Celebrating Excellence 2020: March 10th & 11th, 2021
Celebrating Excellence is United Way of Northeast Louisiana's annual celebration of generosity and unwavering community spirit, seeking to honor community partners, campaigns, volunteers, and donors. On March 10th and March 11th, United Way of Northeast Louisiana recognized outstanding volunteers and corporate partners during its annual Celebrating Excellence events in Lincoln, Union, & Jackson Parishes as well as the Regional area. This year’s events took place virtually via Zoom and were live-streamed on Facebook.
 
The success of the United Way campaign depends on everyone in our community. Although we were unable to gather in person this year, we wanted to take the time to honor all of our generous workplaces and donors – you overcame some incredible challenges in 2020, but remained committed to addressing critical community issues.  
 
In addition to recognizing outstanding workplace campaigns, New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis gave an inspiring and timely message to all attendees. From his advocacy for children and youth to his work with United Ways across the country, Davis challenged attendees to get involved in their local community.

We hope you were able to join us live for these events, but if you missed them, it's not too late! Click below for a recap of both events.
Workplace Employee Campaign Spotlight:
Brandi Green & Katelyn Reed, Graphic Packaging – West Monroe Mill

Each year, we honor a special person and team at our Celebrating Excellence events. One of this year's Regional Outstanding Campaign Coordinator and Team of the Year award winners was the dynamic duo from Graphic Packaging – West Monroe Mill, Brandi Green & Katelyn Reed!

This awesome team followed best practices, including building a
relationship with United Way Staff, securing top level support, organizing a terrific team, and promoting and publicizing the campaign. They more than doubled participation AND more than doubled employee giving, and they truly recognized employees for their generosity.

This year, Graphic Packaging – West Monroe Mill had an incredible
increase in participation, resulting in an increase in employee giving from $19,364 to $41,527, and with their corporate gift, this is a total campaign of $51,935. With the support of Graphic Packaging – West Monroe Mill management, Brandi and Katelyn also truly recognized employees for their generosity: they walked through the entire Mill to meet with all employees and shared about United Way’s work in the community, gave a Chick-fil-A cookie to every donor who turned in a pledge form, and held fun drawings with great prizes when goals were met.

Brandi, Katelyn, and the entire Graphic Packaging – West Monroe Mill team, we are proud of your hard work and look forward to another year of working with you!

Thank you!
Workplace Employee Campaign Spotlight:
Shelva Thomas & Temika Cooks, Monroe Housing Authority

The second Regional Outstanding Campaign Coordinator and Team of the Year award winners were Shelva Thomas and Temika Cooks with the Monroe Housing Authority. This awesome team also followed best practices, including building a
relationship with United Way Staff, securing top level support, organizing a terrific team, and promoting and publicizing the campaign.

Shelva, Temika, and their team more than doubled participation AND more than doubled employee giving, and they truly recognized employees for their generosity. This year, they increased participation from 25% to 58.1%! They also more than doubled employee giving, going from $7,600 to $15,632!

With the support of Monroe Housing Authority management, Shelva and Temika truly recognized employees for their generosity: they gave away gift cards, custom United Way T-shirts, and held drawings for cash prizes at their annual Employee Appreciation Luncheon, which was held on Zoom this year.

Shelva, Temika, and the entire Monroe Housing Authority team, we are proud of your hard work and look forward to another year of working with you!

Thank you!
Workplace Employee Campaign Spotlight: 
Ashley Avery, First National Bank

This year's Lincoln, Union, & Jackson Parishes Outstanding Campaign Coordinator of the Year award recipient also followed best practices, including building a relationship with United Way Staff, securing top level support, organizing a terrific team, and promoting and publicizing the campaign. We were so pleased to present this year's award to Ashley Avery with First National Bank!

Ashley did a phenomenal job as Campaign Coordinator this year! Due to COVID-19 restrictions and limited visitors allowed inside their workplace, Ashley visited all branches in Lincoln and Union parishes and did the United Way presentations by herself. In addition to the company offering a paid time off day for employees giving one hour’s pay per month, Ashley distributed beautifully wrapped cookies to each employee.

What stood out the most is that Ashley thoroughly examined all pledge forms before submitting them. For any First National Bank employees who were close to Bayou or Steamboat leadership giving levels, she went back to them to let them know how close they were and asked if they would like to increase to the next leadership level. She was successful with many employees that she reached out to which resulted in increased giving for our community!

Ashley and the entire First National Bank team, we are proud of your hard work and look forward to another year of working with you!

Thank you!
READ.LEARN.SUCCEED. Parades

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our READ.LEARN.SUCCEED. volunteers have taken important precautions to help keep students and teachers healthy and safe. From Pen Friends to mailed packages of books, our volunteers and staff managed to keep students virtually engaged all year.

As the school year draws to a close, volunteers and staff decided to plan a READ.LEARN.SUCCEED. wrap-up for the students – a PARADE at each school! Parades are scheduled throughout March and April at the following schools:
Robinson, M.J. Foster, Jefferson, Minnie Ruffin, Hillcrest, Jonesboro Hodge, Lenwil, Carver, Lincoln Prep, Berg Jones, Swayze, Shady Grove, Union, Barkdull Faulk, and Clara Hall.

Pictured are READ.LEARN.SUCCEED. volunteers and students participating in a parade at Robinson Elementary School on March 16th.

Thank you, volunteers!
The Heirship Project

United Way of Northeast Louisiana recently launched “The Heirship Project,” a pilot project in Ouachita Parish aimed at educating and assisting residents who need help obtaining a clear property title.

Heir property comes about when necessary legal work isn’t done after a property owner dies. Heirs who have a verbal agreement to live on the property, but no legal title could face many obstacles, including selling the property, making repairs on the property, or qualifying for government aid to fix damages to the home.

The Heirship Project involves two workshops, one on Thursday, March 18th and another on Thursday, April 1st, both from 6:00-7:30pm. Interested individuals who reside in Ouachita Parish and need assistance obtaining a clear property title for heir property should contact 211 for registration details. Simply dial 211 from any landline or mobile phone (available 24/7), or text your zip code to 898-211 (available Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm). Additionally, interested individuals may register online using the link below.
VolunteerUNITED Spotlight: International Women's Day

Did you know that Monday, March 8th was International Women’s Day?

We'd like to say a special thank you to all of our strong, capable, and valuable women volunteers who selflessly share their time and talents to better our community every single day. Today, we honor and celebrate YOU for the difference you're making!

Tune in to Facebook every Friday for a VolunteerUNITED spotlight!
Is your workplace or group interested in volunteer opportunities?

To build a volunteer project best suited to your group or company's needs, contact Jessica Hughes, VolunteerUNITED Manager, at jhughes@unitedwaynela.org.
Louisiana 211 Opioid Project

Families and individuals in our community suffering from the impact of Opioid Misuse now have a new, FREE resource to locate help and information through the Louisiana 211 Opioid Project.

This project features a texting platform which provides free and convenient access to opioid-related resources statewide, along with live text crisis intervention counseling services powered by VIALINK/211.
 
The interactions, via text, provide a another level of free, 24/7 support to Louisiana residents in all 64 parishes seeking Opioid-related information and referrals.
 
Anyone can access the service by texting the word “OPIOID” to 898-211.
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United Way of Northeast Louisiana | unitedwaynela.org