Newsroom

We’ve been growing up alongside Austin for 90 years –  and what it means to struggle financially has changed drastically in that time. To tell that story, we teamed up with local creative forces Alex Hannaford, journalist, and Matt Rainwaters, photographer, to create “Struggle: The Other Faces of the Texas Economic Miracle” – a zine showcasing our friends and neighbors who challenge the expected narrative around the working poor. What made you interested in this project? “These are the people who work full-time, often two jobs, to put food on the table and pay their bills, but who still find themselves unable to sustain this.” Alex Hannaford, journalist Alex: I’ve written a fair bit about the marginalized in society – and so this was a natural fit. I also thought it was interesting that this project didn’t focus on the poorest members of society, but the ‘working poor’ – a segment of the population that is largely ignored. These are the people who work full-time, often two jobs, to put food on the table and pay their bills, but who still find themselves unable to sustain this. Matt: I was also interested in telling the story of the ‘working poor.’ Having just recently learned the joy of fatherhood, I also confronted the high cost of child care, how that affects your quality of life and so on – there was definitely an element of sympathy there. It also interested me because these are stories we don’t hear about poverty – […]

With Austin’s booming tech scene, Science Technology Engineering and Math (or STEM) skills are critical for most future jobs in Austin. This week, as cities across Texas celebrate STEM education, experts from our Target Graduation program curated a list of activities and experiments to teach STEM skills in the classroom or at home with just a few supplies.  Follow United Way for Greater Austin’s board STEM Week Texas Activities on Pinterest. These activities are appropriate for students from elementary school through high school, but you’ll see different responses depending on the age of participants. If you want to see more, check out our Pinterest board for links to sites with more ideas.  We support STEM education locally by evaluating programs for low-income students to make sure they meet quality standards and providing young children with STEM learning opportunities.    Have you found an interesting, easy-to-implement science or math activity? Share in the comments!  Feature photo by Nicholas Nova via Flickr Creative Commons. 

80 percent Portion of students’ WAKING hours spent outside of school  According to the most pervasive narrative, school is the place where students gain critical academic skills that will determine their success later in life and students attend school as it if were a job, mixed in with some opportunities for creativity and socializing. On the other hand, time spent outside of school, especially summer, is associated with vacation and leisure – but this narrative ignores the fact that students spend nearly 80 percent of their WAKING hours outside of school.  Out of School Time (OST) refers to the after-school hours, mornings before school, weekends and summer that make up the bulk of students’ time . In a state where 68% of students come from households where both parents work, OST programs keep kids safe, supported and engaged after the bell rings Unfortunately, OST programs are not meeting the needs of our community – only one in three of OST sites offer enough days to positively impact students and less than a quarter of low-income students are participating in OST programs at the recommended level.  The result is that low-income students face a substantial disadvantage because of a lack of summer programs: they lose reading skills and tech literacy in the summer months, where their high-income peers with more access to books and technology actually benefit from the summer months. In all, half of the achievement gap can be attributed to summer learning inequalities.  We are working to change this story […]

Name: Central Texas Afterschool Network (CTAN) Partner for: 7 years Partner with: Target Graduation   Our Relationship: Assessing youth programs UWATX facilitates Youth Program Quality assessments in our community to help providers isolate the exact areas where their program could improve. CTAN has been a valuable partner in these efforts by providing trained staff and volunteers to conduct individual assessments. These annual assessments allow programs to evaluate how they’re doing and put in place a plan to improve – studies show that this type of measurement leads to better programs.  Training professionals to provide high-quality programs Once areas of improvement are defined, UWATX and CTAN work together to schedule, plan and conduct topic-specific training classes for programs staff. Topics include building community, quality coaching and cooperative learning. Through this professional development program, CTAN and UWATX improve students’ out-of-school time (OST) experiences by making sure programs are enriching, educational, safe and supportive. Conducting a first-of-its-kind survey of Austin afterschool and summer programs This summer, UWATX was joined by AmeriCorps VISTA summer associates to conduct a first-of-its-kind survey of out-of-school time programs in the Greater Austin area. Previously, there was no comprehensive data on the availability or quality of programs for students outside of school. This research project was be a first step to get a sense of the landscape of services. We continue to work with CTAN staff to analyze the results and take the next vital steps to improve the OST network.   What we’ve accomplished together Together, we’ve conducted […]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEnvD33LSdM[/youtube] In our mission to help individuals overcome barriers to economic opportunity, we focus on middle school years – a critical tipping point where many students begin to fall behind. Through our Target Graduation program, we work on broad, system-wide interventions to positively impact not just individual student performance but the culture of learning in schools and programs. The program develops and coordinates systems, which emphasize collaboration to prepare students for success in college, work and life. Part of this program is our Middle School Matters initiative: At Webb, Mendez and Decker, UWATX coordinates a wide array of evidence-based services and provides campuses with a system for ensuring these services are available to meet the specific needs of students. While services have historically been available on these campuses, the coordinated system that Middle School Matters brings facilitates a relationship between the campus and service providers to more efficiently use them for greater impact. Working closely with campus administration and local nonprofit agencies, we’ve invested $1 million annually to not only improve outcomes for individual students, but to promote a campus-wide culture of success. Special thanks to Robert Peters (Manor ISD) for participating in this video and to Sneaky Giants for putting this video together.