• The Allstate Foundation awarded a grant to Junior Achievement of Arizona to bring its Economics for Success program to 25 classes in Phoenix schools. These activity-based lessons targeting grades six through nine teach children about decision making, personal finance, money management and insurance.
• The Arizona Council on Economic Education received a grant to expand its Financial Fitness for Life personal finance education program, including developing online lessons for teachers throughout Arizona to teach about risk management, auto insurance, homeowners and renters insurance, life insurance, disability insurance and health insurance.
• The Allstate Foundation supported Chicanos Por La Causa’s youth prevention programs that target at-risk youth and promote the importance of making good decisions, confront issues such as drugs and violence, and promote cultural awareness and acceptance of diversity.
• Gabriel’s Angels received funding for its program to recruit, train and place pet therapy teams to deliver healing pet therapy to abused, neglected and at-risk youth.
• Tucson Centers for Women and Children received support for its Making It Better prevention program, which offers parenting information and a violence prevention curriculum to mothers and children who have experienced domestic violence.

• Crisis Call Center in Reno received a grant to support the newly created Youth Leadership Council (YLC).  This teen-led group aims to increase knowledge and understanding of behaviors and attitudes that lead to teen violence.  YLC is building a media and outreach campaign to end violence among Reno-area teens.  Allstate Exclusive Agent Cindy Welch serves as an advisor to the youth-led panel.
• Funding was given to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas to implement its Street SMART curriculum, a program developed with The Allstate Foundation that provides young people with the skills needed to resist gangs and violence at six club sites.

• The Allstate Foundation awarded a grant to WESST Corp. to enable nearly 40 additional participants to join its financial literacy program, including an intensive 10-week financial literacy course, followed by participants opening Individual Development Accounts that are matched at a rate of 4:1 by WESST Corp. Funds from this grant are also being used to find and help victims of domestic violence and bring them into the financial literacy program.
• Junior Achievement of New Mexico received support to continue its JA Hispanic Initiative in Las Cruces and Albuquerque, providing uniquely adapted and targeted economic education to Hispanic kindergarten through middle school students.
• La Casa, Inc., the only agency providing comprehensive domestic violence services in Dona Ana County, acquired funding from The Allstate Foundation for its life skills education, residential and non-residential programs.  The organization also received an additional grant as part of The Foundation’s Domestic Violence Program to implement the Foundation’s Moving Ahead Through Financial Management curriculum to enhance the education and services La Casa provides its community.
• The New Mexico Foundation for Human Rights Projects received funding to bring the Choices: Through the Eyes of Students bilingual art exhibit to New Mexico schools this school year.

• The Allstate Foundation awarded a grant to Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE), a student-led nonprofit organization that educates and empowers young people to prevent youth crime and violence, to enable six schools to establish SAVE chapters, including resources to engage students in activities and events that will address the need to investigate real issues of violence in schools.
• The Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County received support to expand the Street SMART youth anti-violence curriculum to two additional clubs and two elementary schools in the 2007-2008 school year.
• Youth at Heart received funding for the organization’s crime prevention program in Tulsa public housing communities and low-income apartment complexes, reaching more than 5,000 children.

• The Allstate Foundation awarded a grant to Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) to enable two schools to establish SAVE chapters, including resources to engage and empower students in activities and events that will address the need to investigate real issues of violence in schools.
• The Boys & Girls Club of Cache Valley received a grant to support the Street SMART youth anti-violence curriculum at Mount Logan Middle School, Willow Valley Middle School and the Boys & Girls Club Teen Center in Logan.
• The Erin Kimball Memorial Foundation, an organization in St. George providing assistance to domestic violence victims and their families, received funding for the organization’s HOME (Housing Options Mentoring Empowerment) Transitional Housing Program.
• The Foundation provided the Pete Suazo Business Center with resources to develop a course about insurance for small businesses to help minorities in the greater Salt Lake City community become self-sufficient through business start-ups.

• Allstate Claims operations employees in Albuquerque prepared and served meals to adults and children at the Ronald McDonald House Charities of New Mexico.
• More than 30 Phoenix employees taught students about economics concepts at a south Phoenix elementary school through Junior Achievement of Arizona’s business volunteer program.
• Tempe and Mesa, Ariz. employees raised nearly $3,000 and participated in the March of Dimes Walk for Wishes annual event, placing third overall for its team fundraising efforts.
• More than 150 purses were donated and filled with cosmetics, jewelry and toiletries by greater Phoenix employees and agents for a Mother’s Day Purse Drive, and the gifts were donated to three Arizona domestic violence shelters.
• Nearly 50 volunteers from the Oklahoma City Claims office participated in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica walk and fundraiser, raising more than $4,600 for the cause.

Community organizations across the Southwest Region received $83,000 as a result of agent and employee volunteer efforts through the Agency Hands in the Community Grant program and the Helping Hands grant program.  These programs recognize agents and employees for outstanding service with grants to the organizations where they volunteer.  The grant programs require that the volunteer demonstrate ongoing involvement with the organization, and that the organization is making a positive impact in the community.