volunteer Tax Preparer
- Work directly with families who need help preparing tax returns

Any Texas CPA who completes our training, passes the IRS certification test and volunteers for 36 hours will be approved for 12 hours of CPE credit.
 
Other Ways to Volunteer:
Intake Specialist –Welcome clients, explain our services, and facilitate the intake process. Students must possess excellent customer service and organization skills and work well in a fast-paced environment.
Interpreters –We need bilingual volunteers of all languages to help clients and our volunteer tax preparers communicate effectively. 20% of Community Tax Center clients speak only Spanish. 
 
Time Commitment:
January ­ April 15. Serve just 3 hours per week or a total of 36 hours.  Tax centers are conveniently located throughout Austin, including Round Rock and Del Valle, and offer daytime, evening and weekend hours. 
 
Make a difference in YOUR community. 
Sign up today!
 
http://www.handsoncentraltexas.org/AboutUs/index.php/communitytaxcenters.htm
Jackie Blair  ~  Volunteer Coordinator  ~  Foundation Communities
512-447-2026 ext. 35 ~ Jackie.Blair@foundcom.org

Saw this on the Las Comadres listserv:

Feria Para Aprender is looking for enthusiastic professionals who want to share with the youth attending the event the path you had to take to reach your career goals.

Since the focus of this event is higher learning and the importance of graduating high school and moving on to college, we want professionals who’ll be eager to share their great stories of success. We are looking for professionals in all fields, any and all are welcome, engineering, business management, information technology, and of course teachers, lawyers, and doctors.

ABOUT VOLUTNEERING:

If you want to help encourage these young minds to strive higher, please let us know.
DATE: Saturday, February 7th
PLACE: Burger Center, 3200 Jones Drive
SHIFT TIMES: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
We need at least four professionals per shift.

To volunteer or to share your college and career experiences please contact Nancy Rodriguez at (512) 912-5959 or via email.

About Feria: Thousands of students and their Spanish-speaking parents are expected to visit the Tony Burger Center on Saturday, February 7th for the annual Feria Para Aprender. This event debuted in 2007 as the first citywide Spanish language-only education fair, drawing more than 3,500 in attendance.

It is the area’s largest one-day education effort with a dual objective to
close the Hispanic achievement gap in Central Texas while fueling the economy with a workforce of bilingual, educated graduates.

For more info visit http://www.feriaeducativa.org/.