United Way announces project results for Yolo county
Yolo residents improving reading, health and financial literacy
November 28 2012 – Three projects funded by United Way California
Capital Region are making significant differences in the lives of
hundreds of Yolo County residents, CEO Steve Heath said Monday
evening at a town hall meeting in Woodland.
“We are working with several partner nonprofits to produce
measurable results on issues of vital importance to Yolo County
and the regional community as a whole,” Heath said.
Sacramento-based United Way California Capital Region serves
Amador, El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties.
Heath noted the high school dropout rate in Yolo County is nearly
17 percent. The group created its STAR Readers project to improve
early grade reading, a key indicator of whether or not a child
will later graduate high school. In Yolo County, 43 percent of
children do not achieve proficiency on the STAR test schools
administer at the end of third grade.
In Yolo County, STAR Readers works with Yolo County Children’s
Alliance and Davis Bridge Foundation to provide instruction for
180 kindergarten through third graders. All of the participants
had tested well below grade level before starting the program.
Now 27 percent of those students who had previously struggled are
rapidly progressing toward proficiency.
“Our goal is to significantly increase the number of kids who are
proficient and thus, ultimately improve high school graduation
rates dramatically,” Heath said. “And that’s just one example of
the projects we fund – projects that produce measurable outcomes.
That’s why we’re holiding town hall meetings throughout the
region so people who give to United Way can see the great results
from their gifts.”
United Way California Capital Region also is focused on obesity
reduction, noting that more than 25 percent of Yolo County
residents are considered obese.
“The potential ramifications of those rates are staggering, not
just for people struggling with obesity, but for all of us,”
Heath said. “We think the key to reducing obesity rates is to
form and reinforce healthy lifestyles, and that’s what our Fit
Kids project is working on.”
In Yolo County, United Way is funding West Sacramento-based
Health Education Council, which in turn is partnering with Yolo
Family Resource Center to provide healthy eating and active
lifestyle programs for kids in Woodland and Knights Landing.
Using an assessment tool called the Fitnessgram, the team
establishes a baseline on pulmonary capacity, body mass index and
more. In the first year of the program, 88 percent of
participants improved performance in at least one of the six
Fitnessgram domains.
United Way’s third focus area is household financial stability.
Even before the recession, 30 percent of households in the
region, and 33 percent of Yolo County households, were
financially unstable, spending 40 percent or more of their income
on housing alone.
“We believe that one of the key things missing for people these
days is financial literacy,” Heath said. “If people don’t
understand or know how to participate in our economic system,
they will struggle. Our $en$e-Ability project is providing
knowledge and skills to more than 300 Yolo County residents
through our grant to Yolo Family Resource Center.”
Participants in the project are making progress by creating
savings accounts and preparing to be self-sufficient. The
$en$e-Ability project also works with 183 foster youth throughout
the five-county region who are about to emancipate. As they go
through the educational process, they earn credits toward
individual development accounts – matched savings accounts.
Savings can be used to pay college tuition or buy a computer, car
and more.
United Way California Capital Region is investing approximately
$143,000 in the three projects in Yolo County, in addition to the
$145,000 it raised for Yolo County nonprofits from residents and
businesses located in the county in 2011-2012, and the $91,000 it
raised in other counties for Yolo County nonprofits.
“We would like to be able to expand that because there are
certainly more people in Yolo County who could benefit from these
projects,” Heath said. “And I am confident that over time, that
will happen as people learn more about the high-quality results
we’re achieving. But in the meantime, we wanted to report back to
our supporters – Yolo County’s donors, nonprofits and volunteers
who helped formulate, develop and fund these projects. We
conducted town hall meetings here during our regional needs
assessment. We thought it was time to conduct town hall meetings
again – this time to share the results and say thanks.”
United Way is the region’s leading provider of innovative
solutions on the community’s most pressing issues, including high
school graduation rates, household financial stability and
obesity. United Way’s team of nonprofits, businesses, donors and
volunteers work together to provide positive, measurable results
on these issues through United Way projects: STAR Readers,
$en$e-Ability and Fit Kids. Community members can give, volunteer
and advocate in support of the causes they care most about,
benefiting United Way and hundreds of nonprofits in Amador, El
Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties. United Way is an
independent, local affiliate of United Way Worldwide. For more
information, visit www.yourlocalunitedway.org.
Woodland United Way also is an independent affiliate of United
Way Worldwide, serving portions of Yolo County.