The end of the year brings several holidays focused on time with friends and family, connecting in community, and sharing meals, gifts, time and wisdom with those around you. The volunteer center of United Way, Hands On Asheville-Buncombe, makes it easy to get involved, offering meaningful volunteer opportunities with local nonprofit organizations and schools throughout Asheville and Buncombe County. With hundreds of opportunities made...Read More
During the first week of October, more than 75 participants gathered at United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County for Restorative Practices trainings with Kerri Berkowitz, a national leader in school-based implementation of Restorative Practices.
Restorative Practices are based on principles and processes that emphasize the importance of positive relationships as central to building community and restoring relationships when harm has...Read More
One Teacher's Idea Met With Community Support...
Late last year, our Resource Coordinator at Asheville Middle School was talking to 7th grade teacher, Mrs. Portugal, who was teaching a class about entrepreneurship. In the class, students were learning about market research, product development, manufacturing, marketing and financing. Pretty impressive stuff for a seventh grade class. What Mrs. Portugal needed was a group of volunteers who could...Read More
Meet Linnea Burgevin, United Way Resource Coordinator entering her third school year at Erwin Middle this fall, and our fourth year as an organization working in partnership with the school. I sat down with Linnea to hear an update on her work in helping to transform the Erwin Middle Warriors into a community school alongside teachers and administration, local organizations, parents, students, and volunteers.
“My first year was all about...Read More
A long time volunteer and Peaks Society member, Hometrust Bank President and CEO Dana Stonestreet served as the chair of our 2010 Focused Initiative Task Force.
It was through critical research, analysis and decision-making through this task force of fourteen local community leaders, that a foundation for United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County’s community school strategy was laid. This collaboration involves school systems and more than...Read More
Author: Laura Elliot, Director of Community Schools, United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County
This work was originally published in, or is adapted from, an article published in the February 2018 issue of Phi Delta Kappan magazine.
Turn to any travel magazine, and you might see an article placing Asheville and Western North Carolina in a top 10 list of locations to relax or retire. There’s good reason for that. Asheville is nestled in a...Read More
Just five years ago, in the spring of 2013, United Way took on a team of Americorps interns to begin supporting Enka Middle School with after-school programming opportunities, drawing in community partners to offer students stimulating activities, like knitting, yoga and sign language. The idea at the time was to increase the quality and quantity of after school programing for middle school youth, which quickly evolved as school faculty,...Read More
One pressing issue in western North Carolina for many years, has been and continues to be, access to affordable housing. In the last 180 days (May-July, 2018), the highest amount of inquiries to our NC 2-1-1 call center were related to affordable housing and shelter, with 2,429 calls received during that time period, according to NC2-1-1 Counts.
This year, because of the generosity of people like you, we were able to invest $168,064 from...Read More
We'd like to extend a warm congratulations to Mills Manufacturing Corporation, one of the world's largest military parachute manufacturers here in Buncombe County. Giving back to the community is something the Mills and Turner families value and we're grateful to have people and business leaders like them in the community. We have been fortunate to have the support of the MIlls Family for decades. Pam Mills has been an active member of our...Read More
United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County currently employs four Resource Coordinators who work full time in four Asheville City and Buncombe County schools: Asheville, Enka, Erwin and Owen Middle. While our organization has held a presence in these local middle schools (and others via the Early Warning and Response System), for several years, the Resource Coordinator role is one that was born within the last three. Their position was...Read More
