As AISD campuses recovered from the effect of COVID (and a round of devastating budget cuts by the district under the previous superintendent), Austin Voices Family Resource Centers brought much needed stabilizing resources to families, community events, parent engagement and leadership training, adult education and and dozens of community partnerships that brought volunteers, mentors, services and funding to Title 1 campuses. Click here to read the full report.

Here are a couple of highlights:

  • Family Stability: AVEY FRCs served 6,800 families, with students at 109 AISD schools. FRC social workers case-managed 394 families. FRC staff provided 28,199 responsive services (food, clothing, referrals for services).
  • At weekly FRC food distributions at four locations (in partnership with Central Texas Food Bank), 11,602 families received 391,181 pounds of food, along with 14,700 books for children and 1,800 backpacks with school supplies.
  • 458 families were provided with rent assistance and $306,914 in utility assistance was provided through contracts with Austin Energy’s Plus 1 program.
  • 11,050 people attended the 300+ campus and community events sponsored by AVEY, including 3,500+ at HopeFest (Northeast Early College High School). 1,050 parents, teachers, students and staff participated in AVEY community conversations at AISD campuses, focused on advocacy and school/community improvement.
  • 107 parents participated in the “Community Block Leader” program, with weekly zoom trainings on resources and community issues. Each block leader reached out to an average of 10 other families on their campuses and in the community with information. Block leaders also volunteered at AVEY resource events and vaccination clinics and held teacher appreciation events. 32 of the Block Leaders also became state-certified Promotoras (Community Health Workers) and were eligible to receive stipends from Austin Voices for their work supporting vaccination and health insurance clinics.
  • AVEY recruited 377 unduplicated volunteers during 2022-23, including student mentors for campuses and volunteers at food distributions and resource events.
  • AVEY’s Adult Academy program (ESL, GED, High School completion in Spanish, computer literacy, parenting, financial literacy and more) had 761 unduplicated participants.
  • AVEY helped 251 families enroll in health insurance, including MAP (Travis County), Medicaid and CHIP.
  • 386 families received assistance from a social worker through AVEY’s Call Center, which was started during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Call Center is staffed 9 am-5 pm, Monday through Friday, and callers receive information, referrals and application assistance. Families needing more help with students at our FRC campuses (and feeder campuses) are referred to the FRC social workers for additional case management.