Just when you thought fundraisers couldn’t get any more delicious than Baconfest, a generous Winnipegger served up our city’s first Chocoholic’s Buffet with proceeds going to the United Way.

Chocoholics Buffet creator Anna Echols

The event was the creation of Anna Echols, food blogger for LunchFor1.com. Featuring a 24-foot long buffet table packed full of high quality chocolate desserts at the Gates on Roblin, the event presented guests with a wide selection of chocolate dessert specialties prepared and donated by many of the leading pastry chefs and chocolate artists in and around Winnipeg.

When all the chocolate had been devoured, a grand total of more than $6200 was raised for the United Way of Winnipeg. A huge thank you to Anna, all of the volunteers, sponsors, and participating restaurants for your support! The next Chocoholics Buffet is already planned for Saturday, March 22, 2014 – see you there!

From Monday, June 3rd to Friday June 7th, United Way of Winnipeg is honored to present 100 Years of Loss – The Residential School System in Canada, a bilingual exhibit featuring collections from the Legacy of Hope Foundation.

Hosting this exhibit is part of our strategy to grow knowledge and understanding and to strengthen relationships in our community. Developed in 2010/11 to promote a better understanding of the history and legacy of Canada’s residential school system, the display is presented in each official language and serves as an entry point to both the subject matter and to existing resources, available at the Legacy of Hope website.

The exhibit will be located in the Atrium at 580 Main Street and will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily.

Registration 11:00 am
Luncheon Seating 11:30 am
AGM 1:15 pm

United Way of Winnipeg’s Annual General Luncheon and Meeting is a chance for us all to reflect upon and celebrate all we have accomplished together in our community over the past year.

This year’s luncheon will feature an inspiring talk with renowned educator and Circle of Courage co-founder, Dr. Martin Brokenleg.

We hope to see you there!

Mildred Bjarnason has very special memories of the teacher who inspired her to pursue a university education and become a teacher herself.

The chance to give other children and youth in Winnipeg the same opportunity to explore their potential is one of the reasons she supports United Way.

“You don’t just want to do the ordinary; you want to do the extraordinary.”

She began building the Mildred C. Bjarnason named fund within United Way’s endowment, the Tomorrow Fund about six years ago.

Although Tomorrow Fund named funds are fully established at $5000, there are no limits to how long it can take, how high it can climb, or who can help a donor build their fund.

Last year Mildred’s reached $10,000 – an extraordinary milestone that she chalks up to her love of Winnipeg and passion for setting and achieving goals.

“I chose the Tomorrow Fund because I wanted the impact of my donations to go on forever.”

Every gift to the Tomorrow Fund, is invested permanently. Each year, the interest earned supports an essential network of over 100 agencies, programs and partnerships.

Whether it’s helping kids be all they can be, moving families from poverty to possibility or encouraging healthy people and a strong community, support for the Tomorrow Fund changes lives.

You can make a lasting difference and create an enduring legacy like Mildred’s for as little as $100 per month.

For more information on leaving a legacy through United Way, click here.

Research tells us that two out of three staff leaders plan to leave their jobs within five years, and that many boards are underprepared to respond. A recent United Way of Winnipeg survey of agency partners yielded the same data: 2/3 of respondents said they will leave their current leadership role in the next 5 years and 66% said their agency does not have a current, written succession plan. Imagine Canada’s new sector standards include requirements around succession planning for medium and larger organizations. And for smaller groups, it just makes good sense.

United Way of Winnipeg is partnering with PeopleFirst HR Services to pilot a workshop to help non-profit board members understand why succession planning for their staff leadership is important and to provide practical knowledge and tools to help create plans that are appropriate to their agency and its stakeholders.

Facilitator: Gordon McAlpine

Event Facilitator: Gordon McAlpineGordon is a human resources practitioner with more than 25 years of broad based experience. In his role as a Senior Consultant at People First HR Services, he works with a wide range of organizations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors to design and implement human resources systems, policies and practices. Gordon’s extensive background in human resources allows him to assist clients in areas such as succession planning, performance management, talent assessments, respectful workplace, leadership coaching, employment equity, employee surveys and organizational effectiveness. With a practical, focused and results oriented approach to consulting, Gordon is known for his ability to successfully navigate complex human resources issues and deliver exceptional results to clients.

This week is Canada’s National Volunteer week – the perfect time to say thank you to the volunteers whose dedication and generosity make our work possible. Every day this week, we’ll be sharing the story of one of the more than 5,000 United Way volunteers we are so grateful for. We couldn’t do it without you.

Aynslie Hinds serves as an Agency Liaison Volunteer, contributing to the thousands of collective hours spent reviewing agency partner needs and helping make sure donations achieve maximum results.

How did you begin volunteering with United Way?

