We are inviting you to be on a review team for one of the topic areas: Health, Financial Stability or Education, to evaluate and score reports.  Each team of 10 to 12 volunteers will have 3 to 4 S.M.A.R.T. Community Improvement Goals and Budget Plan Reports to review. 

February 8, 5 - 6 p.m. Introduction, Training, Meet Your Team at SAUW

Apply to volunteer by contacting Brenda Gutierrez or calling 785-827-1312.

County children are feeling the full impact of the recession, according to the latest Kansas KIDS COUNT report.  The report, released by Kansas Action for Children and the Salina Area United Way, measures county-by-county how kids are doing across 25 indicators of health, education and economic success.

According to the data, 17.6 percent of Saline County children are living in poverty and more than 54.23 percent of public schoolchildren are participating in the free or reduced school lunch program.

"Children who live in poverty face hardships that can hinder future success," said Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children. "This issue isn't going away, and we need to protect programs and services that help to lift families out of poverty."

New to this year's report are statistics about Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program enrollment.  4,353 poor children in Saline County rely on Medicaid for health care coverage and 856 rely on CHIP, which provides health care coverage for children whose families are climbing out of poverty but are not yet able to afford private insurance. 

In August, KAC and the Annie E. Casey Foundation released the national KIDS COUNT Data Book, which showed Kansas ranked 19th in a state-by-state study on the well-being of America's children, its lowest ranking since 2004. To find data for each county, visit  www.kac.org/kidscount. For additional information, the online KIDS COUNT Data Center contains hundreds of measures of child well-being and allows users to create maps and graphs of the data at the national, state and county levels. Visit  http://datacenter.kidscount.org/ks.

Kansas KIDS COUNT is produced by Kansas Action for Children and funded, in part, by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The findings and conclusions presented are those of KAC and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the foundation.

Big Brothers and Big Sisters are working to ensure that middle school students attend school and are engaged by their educational experience and make appropriate academic progress.  Bruce and Corbin have been matched for nine months and there has been significant improvement for Corbin.  He has gained more self confidence and has improved his reading skills.  This is just on of several personal stories about how Big Brothers Big Sisters  has helped a young teen progress and become better at school.  

BBBS Community Improvement Grant Goal is to have a 20% increase in school based matches of Bigs and Littles.  Increasing the number of matches from 129 to 155. To read more click here.

The Volunteer Connection is also striving to improve middle school attendance help students make appropriate academic progress.  Courtney writes, "The Volunteer Connection helps promote leadership and social skills.  She serves on the council and this has taught her how to interact with new people she meets."  

The Volunteer Connection Community Improvement Grant Goal is to increase the number of active and engaged volunteers by: youth 50%, middle aged adults 67%, and senior adults 32%.  To read more click here.