United Way – Helping the Helpers
Posted on October 11th, 2006
Don Oliver (United Way CEO) together with Mayor Bob Harvey (Waitakere City Council) presented the Cleft Lip & Palate Support Group with a grant of $4,000.00 at a Grant Allocations Reception on 27th June 2006.
This grant will be used to update and redevelop our core information service for parents – the ‘Blue Book’.
Funding is difficult to secure, especially for core operating expenses. United Way investment strategy focuses on supporting smaller charities who are providing essential services in the community. In our case we are fortunate to be working in some of United Way’s priority areas of strengthening and supporting families and promoting health and independence.
The United Way system is a very simple process designed to unite individual donations so that maximum value is achieved, supporting multiple charities & communities. It started in the US during the 19th Century and now operates in 45 countries throughout the world. United Way NZ encourages generosity by brokering resources (money, time & skills) between individuals, businesses and the community.
The main goals of our Blue Book redevelopment are:
- To ensure that all information contained in the Blue Book accurately represents care plans that are currently used in New Zealand.
- To enable families to use this book more interactively, being one place for all their child’s cleft information.
- Have individual information on each cleft centre in New Zealand.
- Foster communication between the cleft centres of excellence in New Zealand.
If you have any ideas for the Blue Book redevelopment, please let us know NOW. You can e-mail: susan@cleft.org.nz or ring 0800 4 CLEFT.
If you would like your local cleft centre to be represented in the book, remember to let your team members know. It is important for us as parents to feel confident in the medical service our children receive – information is key to reducing anxiety.
Let your Medical Professionals know that you would like them involved.
We thank United Way for recognising the work of our Support Group and providing the financial support to enable us to continue offering up-to-date, relevant information to all families of cleft children in New Zealand.
