*This is part of a sponsored collaboration with Latina Mom Bloggers and State Farm. However, all opinions expressed are my own.
As many of you know, I have been teaching middle school students in the inner city for the past thirteen years. The community that I teach in is full of life and made up of families who have come to this country looking for better opportunities for themselves and for their children. Unfortunately, these families often struggle with poverty and end up making a lot of sacrifices to just be able to eat on a daily basis.
I’ve often thought about all of the ways that I would be able to support and improve conditions in this community if only I had the financial means to do so. ¡Ojalá! This will now be possible for many Hispanic communities across the United States and Canada thanks to State Farm Neighborhood Assist® grants.
For the third year in a row, the youth-led neighborhood assist program has inspired and empowered people to focus on the issues that they feel affect their communities directly. The program then connects them with a local nonprofit that has the experience to tackle those problems head-on and provides an opportunity to receive one of 40 $25,000 grants.
Beginning on March 3rd, State Farm’s Neighborhood Assist is encouraging people to submit their ideas for making local Hispanic communities better places to live in for the chance to win $25,000 for the purpose of bringing those ideas to life! ¡Imagínate how many people in the community would benefit from breathing life into those innovative ideas for improvement!
I have so many ideas for improving the community around where I teach!
When I think about the community where I teach, one of the first ideas that I would try to implement is the creation of community center where young people and the elderly could have a safe place to socialize in the afternoon. This would keep many of my students off the streets and provide valuable resources for many of the elderly who live in the community and don’t speak English.
¿Qué esperas? What are you waiting for? Next Monday, you are all invited to submit your ideas for causes via the free State Farm Neighborhood Assist Facebook app. You must submit your favorite causes as soon as possible because the State Farm Youth Advisory Board will stop accepting submissions once they receive 4000. That number might seem like a lot but, in all reality, it will fill up fast with all of the great ideas that people have for improving their communities. I’m sure they will have 4000 submissions way before the March 23rd deadline!
“No malgastes una maravillosa oportunidad para influir en el cambio en su comunidad.” (Don’t waste a wonderful opportunity to affect change in your community!)
Let’s Discuss: What are some of your ideas for improving the community that you live in?
Disclosure: This is a compensated campaign in collaboration with Latina Mom Bloggers and State Farm. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
© 2014, Tough Cookie Mommy. All rights reserved.
I have a few cousins who are State Farm reps; and I love hearing the stories of all the amazing work that State Farm has done for their communities and states. I didn’t know they had such a wide scale focus nationwide on improving communities though. That is awesome.
I’ll start by saying that I live in a small town and we are a very tight knit community & I love it. But we are surrounded by two cities that are sadly the complete opposite. They need community centers desperately.
I live in a city that has a very high crime rate. It scares the poo out of me. I think something needs to be done for guidance of these young people so the crime and fighting can stop.
I live in a pretty great town, though a lot of other towns around me are in serious need of rehabilitation. Sadly, it’s up to the state to make sure that happens.
I live in a very small town, but we are not that far from large cities. I love that State Farm Assist is encourging people to submit their ideas to make a community better.
I never heard of this before. I have State Farm insurance and love this idea!
Wow, what a great program! And I love that info graphic, too! Way to go, State Farm!
Looks like a lot of good programs. My relatives use State Farm and are really happy by what they promote.
This is a fantastic program. I think we need more like this to make all communities better for everyone.
What a wonderful idea. I think all communities could benefit from a community center for kids and teens to have somewhere to go.
Anything to get kids involved in activities is a great way to improve the community.
This sounds like a great program. It’s great to have a place for kids to go, like a community center, so they aren’t getting in trouble.
It would be nice if all areas had a place where the kids and elderly could go to socialize and be safe. Maybe that should be a mandatory thing for all areas. I love that State Farm is promoting making our communities better.
Wow, this is actually a great thing – making the place secure and really safe – makes you feel at ease, right?
This program sounds pretty awesome. The rec. center is also an amazing idea. I believe that every community should have one.
I love that State Farm is offering this program. I know many communities that could benefit from a $25,000 donation! We have a community center that opened in our area last year and it has been a real blessing for many!
This would be great in any and ALL neighborhoods. Wow, I had no idea this was going on at all! Way to go State Farm!
Community centers are wonderful for youth, especially in the after school hours. This is great!
This is great! I would love to see this in my neighborhood
I do think having a safe place to go and NOT get into trouble is necessary for all kids and teens
Kudos to StateFarm for stepping up to support immigrant communities. I like the idea of a learning center where kids and parents can learn English and other skills to help them adjust to a new environment. Help would be provided for other necessities including filing requests and paperwork.
40 grants at $25,000 each is a lot of money to give out! Kudos to State Farm for stepping up like that. 🙂
Wow, that is really generous of State Farm! I hadn’t heard about this but I’m glad to know now and it makes me feel even better about my relationship with the company. So proud to be a State farm customer at the moment. This is awesome! I really like your community center idea! My neighborhood is very nice and quiet and I honestly don’t think it would be this way without the numerous free and low cost community centers and programs we have for youth, families and the elderly.