TAP’s past initiatives include the following:
St. John Community/School Alliance Initiative
TAP worked with the St. John Community/School Alliance to build infrastructure to support students, faculty, administrators, and community members in their efforts to revitalize Webb Middle School, recently a low-performing school. TAP was instrumental in developing a service-learning initiative that is now integrated into Webb’s grade 6 Social Studies class curriculum.
Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative
TAP, along with Seton Hospital’s Children’s Optimal Health Initiative, facilitated AISD’s Safe Schools Healthy Students grant application. AISD was able to secure a four-year, $8.6 million grant, one of only 27 grants awarded out of the 340 proposals submitted by school districts across the nation. Locally, the grant initiative is known as ACCESS, for Austin Community Collaborative Ensuring Student Success. AISD is using the funds to integrate school and community services and programs to build student supports that are sustainable beyond the life of the grant and that can become a model for other school districts.
SPUR (Strategic Partnerships for Urban Revitalization)
One of the first priorities of The Austin Project was to collect reliable data about the community. TAP research discovered disproportionately high poverty, unemployment, and school drop out rates in pockets of a community that was otherwise flourishing economically. One of the most important observations from this first phase of research was that Austin needed to find ways to deliver social services and to impact families in a preventative and holistic manner and in a way that involved the families as architects of their own solutions.
TAP worked with AISD and the Seton Healthcare Network to establish in-school health clinics at Andrews and Ortega Elementary Schools. Family Resource Centers were opened in these schools to provide a central location for families to get everything from tutoring and parenting classes to referrals for other services. TAP’s experience during its first decade showed us that what our community needs, far more than another social service provider, is a new way of delivering all social services. A county-wide assessment by the Community Action Network and the conclusions of a subsequent workgroup formed in 2000 concurred with this view.
Youth & Family Assessment Center
The conclusions of the CAN Community-Wide Assessment and a subsequent Travis County Juvenile Justice Task Group led to the formation of the Youth & Family Assessment Center model. The City of Austin and Travis County contracted with TAP to implement this model and to serve as a broker between families and social service agencies.
TAP Care Coordinators and families worked together to develop a Plan of Care. The coordinators helped families focus on their strengths and select services in the community that are procured through a separate entity. The focus on prevention and early intervention helped families address obstacles before they become problems. The YFAC service area included Johnston High School and the schools that fed into it. A Hogg Foundation grant allowed for an evaluation of this model. The YFAC model was adopted by Community in Schools and has been implemented throughout their service sectors.
Academic Improvement
Ortega Elementary School Principal Martha Garcia gave TAP Board Members blue ribbons to celebrate and honor TAP for their role in helping Ortega advance to a “Recognized” school status. Dr. Garcia thanked the Board for the role TAP played in helping Ortega students make advances in math and science. Over a ten year period, TAP sought to promote “best practices” in math, science and technology education in East Austin schools. Partnerships with National Instruments, Dell, Intel, and AISD allowed TAP to impact the education of hundreds of children through technology integration, teacher training, after-school and in-school program development. TAP serves as a broker, connecting schools and teachers with opportunities. Our goal is to connect our neighborhood schools to excellent evidence-based resources and programs that integrate opportunities for children to apply learning in fun and creative ways.
Early Childhood Literacy
A grant from the Kellogg Foundation allowed TAP to “map” existing literacy resources and work with others in the community to maximize the potential of these programs to help all children learn to read. Care Coordinators ensured that all families served by the Youth & Family Assessment Center were connected with Early Literacy services where appropriate.
Step Into Reading
This initiative added to the number of quality books distributed to children and families in need. 6,800 books and literacy materials were purchased and given to children attending Govalle, Lucy Read Pre-K Demonstration School, Ortega Pecan Springs, and Travis Heights. TAP also negotiated an agreement with Harcourt Achieve Publishers to get two books for the cost of one, which doubled the number of books readily available to children in Austin.
Early Start Coalition
TAP led the Early Start Coalition, a consortium of approximately 30 service providers who worked to develop a comprehensive “vision” for the Austin community, centered on child outcomes in the areas of health, safety, school readiness, child care, family support, and community engagement. TAP was the project manager for “Ticket to Learn,” an early literacy initiative developed through the Early Start Coalition. Funding from the Kellogg Foundation allowed TAP to facilitate the development of the Early Start Coalition. United Way Capital Area adopted this effort into its Success by Six initiative.
Early Learning Opportunities Act
TAP coordinated a community-wide early literacy effort that resulted in Austin receiving a $1 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Early Learning Opportunities Act (ELOA).
Math, Science, & Technology Initiative
TAP brought resources from the University of Texas School of Engineering, Texas State University Mathematics Department (formerly Southwest Texas State University), ROBOLAB, National Instruments, and Austin Independent School District to teachers and students in inner city schools. The results of the collaboration were that teachers received high quality professional development, and students received learning enrichment through summer camps, after school activities, and in-school programming.
Mobile Technology Labs
Mobile Technology Labs were purchased in collaboration with the RGK Foundation in 1992 and served over 2,000 middle schools a year.