I started when I was in a master’s program at the U of M, volunteered to help with the United Way campaign on campus, and then I got involved youth relations, and asked about other opportunities – I became an Agency Liaison Volunteer (ALV) and have been one for about 5 or 6 years now.

What do you do as an Agency Liaison Volunteer?

Well, United Way funds around 100 different agency partners. It’s the ALV’s responsibility to meet with these partners, talk about what they’re doing, and discuss their funding applications.

We go in a team of 3- 5 volunteers and do annual checkups with them to follow up, talk about any concerns, and to learn about successes they’ve had.

Before you go to visit an agency, we meet with the United Way staff and develop a set of questions we want to ask the agency, and after the meeting we have a debrief where we talk about what we heard, evaluate and discuss the recommendation and write it up for the Community Investment Committee to look at and decide on.

It’s a huge responsibility. Winnipeggers donate money to the United Way, and expect that their money is being used well. It’s the ALV’s responsibility to help ensure that the United Way and the agency partners are accountable for that money.

I absolutely love being an ALV, it’s so exciting to be able to go to the different agency partners and see what they do. I’ve been lucky to be able to visit and work with a number of agencies over the years – RaY, Macdonald Youth Services, North Point Douglas Women’s Centre, Volunteer Manitoba, Wolseley Family Place – those are just a few of them. In a lot of visits to agencies, I end up getting goosebumps. Agency partner staff are so passionate about what they’re doing. It’s amazing what people are doing in the community and how they’re making Winnipeg a better place.

What motivates you to volunteer?

I absolutely love volunteering. If I could do it full time, I would! I feel very rewarded, and it’s a great way to meet and connect with other people. I just feel it’s important to give back to the community and help make Winnipeg the best place we can be.

Want to learn more about volunteering with United Way? Click here for more information

Whether they’re working with our agency partners, reaching out to donors, running special events, helping to build understanding about important issues in our community, or ensuring United Way itself is an effective and efficient organization …  at the end of the day, they make it possible for people all over this city to build better lives for themselves and their families.

This week is Canada’s National Volunteer week – the perfect time to say thank you to the volunteers whose dedication and generosity make our work possible. Every day this week, we’ll be sharing the story of one of the more than 5000 United Way volunteers we are so grateful for. We couldn’t do it without you.

Volunteer Lindy Choy serves on the Board of Trustees, helping guide the work of the United Way.

Lindy Choy, volunteer on the Board of Trustees at her office at the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba

How did you start volunteering with United Way?

The chair of the Board of Trustees at the time called me and asked me to serve. I knew about the United Way and was familiar with what they did, and having an opportunity to become involved in their operations was really something I couldn’t refuse!

What do you do as a volunteer on the Board of Trustees?

The board of trustees is made up of members of the community who meet regularly and basically help direct the ship – we oversee all of the operations of United Way and provide input on how United Way should move forward in fulfilling its goals.

It’s a wide variety of people who serve on it, both people in business and people who are working directly in the community, but I see a common thread through everyone, in that everyone’s very authentic. And I think that’s typical of Winnipeg – everyone’s there because they do truly want to make a difference, and they are interested in what’s going on.

What motivates you to volunteer?

Just the other week, I was at a talk by Dr Chochinov, who’s a professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and the director of Palliative Care Research with CancerCare Manitoba. He coined a phrase that I thought was great, called ‘pathways to compassion.’ His talk was about understanding dignity, and how you can understand other people better, and one of the elements of that was compassion. The question was “How do you develop compassion?” and he said that there were different pathways to compassion. Some of it is studying the humanities, some of it is exposing yourself to other parts of the world, and I think that volunteering is definitely a pathway to compassion. Because you expose yourself to more people and more of humanity, and I think you get a better understanding of what people are all about when you do that.

Want to learn more about volunteering with United Way? Click here for more information

Whether they’re working with our agency partners, reaching out to donors, running special events, helping to build understanding about important issues in our community, or ensuring United Way itself is an effective and efficient organization …  at the end of the day, they make it possible for people all over this city to build better lives for themselves and their families.

Volunteers Judy and Howard Bilenki help people understand the realities of living in poverty as volunteers with the Living on the Edge Poverty Simulation.

Judy and Howard Bilenki

How did you start volunteering with United Way?

Judy: Our son in in a band called Take me to the Pilot. Ace Burpee was producing a promo video for United Way, and used a song our son wrote. A friend sent us the link, and at that time we were looking for a new area to volunteer in – after the video we thought, well, why don’t we start there.

Howard: There are other opportunities we do on our own, but we were also looking for something we could do together as a team and work together on.

What do you do as a volunteer?

Judy: At the Poverty Simulation, participants are given packages. They’re given a certain amount of money, information about their social situation, health issues, etc, and they then have to simulate surviving as a family for 4 weeks below the poverty line.

Howard: We play the roles of the agencies to people that people in the simulation have to deal with. I’ve been a pawn shop operator, a place of employment…

Judy: I’ve played the role of the lady running a homeless shelter, and a teacher.

