Education
Impact Week 2018: Delivering Results, Changing Lives
Making a charitable gift or volunteering your time isn’t just a feel-good exercise. It’s an investment, and you want to see that investment pay off. United Way wholeheartedly agrees. “Our impact begins by identifying where we can invest resources, people and expertise to solve our region’s biggest challenges,” said Matt Lynn, Vice President for Community…
Read MoreOpen Roads Offers Much More Than Bikes
A bicycle can give a child freedom, independence and a sense of empowerment. At Open Roads Bike Program, participants get all of that and more as they acquire the tools to navigate both their neighborhoods and their lives. “When we can help them earn a bike and lock, they’re like, ‘Whoa, game changer,’” said Erin…
Read MoreStory Squad Celebrates Literacy, Caps United Way Book Drive
With books, props and many giggles, a handful of volunteers and dozens of young readers recently helped us close out our Education Quarter and celebrate the success of the second United Way Children’s Book Drive. The Story Squad – volunteers from Landscape Forms, Kellogg Community Credit Union, CSM Group, Rose Street Advisors and Aspiring Leaders…
Read MoreAdvocacy Academy is More Than a Resume Builder
A first job is a big milestone in life. For a person with a disability, it can be loaded with barriers. Advocacy Academy, an 8-week paid summer internship program through Disability Network Southwest Michigan, offers people a way to gain employment skills and minimize those barriers. They learn by planning and implementing a disability advocacy…
Read MoreMaking Mentoring Child's Play
Sometimes volunteering in the community can be child’s play. by Sara Coppo, Guest Blogger Eva De La Cruz is a busy Kalamazoo Christian High School senior who spends most of her time volunteering, playing tennis, coaching volleyball and helping out with musicals. But one of the most rewarding parts of her week, she says, is…
Read MoreTwo Days Left to Give Books!
Books have been piling up in our United Way offices and at partner locations across the region, but the United Way Book Drive is not over yet! There’s plenty of time to contribute. Until August 15, we are collecting new and gently used children’s books for students ages K-3rd grade, with a goal of getting…
Read MoreHelp Us Collect 10,000 Books for Kids!
Children who read well tend to succeed in school. In that light, United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region is leading an effort to collect 10,000 donated new or gently used children’s books and get them in the hands of kids across the region. According to Matt Lynn, Vice President for Community Impact…
Read MoreSee What's Ahead in the Education Quarter
Last fall, United Way volunteers visited elementary schools in Battle Creek and Comstock to read and deliver books as part of the 2017 UW Book Drive. The students were excited to listen to stories, and afterward they spread the donated books on the gym floor, eager to choose one to take home. These were a…
Read MoreImpact Week: Connecting With Early Readers
[su_label type=”info”]IMPACT WEEK[/su_label] After finishing as a guest reader at New Genesis Learning Center, Amie Meints was nearly bowled over by a crowd of hug-seeking preschoolers. It was all the confirmation needed to show the impact that she and co-worker Jason McFadden made that day. The two were among 10 Humphrey Products employees who fanned…
Read MoreJoin Us for Free Screening of 'Resilience'
Raising Kalamazoo County, United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region, and the Michigan ACE Initiative invite you to view the award-winning documentary “Resilience”. “Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope” chronicles the birth of a new movement among pediatricians, therapists, educators and communities, who are using cutting-edge brain science to…
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