United Way Campaign Encourages Even More Participation
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The United Way campaign is encouraging more people to give back to the community than ever before. Whilst the pacing of the campaign is steady, United Way is providing more reasons for donors to step up.
United Way is the conduit for both companies and employees to give back, ensuring their gift has the greatest impact in our community. This year, more companies joined United Way with a workplace campaign, including Canyon Technical Services, SGS Canada and Ridgeline Canada Inc. Hundreds of workplaces across Central Alberta embrace the United Way campaign each and every year.
To learn more about how the campaign is progressing please click here.
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NOVA Chemicals Celebrates Successful Campaign
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NOVA Chemicals` Joffre Site employees ran a record-setting United Way campaign this year. The employee-led campaign celebrated with a cheque presentation to United Way for $701,246.95, plus over $5000 in contractor contributions. Since that date the campaign has grown to over $704,000. This year marks $5.6million raised for United Way since 1995.  The NOVA Chemicals United Way workplace campaign is one of the most successful campaigns in our community. They do a great job engaging employees and creating awareness about how United Way and partner agencies build capacity in the community. 209 staff volunteered 1,500 hours to help 29 agencies for Day of CaringTM
volunteer opportunities. Day of CaringTM is an important educational component for the campaign and an opportunity for staff to connect with local charity organizations. This serves two purposes: employees benefit from seeing what agencies do for the community, and overhead costs for agencies are lowered when they get skilled and experienced volunteers to support their operations. Through their personal experience employees are able to see the need in our community and are inclined to give more. NOVA Chemicals engages a core committee to plan their campaign, and a larger group of employees canvass their peers and expedite many events throughout their facilities. One of the campaign activities was selling United Way chocolate bars - over 2000 were sold in a month. In the end nearly 600 individuals participated in the campaign - 143 at the Leader of the Way level ($1000 or more) - what United Way calls Leadership donors. NOVA Chemicals matches employee and retiree donations up to $5000 per person. |
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Can We Move On After A History Of Sexual Assault?
| Wanda grew up in a home and community where abuse was not only considered normal, but it was considered acceptable. After telling authority figures in her community of the emotional and physical abuse she experienced at home, she was told that "these things happen."
In December 2004 Wanda hit what she calls her rock bottom; she was homeless, penniless and with two young kids to care for. By 2006 Wanda was diagnosed with a severe complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and when she found a support group that she thought could help she was informed that her trauma was too severe and she would not be able to participate in the program. It wasn't until Wanda was seeking areas to help her daughter, when she ended up at the Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre (CASASC) where an RCMP officer was giving a presentation on self-esteem in young women. On the first day of therapy with Deb, Wanda gave her an outline of her history of abuse and waited for Deb to tell her it was time to just get over it, as that is what she heard over and over in her past. Instead of telling Wanda she could not help, and that she was too damaged, Deb invested the time and helped Wanda work through the traumas she experienced. Deb helped Wanda understand that the past had a significant impact on how she coped in the present; therefore they had to be worked on in unison. Deb taught her that it was okay to be vulnerable and became a constant support for Wanda while she continued to overcome obstacles from her past. Finally, Wanda was able to grow, learned to forgive some of the people who had hurt her most and learned what it meant to be in a healthy relationship. To learn more about how CASASC helps raise public awareness about the prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual assault in our society please visit www.casasc.ca |
Sockey Night in Red Deer a Great Success
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United Way staff and volunteers collected and distributed 1845 pairs of socks. The dollars raised go towards the 2014 campaign and will support vital programs and services in our community.
Socks have already been distributed to five United Way partner agencies to provide for their clients during cold winter months.Sockey Night in Red Deer is another fun United Way event that brings together
business, community and partner agencies to raise awareness and engage our community members.
Thank you to Red Deer Rebels, TELUS, Redcore, Rezone Well Services Ltd.,Target Safety Services, Soderquist Appraisals Ltd., Liquid Force Environmental, Servus Credit Union, Dave Brunner Photography, iHotel, Brown's Social House, Southside Dodge, Old Navy, Walmart, for making Sockey Night in Red Deer a huge success.
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Photo Of The Month
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What a way to kick-start a United Way campaign! SGS launched their first ever employee giving campaign, and asked us to attend their safety meeting, where they gave us a few minutes to tell them about the kind of impact their donations can have. The free breakfast after the event was a wonderful bonus to launch their campaign.
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United Way Calgary has build a tool to see what it's like to manage paycheque to paycheque? Take the quiz and find out if you can make the month at www.makethemonth.ca
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Your Dollars at Work
United Way Central Alberta was proud to be a sponsor of the Frontline Service Awards on November 5th. Ceremonies were held during a luncheon at the Black Knight Inn, to honour those who work to end domestic and relationship violence. Our CEO, Robert says, "I was impressed to see the different social agencies, health care providers and the RCMP work as one team to help these families." Earlier this month, Robert was honoured to be part of the selection committee that chose the award recipients. Awards were presented by the Red Deer and Area Domestic Relationship Violence Initiative Committee (DRVIC). United Way contributed funds to support professional development opportunities for the winners. Representatives were on hand from all applicable agencies and government ministries. Other sponsors this year were Central Alberta Women's Emergency Shelter (CAWES) and The Outreach Centre. The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Ian Wheeliker of CAWES. Awards were also presented to Frontline Service providers Rayann Toner of CAWES and Britney Moylan of Central Alberta Women's Outreach. We are proud to be part of this initiative! You can learn more here.
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Get Involved With a Priority Impact Team
| Get an inside look at the impact United Way has in the community - Volunteer on a Priority Impact Team (aka PIT crew)! From January through March, the PIT crews read about programs that have applied for funding and visit agencies to discover how they align to United Way's Community Impact Strategy. The PIT crew then recommends how to distribute donor dollars to the Community Impact Council (CIC) who makes the final decisions about investing in our community. Learn more here
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United Way collects a variety of personal care items to share with clients in several local agencies. Please drop off any of the following items and we will make sure it gets to those in need: mitts, socks, soap, razors, chap stick, deodorant and shampoo.
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