Howard: We try to make it as authentic and be as knowledgeable as possible. It’s role playing, but the poverty situations are true to form. And every group has been different, but they all take it quite seriously. We’ve had groups like the CEOs of hospitals, first year teachers, Manitoba Housing. It’s very interesting to hear their discussions at the end.

Judy: I taught for over 25 years, but when I played the teacher it was very interesting. When I looked back to my teaching years, when you saw a kid with their head down, I as a teacher would think “Maybe I need to rev up the lesson or do something more motivating,” – but then you would find our later that the child was hungry, or there were issues at home. Even though I’ve had many many experiences in the classroom, by doing this simulation I’m still learning and realizing things.

What motivates you to volunteer?

Judy: We’ve been retired – 5 years for Howard, 4 for me – and we’ve done a fair bit of contract work, and we’ve done volunteer work in our community and our church. We sat down at the beginning of this year, and I think Howard put it as “Time to give back.” So we cut back on contract work and decided we want to help more in some way.

Howard: I think it’s a sense of gratitude. We’re blessed in terms of what we have. I thought that this was a very good organization to hang your hat on, because I see it as helping support the people who are working on the front lines in the trenches. It does a lot of good in this city.

Want to learn more about volunteer with United Way? Click here for more information

Whether they’re working with our agency partners, reaching out to donors, running special events, helping to build understanding about important issues in our community, or ensuring United Way itself is an effective and efficient organization …  at the end of the day, they make it possible for people all over this city to build better lives for themselves and their families.

Volunteer menders Leslie and Susan repair hundreds of donated coats and snow pants every year – helping as many kids as possible to keep warm through the Koats for Kids program.

Koats for Kids volunteer mender Leslie. With fellow volunteer Susan, they repair hundreds of donated clothing items every year.

How did you become a volunteer with Koats for Kids and United Way?

Leslie: Well, I heard on the radio a couple of years ago that they were looking for volunteers to sort coats at Koats for Kids, and I thought “I can do that, I can sort coats.” When I got there, they told me that they also needed mending to be done on the coats that are donated, and I thought, “I could do that too!”

What do you do as a volunteer?

Leslie: Well I’m a specialist in mending now! I come in once a week, drop off bags of mended stuff, and pick up another one. I probably mend about 40 coats, pants, etc every week.

Some donated pieces that come in are not-so-gently used – the knees of snowpants need a lot of patches. In its own peculiar way it’s creative! You think, how can I make this work – I do a lot of recycling. I can take zippers off of jackets that are no good, and take patches out of things that are no good, and make other pieces of clothing whole. Nothing gets wasted, everything that comes in gets used somehow. It’s amazing.

Why is volunteering important to you?

Leslie: I’d say I learned it from my family. My dad was very socially conscious, and I think you pick that up. You contribute. Maybe it’s partly from being a nurse – I saw that as a calling, and now that I’ve retired I thought, I can still help in some ways. I’ve volunteered at a nursing home before, and with single mothers, and all kinds of places. Here, it’s doing something for children – there are kids that wouldn’t be able to go out in the winter unless they had clothing from here.

As you get older – I’m almost 79 – there are limited things you can do. So to me, if you can contribute you do, because there comes a time when you can’t. So hopefully there’s a brownie point book somewhere that says “She kept going as long as she could!”

Want to learn more about volunteer with United Way? Click here for more information

Whether they’re working with our agency partners, reaching out to donors, running special events, helping to build understanding about important issues in our community, or ensuring United Way itself is an effective and efficient organization …  at the end of the day, they make it possible for people all over this city to build better lives for themselves and their families.

A neighbourhood woman is treated to a manicure

That’s what makes the Women’s Day of Caring, a partnership of the WRHA and NorWest Coop Community Health, something that women in their neighbourhood look forward to for the whole year. On April 4, the women were given a day where they could be treated like queens and refresh their spirits with simple pleasures like a haircut, a manicure, and a chance to pick out some clothes.

“I get phone calls about it in January from the women about it – so they can be put on a list already. They know about it, and they so look forward to it,”says Caprice Kehler of NorWest. “They tell me it’s so good just to have a little break.”

This year, after their visits with hairdressers and estheticians had given the women’s spirits a lift, photographers from Kelly Anne Photography and Soni Images Video & Photography came to take beauty portraits. “They’re so shy to get them done at first, but when the portraits come back and the women come in to see them, it’s amazing to see their faces,” says Kehler. “Because in those photos, they feel good and look good, and it shows.”

That’s the difference a little bit of caring can make.

Thanks to the WRHA and Nor’West, Salon Professional Academy for providing haircuts, the estheticians of Scientific Marvel, clothing donors WRHA and Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Costco for providing food, and the photographers who captured the smiles the day put on women’s faces.