When: Wednesday, July 23rd, 4:00PM

Location: Winnetka Park District, Community Room
                 540 Hibbard Road, Winnetka

RSVP: Maureen DiFrancesca, Chief Professional Officer
             mdifrancesca@uw-mc.org
            (847) 999-2990
            by Friday, July 18th, 2008

Evanston Chapter United Way board member Marian Kurz was recently named a Super Senior by United Way North Shore and the North Shore Senior Center at the Senior’s Center’s annual luncheon.  In addition to Marian’s hard work this past year on the United Way Public Relations and Annual Meeting committees, Marian has been involved in almost every aspect of the United Way during her time on the Evanston Chapter board.  She also gives generously of her time to the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club of Evanston, the Delta Delta Delta Foundation, and Miami University’s 50th Year Reunion Committee.  Congratulations, Marian, on this well-deserved recognition!

Join United Way for a 4th of July celebration at the Lake Bluff 4th of July Parade this Friday!  Watch for United Way volunteers, joined by members of the United Way Lake Forest Youth Board and the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association, as they show their patriotism and community spirit with the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff community.  The parade begins at 10AM, so stake out your spot early!

For more information, go to http://lb4july.org/.

Join us for wine and hors d’oeuvres to celebrate and recognize the dedication and hard work of our volunteers and agencies. Invitations will be sent in May.

Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Time: 5:30PM

Location: Alice Millar Chapel - Parkes Hall
Northwestern University
1870 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60201

Remarks by: Keith McClintock
President, United Way of the North Shore

Maureen M. DiFrancesca
Chief Professional Officer, United Way of the North Shore

RSVP: No later than May 29th
lbeaucaire@uw-mc.org OR 847.999.2990

Sponsored by HARRIS BANK. Thank you!

We welcome Maureen M. DiFrancesca as the new Chief Professional Officer of the United Way of the North Shore. Maureen brings to the position more than twenty years of United Way experience, first with Chicago and then as Executive Director or the United Way of Skokie Valley until 2006. Following the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago mergers, Maureen left to pursue a Masters Degree in counseling and, fortunately for us, is now returning to United Way. She assumed her new position effective March 1st, 2008.

Save the Date

Friday, May 9

2:30 - 3:30

Deerpath Middle School, Lake Forest, IL

Lake Forest/Lake Bluff United Way Youth Board will be holding their 2nd annual walk-a-thon to raise money to benefit local agencies funded by United Way North Shore.

Last year they raised $12,000. Please contact Gary Von Glinow at gvg50@aol.com for more information.

United Way is evolving. To increase the depth and breadth of the impact we make in communities, United Wayis taking the initiative on empowering and assisting specific populations in a holistic way. This will included convening, partnering, collaborating and advocating-as well as funding. By leveraging all available resources – financial, staff, volunteers and agencies – in a variety of strategies, we believe we will be more likely to create sustainable positive community change. This model will be more proactive, issue driven and prevention focused; a powerful approach to thinking creatively and harnessing every asset to improve more lives. Additionally, these refinements allow us to align our United Way system across local geographies so that we have more consistency while still being sure each Member United Way is able to best address their local needs.

How did we choose this direction? We facilitated 12 community visioning sessions across our region and reviewed community assessments, agency surveys and secondary data. Thanks to all of you who have participated to date. We analyzed these sources to ensure that going forward we: Ø are addressing unmet needs;
Ø have the core competencies to execute on the issues;
Ø and that we could achieve measurable impact in a reasonable time frame. Additionally, where it makes sense, we will try to align regionally and nationally with other United Ways and United Way of America, to maximize consistency and leverage resources.

UWMC is accountable. Volunteers throughout the region will continue to be highly engaged and involved. Funding will be focused around specific strategies and outcomes. This will allow agencies to share best practices and report on common outcomes and successes in our communities. The reporting process will give us information about the ways we are achieving community impact. These results will be shared with our communities. As we continue to strive to improve the lives of people in our communities, your continual support as a community partner is vital. Thank you again for generously sharing your time, treasury and talents.

United Way North Shore – Evanston Chapter board member, Joan Hickman is a faithful Osher Lifelong Learning Institute colleague, and is currently a coordinator and/or co-coordinator of study groups on jazz and on African-American history.

Joan is very involved in community affairs Joan Hickman and was given an award as “Woman of Spunk”–named for the title of a current play at Northwestern, adapted from the short stories of Zora Neale Hurston and celebrating Black History Month. The nomination was made by our OLLI winter group, NU Theater Connection.

Joan’s award was given in a pre-performance ceremony at the Barber Theater, Sunday, February 17.
Always involved in public service, Joan Hickman still holds an impressive number of appointments and service obligations. They include: Chairman, Evanston Commission on Aging
Vice President for Board Development, Evanston Chapter, United Way
Member, Board of Directors, First Night Evanston
Member, Evanston Police Advisory Board (and a volunteer at the police detective bureau)
Member, Life Enrichment Committee, Levy Center
Member, Community Emergency Response Team Congratulations, Joan!