If you gave $1,000 or more to United Way this year, you’re eligible to receive one of the following terrific prizes!

	Chicago Bulls United Center Suite for 12 with parking, food and beverages, courtesy of Northern Trust
United Center Suite for 12 at a Chicago Bulls or Chicago Blackhawks game with parking, food and beverages, courtesy of Illinois Tool Works Inc.
	Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field Skybox package for 12 with parking, food and beverages, courtesy of Aon
MOTO Q Smartphone or MOTOKRZR with Bluetooth headset, courtesy of Motorola
	Two sets of Brookfield Zoo party packages for 10 with VIP admission, dolphin show and visit, private Tram or Snowball Express tour and parking, courtesy of Nicor
Four season tickets and a parking pass for the 2008 Chicago Rush Arena Football season, courtesy of the Rush
	Six riders on the NBC Float for the winner’s choice of festival/parade, courtesy of NBC-5 Chicago
A set of Cobra golf clubs, courtesy of Fortune Brands
	Four White Sox Scout Seats (directly behind home plate), including in-seat food and beverage service and two premier parking passes, courtesy of U.S. Cellular

Plus other terrific prizes including:

• Four main floor tickets each to a Chicago Bulls and Chicago BlackHawks Game, courtesy of AT&T
• Two sets of two main floor second row tickets to a Chicago Bulls Game, courtesy of GE Healthcare Financial Services
• Four box seats and a parking pass top a Major League baseball game, courtesy of KPMG
• Four Cubs Club (row 5) tickets, courtesy of GE Rail Services
• Four Bulls tickets, courtesy of Tribune Company
• Four tickets to a Chicago Cubs game, courtesy of Ernst & Young
• Four tickets to a Chicago Bulls game, courtesy of Accenture

There is no purchase necessary to enter or claim prize. Anyone is eligible to participate. Individuals who are not Leadership Givers may enter by mailing their name, address, and email address to Leadership Giving Contest, United Way, 75 Remittance Drive, Suite 7858, Chicago, IL 60675-5828. Entry must be received by March 1, 2008. Limit one entry per person. Full details can be founds by downloading the official rules.

Jay Henderson, Managing Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, is this year’s United Way 2007 Campaign Chairperson.

Welcome to the summer edition of Leading the Way—my first as your chairman of the 2007 United Way Campaign. I have been involved with United Way for many years, and each year I grow more committed to this important work. This year’s campaign will prove to be exciting. We will celebrate United Way’s 75th anniversary, launch a much needed endowment fund and embark on the Latino Initiative, which is poised to identify positive ways to help Latino youth transition successfully into adulthood.

As Leadership and Tocqueville donors, your support is critical to the success of United Way work in the communities of metropolitan Chicago. That is why last year United Way conducted an online survey of Leadership donors to better understand perceptions, attitudes and levels of satisfaction with United Way among our most important donors.

I am happy to report some of the survey highlights:

• 84% of Leadership Givers were satisfied with their United Way workplace campaigns.
• 85% perceived United Way as a leader in community impact.
• 75% would recommend United Way to their friends and colleagues
• 74% believe United Way demonstrates visible results in the community it serves.
• 84% are very satisfied with their overall relationship with United Way.
• 94% felt appropriately thanked and appreciated by United Way.

And we do appreciate you. Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey and all those participating in the 2007 Campaign!

Sincerely,

Jay Henderson

The stakes and anticipation were running high this past March as the winners of the “Throw Your Name in the Hat” raffle were finally drawn. This new incentive program was created in appreciation of our generous Leadership Givers.

High-end prizes were donated by local corporations and awarded to the lucky winners of the first annual United Way Leadership Giving Incentive Program. Prizes included $10,000 toward a new or pre-driven vehicle, donated by Jennings Chevrolet and Jennings Volkswagen, and use of a Wrigley Field Mezzanine Skybox for a Chicago Cubs game, including food and beverages, for 18 people, courtesy of AON.

Other prizes included a United Center Skybox Suite for 10 including standard food and beverage donated by GE Money, two footballs autographed by Mike Ditka, which he and Advocate Health Care donated, and two complete party packages to all attractions at the Brookfield Zoo, compliments of Nicor.

