#unitedmadison

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Great Takeaways from WIPFLI on Employee Engagement Through Community Involvement

Raising money, volunteering of time, and complete company involvement creates a lasting legacy in every community with Wipfli locations.          

Each year, Wiplfi celebrates their annual Community Day each September by closing their offices, allowing partners and associates from all 42 offices in 9 states the opportunity to volunteer at various nonprofit organizations. Making this opportunity even more employee driven is the chance for each office to research, campaign for, and vote on the nonprofit they will be serving each year. In 2016, they provided approximately 5200 hours of services to 82 organizations across the country.

Check out some of the creative ways the Madison office is raising funds that will go towards their chosen nonprofit for 2017 - End Domestic Abuse WI.  

Pay $1 to wear tennis shoes during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Badger Game

Pay $1 to wear tennis shoes and sports wear on National Pretzel Day and Administrative Professionals Day

Optional Participation in The Big Share online event hosted by Community Shares of Wisconsin held on March 7, 2017 . This was an online day of giving that benefits almost 70 local nonprofits in Wisconsin. WIPFLI’s elected agency, End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin was one of the nonprofits to benefit.

Super Bowl Casual Day by paying $1

WIPFLI wants to “Challenge other firms in all communities to follow our lead in the quest to make our communities a better place to live and work”.   Learn more about WIPFLI and their Community Involvement initiatives.

How will you get your company involved to rise to the challenge and improve our community?  If you have interesting ideas to share, please let United Madison know by emailing [email protected]

[unitedmadison]

“The Hook is Key”: Mentoring Positives is Helping to Impact Our Madison Community

Will Green - working relentlessly to instill self-worth & self-confidence into our valuable youth. 

Concerned about high-risk youth needing a way to find hope and encouragement, Will Green, founder of Mentoring Positives, drew upon his background in basketball. “The hook is key,” Will says, when speaking about ways to keep them engaged and giving them a platform to speak openly about peer pressure, anger management, and finding positive family figures. Will grew up in Gary, Indiana, and witnessed firsthand a variety of struggles and challenges, but always managed to find the positive out of life, especially with his basketball coach and mentor. While attending college at UW-Eau Claire, he worked for a residential treatment center for kids and teens, and this began his journey as a mentor instead of a mentee. After college, he journeyed to Madison where he started his work as a counselor and his mentoring of high-risk youth and families expanded. Throughout weekly visits, Will was able to create lasting relationships with both the high-risky youth and their families, gaining trust and helping provide guidance to guide the youth to keep themselves on the right track.

After the passing of Mr. Green’s mother, he founded Mentoring Positives, using her initials, “M.P.”, for inspiration for the nonprofit’s name. Throughout the past 13 years, Mentoring Positives has taken many winding roads, but the goal of giving a mentor to an high-risk youth who could look up to him/her, and helping provide self-confidence and self-worth has always remained.  Early in his career, Will noticed that when the high-risk youth went back to their community after succeeding at treatment centers, they struggled to continue that path of success; and their environment was often not prepared to help maintain their positive path. With this in mind, Will is working to provide a holistic approach within their community instead of sending them off to treatment centers out of their home county or state.  His philosophy ties to helping the individual, their family, and the community.

Currently, Mentoring Positives is focusing on what they call “social entrepreneurship”. Their core mission is to teach youth leadership, social/life skills, and creating a space to keep kids in town, to learn skills, to succeed, and not sending them away from their homes, families, and friends. They are looking at a yearlong mentoring program that draws on the kids’ inner leadership skills, relational leadership, explored leadership, and applied leadership. Upon completion of their mentored year, the kids will have created an idea for a business, worked up a business plan and proposal, and pitched it to a local business, with hopes to make it a reality. One business idea that has already been a success for Mentoring Positives is their homemade salsa. What started with growing a few peppers and tomatoes grew into a making batches of salsa, marketing to local grocers – such as Metcalfe’s Market, and making a positive impact on our community!  We are not the only ones impressed with Will’s work, we are excited to report that Will was just awarded the WKOW’s Jefferson Award, recognizing valuable volunteers who are making a difference in our community.  Interested in learning more about the programs. Check out Mentoring Positives.  

[unitedmadison]

We are DRIVING collaboration and the good stuff in our Madison Region through Cause Marketing and Give Back Initiative.  See article in December issue of In Business Magazine.