{"id":11631,"date":"2014-11-05T13:20:47","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T18:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/?p=11631"},"modified":"2014-11-05T13:20:47","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T18:20:47","slug":"unite-award-finalists-announced-25000-will-be-awarded-for-best-collaboration-and-2500-awarded-to-the-top-two-runners-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/2014\/11\/05\/unite-award-finalists-announced-25000-will-be-awarded-for-best-collaboration-and-2500-awarded-to-the-top-two-runners-up\/","title":{"rendered":"UNITE Award finalists announced; $25,000 will be awarded for best collaboration and $2,500 awarded to the top two runners up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/UNITE-logo-2015.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11632\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/UNITE-logo-2015-300x105.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"105\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\">FORT MYERS, Fla. (Nov. 5, 2014) \u2013 Five finalists have made it to the final round of judging for the 2015 UNITE (Uniting Nonprofits In Teaming for Excellence) Award.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Established by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mbcopa.com\" target=\"_blank\">Myers, Brettholtz &amp; Company, PA<\/a> and supported by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridacommunity.com\" target=\"_blank\">Southwest Florida Community Foundation<\/a>, the Cape Coral Community Foundation and the United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades Counties, the UNITE Award is a regional award that\u00a0recognizes successful nonprofit collaborative models across the five-county area that exemplify excellence and community impact. Its goal is to\u00a0provide information to the nonprofit community about collaborative models that have succeeded in our area and to share proven effective practices for nonprofits working together.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s call for entries received 21 applications. Twelve collaborations made it to the second round before the five finalists were chosen.<\/p>\n<p>The five finalists include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Guidance Programs for Success (GPS)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 GPS expands access to after-school programs for grades K-12 in Immokalee. Partners include the Guadalupe Center, RCMA Immokalee Community School, Immokalee Foundation, Southwest Florida Workforce Development Board, Collier County Public Schools, Boys &amp; Girls Clubs and Naples Children and Education Foundation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Partners in the Fight Against Human Trafficking<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Abuse Counseling &amp; Treatment and Human Trafficking Awareness Partnership are part of the Southwest Florida Regional Coalition that coordinates efforts and training among law enforcement agencies, human service providers, and federal and local government agencies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Teen Outreach Program<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Teen Outreach Program collaboration began in 2006 with three agencies teaming to serve at-risk teens in two rural counties. In 2013, 13 more agencies were added to the collaboration, and today, there are currently 22 partners serving five counties.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lee Community Healthcare<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Lee Community Healthcare initiative is a collaboration with Lee Memorial Health System and United Way to provide medical care and social services to disadvantaged and medically underserved in Lee County.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bonita Springs Assistance Office<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The \u201cMoney Matters\u201d Class was created for clients of the BSAO. In collaboration with New York Community Bank, the BSAO teaches clients how to be better stewards of their money.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Bob Janes Triage Center\/Low Demand Shelter was the winner of the inaugural UNITE Award in January 2014 and received the $25,000 cash prize. In addition, each of the runners up, Families First: Children\u2019s Advocacy Center of Southwest Florida Inc. and Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc. and Southwest Florida Addiction Services\/Lee Mental Health Merger, received $2,500 thanks to funding made available by Wayne Smith of the Smith Family Foundation who wished to reward the other finalists for their dedication to collaboration in the community.<\/p>\n<p>The 2015 winner will be announced at the annual Myers, Brettholtz &amp; Company\u2019s full-day nonprofit seminar to be held on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015, at the Holiday Inn Fort Myers Airport-Town Center. Once again, the top winner will receive $25,000 thanks to the support by Myers, Brettholtz &amp; Company, PA, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, the Cape Coral Community Foundation and the United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades counties, and the top two runners up will receive $2,500 each from the Smith Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach of the 21 entries we received this year were inspiring,\u201d said Lori Sampson-Wilson, principal of Myers, Brettholtz. \u201cIt clearly shows that our regional nonprofits are working together to achieve positive collaborative results.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To be eligible for this year\u2019s award, a collaboration had to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Be based in the five-county Southwest Florida area (Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades)<\/li>\n<li>Involve two or more entities (i.e., nonprofit organizations, businesses and\/or government agencies)<\/li>\n<li>Include a lead organization that is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit<\/li>\n<li>Have a structure that is evidenced by a formal written agreement (i.e., memorandum of understanding, contract or merger agreement)<\/li>\n<li>Be able to demonstrate the impact of the collaboration through measurable outcomes<\/li>\n<li>Have been in operation for a minimum of 18 months with a formal written agreement in place no later than March 1, 2013.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more information on the UNITE Award, call 239-939-5775 or visit Myers, Brettholtz &amp; Company\u2019s website at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mbcopa.com\/\">www.mbcopa.com<\/a>, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation\u2019s website at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridacommunity.com\/\">www.floridacommunity.com<\/a>\u00a0or the United Way\u2019s website at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.unitedwaylee.org\/\">www.unitedwaylee.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Deadline for submission was Sept. 30, 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Since 1979, Myers, Brettholtz &amp; Company, PA has been working with nonprofit organizations in Southwest Florida\u2019s five-county region, helping them achieve their goals. The company serves clients across the nation by performing accounting and auditing, tax preparation, bookkeeping and consulting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FORT MYERS, Fla. (Nov. 5, 2014) \u2013 Five finalists have made it to the final round of judging for the 2015 UNITE (Uniting Nonprofits In Teaming for Excellence) Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1],"tags":[2977,314,2978,3613,3614,55,376,3615,3616,17,1327,2985,19,1845,1305,3617,1930,1049,170,1330,2152],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcreativepr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}