November 2007
Youth Development Impact Area

As part of the Wings for Life initiative, Sioux Empire United Way partnered with South Dakota State University to create age-specific development guides for elementary and middle school parents. These guides target emotional and social development and provide practical ideas for parents. The guides are for parents with students in kindergarten through 8th grade and are distributed through the school systems twice every year. This month, an estimated 22,000 parents in Sioux Falls and the surrounding areas will receive the Wings For Life Parenting Guides.

Girls on the Run has 152 girls participating in the fall program and held their final 5K run on November 10 at Yankton Trail.  This fall the program was at 9 schools in Sioux Falls and Harrisburg.

Currently, 170 girls in 4-8th grade are playing volleyball through the YWCA.  They practice once a week and have games on Saturday afternoons.  Additionally, 58 youth learned the basics of aquatics through swimming lessons during October and another 194 utilized the open swim hours.

Eight troops of girls are able to be involved in Girl Scouts through the Connections program.  This program is geared toward low income areas within our community to target girls unable to traditionally participate in our programming due to lack of funds and/or resources. The program provides bi-weekly meetings for these girls and all of the activities and supplies along with it.  This shows the girls that no matter what their home life is like, there are people willing to support their interests and to listen to their needs.

Studio 2B is kicking off their fall season at Sioux Falls Middle Schools. Studio 2B provides a monthly meeting place for nearly 100 girls to hang out with women role models that can listen to their thoughts and provide a place for them to just be themselves. Funding from Sioux Empire United Way provides programming, council events, supplies for crafts and activities, snack, and the focus books where girls can learn and grow from reflecting on the activities provided just for them.

*To learn more about the impact Sioux Empire United Way Partner Programs are having, please click here.

What Matters

The following is a letter written by an agency participating in Connecting Kids.

Dear United Way Staff,
I wanted to share an experience I had yesterday with the mother of two of my students. She was waiting with her children outside my office door and asked to speak with me privately. The minute she walked into the office she started to cry. I quickly put her children in with my after school kids, told my assistant to hold my calls, and closed the door. Through her tears she asked for some sort of payment plan because they were living at Children’s Inn while she got out
of an abusive relationship. She was afraid for her children, but didn’t have the money or any place for them to go after school … but she had to work.

Offering her a Connecting Kids scholarship was the first option we discussed.

She was so relieved that she had a place for them. I told her that we had the ability to start picking her children up immediately and that there was no way anyone was taking them without our permission. When she left, she was smiling
and breathing again.

It’s because of moments like this I do what I do. I left a large salary to work at poverty level. I never had the impact on people’s lives like I do now. The United Way helped me put some light into this woman’s life.

Thank you very much. You made my day.

What matters is that over 500 children have been able to participate in an extra-curricular youth activity this year, by using their Connecting Kids certificates.  Over 30 different programs accept the certificates, with activities ranging from basketball to cheerleading to arts to summer camps.