UWBA November Newsletter

Dear Friends,?

It’s certainly been an eventful November and we hope you’re recovering from all the festivities and fried turkeys. As we get ready to head deep into the winter holiday season, we wanted to say thank you again for being a part of our community!??

This month we’ll look at some of the Basic Income initiatives taking shape in the Bay Area with our Equity Community Partner Convening as well as read about the experiences of our Policy Fellows in the lead-up to election day and a Free Tax Help volunteer who right now is preparing for the coming tax season. We’ll also take a moment to remember how SparkPoint began and what it is doing now with UWBA Vice President of Economic Success, Nicole Harden.??

A very special thank you for supporting and serving our Bay Area communities.??

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM UWBA EQUITY CONVENING?

“I don’t want to hear anymore that they’re going to use the money for drugs or alcohol. That’s not what the data is saying. It’s saying they know the most responsible way to use it. They’re going to use the money for essential needs. This data proves it.”

– Mark Nagales, South San Francisco Mayor

United Way Bay Area (UWBA) has a 100-year history of convening individuals and organizations within communities to have an impact on the fight against poverty. On September 29, 2022, UWBA hosted the first of its United for Equity Community Partner Convenings. This one took place at the William E. Walker Recreation Center in Foster City. The event gathered community partners, elected officials, and organizational representatives from across the Bay Area to discuss guaranteed income (GI) and compare aspects of the various GI pilots currently happening in the Bay Area.?

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MARIA ON WHOM FREE TAX HELP SERVES AND WHY?

“If a person needs more explanation, you can spend more time with them. That’s something that comes from being relaxed, being a volunteer.”?

At tax time, many hard-working Bay Area families turn to Free Tax Help with United Way Bay Area at sites around our region. The program is designed to provide low- and moderate-income people with quality, no-cost tax preparation services. The service is a much-needed lifeline for those who struggle to make ends meet and is operated by a 100% volunteer staff of caring individuals like Maria, who take their roles to heart.??

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HOW TWO FELLOWS HELPED PREPARE A VITAL RESOURCE FOR THIS ELECTION SEASON?

“Policy work taught me new skills that will benefit me with any future job, like collaborating with other departments, bringing ideas to life, analyzing data, and communicating ideas clearly.”?

United Way Bay Area is proud to have partnered with the UCLA Labor Center’s Dream Resource Center (DRC) on its Dream Summer fellowship program for the 2022 season, inviting two amazing individuals to work in our Community Impact Department. Briseida Gonzales, our Civic Engagement Fellow, and Lizet Palma, our Public Policy Fellow, both served as key members of the UWBA Policy Team. Over the summer, Gonzales and Palma worked separately on several important projects. But when it came to our 2022 Voter Guide for the November general election, it was all hands on deck…??

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A LIGHT IN ONE OF OUR DARKEST TIMES?

It was 2009. We were in the middle of a housing market crash, individuals and families were losing work, and 1 in 4 Bay Area families couldn’t make ends meet. The Great Recession was a full-blown financial crisis across the United States that left many of our Bay Area neighbors in dire straits and presented challenges we knew we couldn’t solve alone.???

In the midst of an environment which included mass layoffs, foreclosures and evictions, and tremendous financial uncertainty, United Way Bay Area chose to launch SparkPoint.??

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