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Partners In Early Childhood Education
By P. Goodwin, Guest Contributor.
 
Investing in our children at a young age pays huge dividends for them and for our community as a whole.
Early childhood is our business and United Way has given us the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young children. In July 2012 PIECE, a partnership of 14 agencies in Saline County, officially started the mission "By June 30, 2015, 85% of the children in Saline county entering kindergarten will have the necessary skills to be successful."
Nearly 90% of a child's brain growth happens by age five and we must reach children early enough in life to maximize their potential. PIECE helps families and the entire community understand that school readiness begins at birth.
Our work is to give children the opportunities they need to be successful when they enter kindergarten. The necessity to close the early childhood achievement gap is so urgent because lost developmental time in a child's life cannot be reclaimed.
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Dine Out & Donate
The Salina Area United Way is proud of our continued partnership with Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers. Two Tuesdays each month we team up with one of our funded priorities to raise money, with 15% of the proceeds from sales at Freddy's going to our spotlighted priority. Join us this month on the 9th as we spotlight the YMCA, and the 23rd as we spotlight the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland. See you there!
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Board members Evette Beckman and Joyce Volk are leading volunteer recruitment and could use your help! A few specific needs have been identified. Did you receive a letter, e-mail, or phone call asking you to volunteer? Click here for more information.
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About Us
Salina Area United Way (SAUW) is a leadership organization working for lasting change for the common good with meaningful and measurable results to strengthen Salina area communities. The mission of the SAUW is to strengthen our community by improving lives through leadership, partnership, and investment.
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"If we look and say we can't do anything about poverty, nothing will happen. Believe it can be eradicated."
-Shelly Martin, Executive Coordinator, Circles of the Heartland
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Circles of the Heartland
Ending Poverty by Connecting Hearts
| Rodney Denholm is a certified counselor for Consumer Credit Counseling Services. Shelly Martin is a registered nurse of 25 years. They share a love of helping others, extremely positive outlooks, and the knowledge that Salina has a problem with poverty. Those are just a few reasons why in February of 2012 they teamed up to become the coordinators of a brand new program to the Salina area called "Circles of the Heartland".
"Circles" works to end poverty through what Martin refers to as the three R's: Resources, Relationships, and Reason. The program works to help a family in poverty build all three of these. They look at low-income and poverty level families who have a home but are struggling financially at or below poverty level. Martin says they have been working off of referrals from agencies in town such as the Salina Housing Authority and the Department for Children and Families. So far they have received 10 applications for the 12 spots available in the first session of the program. Each family has to commit to attending class for 12-15 weeks. In class, families follow a specialized curriculum that builds the three R's. Once they complete the class they begin "Circles", which pairs them with Allies from the community. "The program helps families understand the tools they need to help them make a transformation from what we call 'survival mode', which is living in low-income, to becoming financially stable" Martin says. "They learn to build assets, manage cash flow, and begin to network and build their self-esteem". The program comes equipped with textbook, community resources, and most importantly, "Allies". Denholm says ideally each family would have 2-3 Allies to journey with them...
Read more
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United Priority Cabinet | This year the United Priority Cabinet, or UPC, is led by George Troutfetter and Kory Tinkler. These two board members ensure that UPC is fulfilling its mission and values, and is living up to United Way goals. The purpose of UPC is to provide leadership in carrying out the Board's vision of strengthening the community by investing the resources entrusted to the Salina Area United Way to make a measurable impact in the Salina area. Four councils report to this cabinet, which are Measurement, Education, Financial Stability, and Health. UPC designs and oversees SAUW community partnerships and investment policies, reviews grants and progress of certified funded partners, and works with other community leadership collaborations to achieve the SAUW mission.
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with the SAUW ever since. In 2002 she became involved with the campaign- working to create the campaign theme for a couple years and then becoming part of the review committee to look over United Way agencies. Last year, Srna served as a SMART Goal reviewer, assisted the Campaign Committee, and worked closely with the Citizenship Incentives. Now she works at Central Kansas Mental Health Center, where she has been for the past five years as Director of Finance, and served as their campaign contact for 2012.