More than 1,000 people registered online to win. Congratulations to all of the winners:
Jason Bendure from Quaker Tropicana Gatorade
George F. Callobre from Northern Trust
Geordan L. Capes from Northern Trust
Gary Carder from PepsiCo.
Tina Cumberlander from UPS
Judy A. Frintner from LaSalle Bank
Denise B. Joyce from Tribune Company
David Lehman from Chicago Board of Trade
John Mezera from Motorola
Rebecca Klem Mills from Aon Corporation
Bernie Vaughan from BP
Tony Wheat from Tribune Company

The prize-drawing was so successful there will be another Leadership Raffle for the United Way 2007 Campaign.

“Thanks to the generosity of our corporate partners, this Leadership Giving Incentive Program not only recognized our top donors, but encouraged others to also give at a Leadership level,” said Barbara Kaplinsky, United Way director of Leadership Giving.

United Way works to understand the needs in each local community and fund the network of programs that best address those needs, or launch initiatives that will. Three United Way initiatives are making headway in tackling some of the toughest health and human service issues that face our region.

The United Way African American Initiative (AAI) was launched three years ago and took a unique approach to dealing with a specific issue—the successful transition of African American males into adulthood. Four agency leads and communities had been identified to participate in the Initiative:

• Teamwork Englewood in Englewood,
• Centers for New Horizons in the Bronzeville/Grand Boulevard communities
• Metropolitan Family Services in Roseland
• YMEN and Lawndale Christian Health Center in North Lawndale.

These neighborhoods and the agency leads were selected to draw upon the entire community– from church congregations, neighborhood business, school administrators and the youth – to devise community-wide interactions that support young boys ages 10-16 as they develop into young men.

Now in Phase Two, the AAI participants are launching their plans to help their individual communities achieve three long term outcomes for their community’s youth:

• Youth understand the value of staying in school.
• Youth develop a positive understanding of employment opportunities and possibilities.
• Youth understand and assume healthy family and social roles that help them become positive young adults.

AAI has received amazing support from individuals and corporations alike. In 2005, Harris Bank challenged the region to give at the Leadership level and committed to match 2-to-1 every gift of $1,000 or more to AAI. In 2006, ComEd stepped up to sponsor the Challenge Grant offering the same incentive and ensuring that the initiative did not lose momentum. As we enter the third year, BlueCross BlueShield has pick up the mantle to support this important community engagement work as the AAI Challenge Grant sponsor for Campaign 2007.

The Immunization Initiative works with the community to ensure that its youngest children are properly immunized each year. This initiative was created when according to a city-wide immunization assessment conducted by the Chicago Department of Public Health, Austin’s on-time immunization rate for pre-school age children was dangerously low. Hundreds of children were at risk of acquiring preventable diseases that could cause devastating long-term consequences, even death.

United Way and the Chicago Department of Public Health and many community partners focused their effort on home-based daycare providers because licensed daycare facilities require all kids to be immunized prior to school enrollment. These home providers were given the tools to monitor immunizations for the children in their care and educate parents about the importance of vaccinations. Due to the success in Austin, United Way is replicating the Immunization Initiative in Humboldt Park, where low immunization rates for pre-school age children are also prevalent. The Humboldt Park initiative is set to begin this year.

The United Way Latino Initiative (LI) is the most recent United Way initiative. This initiative will focus on helping youth transition successfully into adulthood, particularly in communities of rapid growth. Latinos are the largest ethnic minority group in metropolitan Chicago, representing 20% of the population and Chicago has the third-largest Latino population of all U.S. cities.

The initiative will support programs that center on families building connections to the community. Development of the Latino Initiative involved agency partners who serve a Latino client base of 40% or higher and a panel of experts that represented corporations, academics, foundations and advocacy groups. Initiative efforts will take a community-based approach, reaching out to parents, agencies, churches, schools, law enforcement, government officials and Latino youth to help create a sustainable plan for Latino youth development that can be replicated throughout the region. The implementation phase of the LI will begin next year.

To read more about the initiative, please visit our website.