Website: http://rivercityyouth.com/.
Contact: Sue Cole, RCYF Technology and Mentoring Coordinator. E-mail: sue.cole@rivercityyouth.org

What is the River City Youth Foundation?

Since 1983, River City Youth Foundation (RCYF) has been serving kids in Austin, and since 1999 for students from 5-17 years old in the 78744 area.   RCYF provides after school, weekend, and holiday programs to give kids a safe place to study, learn technology skills, improve academics, play, and receive one-on-one mentoring.  RCYF has several programs that give students the critical skills they need to be successful in life.  These programs are divided into seven different areas:

·         Mentoring- The RCYF MY Hero! mentoring partnership matches a positive role model with an at-risk/ at-potential youth.

·          Counseling and case management- RCYF provides services such as counseling, training, and case management to families.

·         Substance abuse prevention- This program provides after school and summer camp educational services to at-risk youth and families

·         Technology-These programs enhance technology use by teaching students to solve a problem or make a product using a variety of software and hardware. 

·         Health and wellness- RCYF provides a meal after school; students harvest fresh herbs and vegetables from their own vegetable garden.

·         College and career-All of RCYF’s holistic service prepare students for a successful college and career experience.

·          Community development-RCYF promotes the importance of community service through the Computer Learning Lab, MY Hero! Mentoring, and Neighborhood Youth Corps which provides student with the opportunity to serve their neighborhoods. 

Ultimate Goal

The mission of RCYF is to provide a safe and healthy place for kids in Dove Springs to play and learn how to live prosperous lives.

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Website: http://www.cluboutreach.org/index.html.
Contact: Aisha Fletcher, President – email: aisha@cluboutreach.org .

Who is Club Outreach?

Club Outreach is a new student organization that was created with a purpose to support the UTeach Outreach program and serve as a liaison between other student groups at the University and the AISD community. There have been many requests by student groups to participate in a number of service projects each year with AISD. However, there are certain steps and procedures that student organizations need to complete in order to do so. Club Outreach strives to ease that process for students. 

Ultimate Goal

Club Outreach works toward providing opportunities for UT Austin students to volunteer in the community’s schools with assistance to at-risk students “through fun, hands-on activities. UT Austin students will be mentors and role models to AISD students.” 

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Website: http://www.utexas.edu/ssw/aa/field/ .
Contact: Tanya Voss- Assistant Dean for Field Education- tmvoss@mail.utexas.edu .

What is Field Education for Social Work Students?

Each social work student who is pursuing a bachelors or masters degree is required to participate in a field education experience.  Students work alongside experienced social workers and administrators in order to use and apply the knowledge from their studies.  This field experience aims to develop social workers who are dedicated to the profession and committed to self-evaluation and life-long growth.  Students explore their professional identity, use of self, social and economic justice issues, populations-at-risk, and the ethics and values of the social work profession. 

Students will learn to work at both the macro and micro level.  When entering the profession, the students will know how to intervene with families, groups, organizations, communities, work with the healthcare system and the legislature as well as help elderly at home.  The School of Social Work has placements in locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally.  About 420 students participate in professional internships yearly and put in more than 2000 hours of community service. 

Ultimate Goal

The mission of the field placements is to allow students to integrate classroom knowledge with the necessary skills and values found in the social work profession.  These field experiences also serve the community and prepare the students for their careers.

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Website: http://www.utdanacenter.org/ace/about.php .
Contact: Sheena Moore - sheenamoore@gmail.com .

What is the Americorps for Community Engagement and Education (ACEE) program?

It is an intensive tutoring program which places AmeriCorps members in classrooms across the community to provide research-based practices and early literacy intervention to over 2000 children. They encourage parents to become more involved in their children’s academic experience, thus increasing the parent-child engagement. Both these factors combined improve overall academic achievement for the children living in low-income communities. ACEE is made possible through a collaboration of the Charles A. Dana Center, UT Austin, AISD, AmeriCorps, and community/corporate partners.

Ultimate Goal

To ensure that all children develop a strong foundation in early literacy skills during their first years in school and that parents are empowered as partners in their children’s education.

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Website: http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/ .
Contact: Margaret Baguio- Outreach Coordinator- baguio@tsgc.utexas.edu .

What is the Texas Space Grant Consortium?

