United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Tocqueville Society co-chairs Deborah L. DeHaas, Ray McCaskey and Pam Strobel hosted the 14th annual United Way Tocqueville Society Recognition Dinner on March 6 at the Adler Planetarium. Honored at the event were United Way Challenge Grant sponsors National City, ComEd and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

On behalf of National City, Joseph Gregoire accepted an award for the half-million dollar challenge grant, which matches dollar-for-dollar every new or increased contribution of $1,000 or more to the 2007-2008 campaign.

Ray McCaskey from BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois accepted the award for sponsoring the African American Initiative grant, matching, 2-to-1 all new and increased contributions to the African American Initiative.

Frank Clark accepted an award on behalf of ComEd for their sponsorship of the Latino Initiative Challenge Grant, which matched, 2-to-1 all new and increased contributions to the United Way Latino Initiative.

Thanks to the generosity of United Way donors, the lives of Brenda and her children have been made better.

• Voices For Illinois Children hosts its Kids Count Symposium on Friday, March 28, 2008 from 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. This is free of charge. Visit voices4kids.org for more information and to register.
• Japanese American Service Committee hosts a Health Screening Day on Saturday, April 19, 2008 from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Appointments required. Must be age 18 or older. Call JASC at (773) 275-0097 x 226 for more information.
• The State of Illinois proudly offers the Illinois Warrior Assistance Program. This program is to help meet the ongoing needs of the veteran population. Visit illinoiswarrrior.com for details.

In the early 1990s Chicago experienced a recurrence of measles. Many parents in the city’s Austin neighborhood were unaware of the importance of immunizing their children by the age of two—which meant they were often not vaccinated until they enrolled in school. Others were aware of the importance of vaccinations, but lacked the resources and access to healthcare that were necessary to have their children properly immunized.

United Way launched the Austin Immunization Initiative to educate parents and guardians on the value of immunizations, as well as to provide accessible healthcare so parents can stay up-to-date on their children’s vaccines. The Austin Immunization Initiative works by communicating to parents why their children should be immunized, assessing the needs of children and their families, and providing training and resources to day care providers and license-exempt home day care providers. Committee members strategize around efforts to increase immunization rates among children 0-6 in Austin, identify local community partners, conduct assessments, facilitate training and host resource fairs.

The work of United Way in Austin continues. The Austin Immunization Assessment is conducted with school nurses, parents and day care providers to measure the effectiveness of the Austin Immunization Initiative and identify strategies and resources to sustain the Initiative as a model for other communities. United Way is conducting the assessments through the end of March.

Also, to commemorate National Immunization Awareness Week, April 19-26, United Way will host immunization fairs for home day care providers and an Immunization Day at a local church in Austin.