P&G My Gives Program Partners With Matthew McConaughey! #GIVEEducation

By: Vanessa Diaz | 0 comments

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Hey All!

Did you know High School drop out rates are at an all time high? Nearly 139,400 students in California alone won’t finish this new school year. What’s even scarier is every 26 seconds, a young person drops out of high school in the U.S.!

Education is a passionate subject for me and apparently Mathew McConaughey feels just as strongly about it as well. I had the amazing opportunity to meet Matthew McConaughey last week and participate in a P&G’s “School the Nation” press event that was hosted by P&G and Mathew at the famed Venice High School aka Rydell High! If you’ve ever watched the movie Grease you’ve seen Venice High!

At the event I learned about the program P&G GIVE Education that is dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of education and how they are partnering with an organization called CIS (Communities in Schools), the nation’s leading dropout prevention organization, to help stop the drop out crisis in our country today.

Yes it’s a crisis folks! Again every 26 seconds a student drops out of high school in the United States? You can blink your eyes a few times and a kid will be dropping out of school which is crazy to think about! You can check out this map below just to see how many kids are dropping out in your state.

In its inaugural year last year, GIVE Education raised more than $500,000 for CIS. This year, GIVE Education is aiming to beat that number by making it easier for folks like you and me to help ‘School the Nation’.

All you have to do to help is Buy, Give and Get. By simply purchasing $25 worth of select P&G products, you can get a $5 rebate by mail, and P&G will give $5 to CIS on your behalf. For all the details, visit www.getgivesave.com. How cool is that? It’s a super simple way to do something good with your shopping.

Also for each coupon redeemed from the August 26 brandSAVER, P&G will donate $0.02 to CIS allowing consumers to give back, while saving money.

For every person who “likes” the GIVE Facebook page,  a $1 donation will be made to CIS (up to $10,000).

During the event we learned about all of the the programs from Karen Schlosser, Assistant Director of U.S. Operations at P&G, who is seen in the pictures below! She was an amazing speaker and extremely passionate about this cause. She even got teary eyed at points while speaking.

We also learned from Mike Bento, Executive Vice President for Marketing and Communications for Communities In Schools (CIS). He is the man in the black polo shirt in the pictures below and he explained just how the CIS program works in schools.

Youth who drop out of school significantly diminish their chances of securing a good job and achieving in life. Over the course of a lifetime, a high school dropout earns, on average, about $260,000 less than a high school graduate.If dropouts from the class of 2009 had graduated, the nation’s economy would have benefitted from nearly $335 billion in additional income over the course of their lifetimes.

If high schools and colleges raise graduation rates of black, Latino and Native American students to levels of white students by 2020, the potential increase in personal income would add more than $310 billion to the U.S. economy.

Increasing the graduation rate and college matriculation of male students in the U.S. by just 5 percent could lead to combined savings and revenue of almost $8 billion each year by reducing crime-related costs.

With 1.2 million students dropping out of school each year, it takes people, not “programs” to guide students on the path to success. GIVE Education enables thousands of mentors across the country to support and encourage at-risk youth to learn, stay in school and prepare for life.
Mentors play a critical role in determining the lifetime success of a child:
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Americans had a person who served as a mentor while growing up, who guided and inspired them to make positive life changes.
Two-thirds (66%) of those who had a mentor earn more than $75K annually, with all agreeing their mentor played a big role in shaping who they are today.

How is Matthew involved in all of this you ask? Well Matthew’s foundation, Just Keep livin is also partnering with P&G’s “School the Nation” since his program is also dedicated to improving the drop out rate as it runs after-school mentoring and fitness and wellness programs in inner city high schools. His programs focuses on at-risk kids and helps them improve their studies and build their confidence so that they can have bigger dreams for themselves and and their futures.

Matthew McConaughey and his organization currently have 1500 students enrolled in his Just Keep Livin program and growing. The program takes place in 14 different high schools not only in California, but in Texas and Louisiana too! His organization along with CIS and P&G is doing an amazing job at getting the kids motivated and wanting to go to college.