Comprised of thirty-five different institutions including universities, industries, non-profits, and government agencies within Texas, the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC) inspires and educates Texans about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) mission of improving our knowledge about the planet, life on earth, and the universe.  TSGC supports K-12 Education by providing several classroom activities, professional development workshops, and resource materials to educators in order to get students excited about math, science, and space related fields.  TSGC mostly works with teachers through a series of education workshops based on the fact that training one teacher can affect a huge number of students.  One example of a TSGC professional development workshop is the “Opening the Door to the Universe” workshop.  This workshop covers background material on the solar system, the Sun-Earth connections, the Earth-Moon relationship, and space exploration found in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for elementary and middle school teachers.  TSGC also works with the Texas Regional Collaboratives to provide education workshops for teachers.

The highlight each year is the nationally competitive K-12 education program LiftOff Summer Institute held at Johnson Space Center (JSC).  Teachers elected spend a week at JSC interacting and learning with engineers, scientists, and astronauts. 

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Website: www.austinpartners.org
Contact: Elizabeth McCormick, Classroom Coaching Manager.
E-mail: EMcCormick@austinpartners.org

Who and What is Austin Partners in Education (APIE)?

They are an organization that was created from a partnership formed between Austin ISD and the Austin Chamber of Commerce. APIE provides a number of programs such as Classroom Coaching that “fosters effective community and school partnerships.” Volunteers reach out to different schools through tutoring and mentoring during the school day. They are supported by a diverse set of donors such as IBM Corporation, JetBlue Airways, 3M, Intel corporation, A Glimmer of Hope Foundation, Andy Roddick Foundation just to name a few.

Ultimate Goal

They strive to have as many kids and teens college and career-ready through connecting the community to the classroom. Their vision is to have “the Austin community and classrooms work together to ensure academic excellence and personal success for all students.” Through their volunteers, they hope to continue improving student engagement and academic performance.

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Website: http://www.canvasforacause.org/ .
Officer Contact: canvasforacause@gmail.com .

Who is Canvas for a Cause?

Canvas for a Cause is a fairly new student organization that was started in Fall 2008. They focus on generating funds for the community through creating art pieces. Members of the organization and volunteers use reusable products such as wood or furniture to produce the artwork. Money donations given for the artwork are given back to the community. An emphasis is placed on the local level, and especially for underserved children and children’s charities. Simultaneously, they teach kids the importance of art and that they have the power to do it. They encourage people from all sorts of disciplines to join the student organization, even if they have no background in art.

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Website:  gbp-ut.net .
Contact: Blake McGregor - blakemack@austin.utexas.edu .
Kathryn Jackson -Kathryn.jackson@bba06.mccombs.utexas.edu .

Who is Gamma Beta Phi?

They are an honors, non-profit, co-ed, and service organization for students at UT Austin. The Greek letters represent their values where Gamma is the initial letter of the Greek word that means education, Beta for life, and Phi for friendship. Students must have completed 12 hours of credit at the university and obtain a GPA at or above 3.75 to join GBP as well as maintain a 3.0 GPA from then on. They have a requirement of at least 4 service hours per semester for all members. Right now they are working directly with Mathews Elementary focusing on mentoring including organizing volunteers for various carnivals and learning activities. In the past, they have been involved in various projects that worked closely with the Center for the Homeless, City Wide Hold Up, Race for the Cure.

Goals

Their code of ethics describes the goals that members live by:

1. Honesty
2. Service
3. Industriousness
4. Humility
5. Justice
6. Cooperation
7. Responsibility
8. Charitableness

Aside from these principles, they strive to get members engaged with the local community and provide opportunities to the kids to build a relationship with their mentors and volunteers.

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Website: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/progs/uteach/ .
Contacts: Eric Bowles - Program Coordinator and Academic Advisor: bowles@austin.utexas.edu.
Hannah Bolduc - Office Manager: hannahbolduc@austin.utexas.edu.
Rowena Hymer - Academic Advisor: hymer@austin.utexas.edu .

What is UTeach Liberal Arts (LA)?

UTeach-Liberal Arts is a professional 5th grade, middle, and high school teacher preparation program for The University of Texas at Austin undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students who plan to teach English-language arts, languages other than English, or social studies. Students participate in intensive teacher-training coursework and field experiences in local schools. The UTeach-LA program emphasizes practical, hands-on field experience in public school classrooms throughout the duration of the program.  Students have a substantial supportive network through cohort groups and faculty members while they are enrolled in the program.

UTeach-LA offers an undergraduate program for UT-Austin undergraduates, and a post-baccalaureate program for students who already hold a bachelors degree. The undergraduate program is a minimum of four long semesters (2 years).  The post-baccalaureate program is a minimum of three long semesters (1.5 years).

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