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Austin Eastside Story Foundation After-School & Digital Workforce ProgramsLocation: 2209 Rosewood Avenue, Austin, 78702 DescriptionThe Austin Eastside Story Foundation has created two distinct programs housed in the Dewitty building in the 11th and 12th street corridor. The after-school program provides both access to technology as well as homework help and extra curricular activities for children from kindergarten to 8th grade. The Digital Workforce program is geared toward adults and provides job training in a variety of technological areas. What makes this program distinctive in the group?Eastside Story, through both of its programs, strives to affect an entire family by offering programs and resources to both parent and child. The workforce program offers training in Cisco networking, Oracle and telecommunications at a cost of less than $10.00 to a participant for the entire program. Training in these programs outside of the center would cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Each participant meets with a social worker regularly in order to monitor the participant’s progress as well as identify any needs the family as a whole may develop. Participants have been attending the program for as long as five to six years. Also, the foundation offers family trips out of state in order to expose participating families to new experiences. By requiring all participants to volunteer on a monthly basis, Eastside Story ensures that the center is more than a benefit to the community - it is a part of the community. Vision and Community OwnershipEastside Story is the answer to two major concerns in the 11th and 12th street corridor: childcare and job training. In a community where parents work well after children are released from school and cannot afford the increasing costs of childcare, the after-school program was designed to both keep children safe and productive after school as well as establish parents as an integral part in his or her child’s education. With this in mind, the center requires that all parents volunteer at least four hours a month with the program and attend regular parent/teacher meetings. Once the children’s portion of the program was up and running, the foundation saw the need that underemployed parents had for technological skills. As a result, the Digital Workforce Academy was created in order to prepare the parents of children attending the center with skills that would allow them to attain higher paying jobs in the field of technology. Today the program is open to participants outside of the after-school program families. Both programs have become so engrained in the community that all advertising for each program is done by word of mouth, and each have a significant waiting list. Comprehensive ProgrammingThe center is successful in offering a variety of programs that are pertinent to all ages. Through collaborations with the University of Texas and local businesses, participants have a range of activities to choose from. The after-school program offers cultural, artistic, athletic, math, and science activities. Children are encouraged to sign up for activities around their specific interests. Although many of the children find the homework portion of the program "boring," most of the children surveyed enjoyed the technology and extra-curricular programs. The center also offers a summer math and science camp for those children who would otherwise be home alone. However, the children express that too much time is devoted to schoolwork and would prefer more access to computer activities. The children do not have access on a daily basis. Rather, a teacher must request lab time at the DeWitty center if they are at a satellite campus. Also, the technology programs that are available to the children are restricted to certain grade levels and are finite, lasting a few months out of each semester. The children expressed an active interest in the internet, where they say the majority of their time is spent looking up games, music and popular television sites. Very few children have had the opportunity to build their own web site, but many expressed a desire to learn how. The children said that they would create sites that reflected all of their personal interests and favorite activities such as musicians, games, athletes and pictures. They are interested in becoming content creators as well as content consumers. The workforce program also offers a diverse array of programs. The academy conducts sessions on acquiring job skills prior to any of the technology training. Most participants remarked that they were satisfied with the workforce program, but they also expressed a desire for more variety in the types of classes offered as well as more computers, free time on the computers, and training. The center also collaborates with a local non-profit to offer a meal program to families in need where dinner is provided for an entire family each evening when parents come to pick up their children. This removes one point of stress for families and allows them to focus on their children. More importantly, participants of both programs also have a social worker available to discuss any concerns that he or she might have in an effort to reduce the barriers that would prevent a participant from completing the program (e.g. information on housing, child care centers with non-traditional hours, etc.) The center is also located in an area that is easily accessible to participants by foot, car, or public transportation. Participants are also aware of the many different community programs close to the center. Learning OpportunitiesBoth Eastside Story programs are structured by a set curriculum. In the after-school program, AISD teachers help participants with schoolwork and TAAS preparation. The children are required to complete activities very similar to those done in school but that are geared toward each student’s individual learning need. Work is done individually with little interaction between children. However, more group work is involved when a student participant joins a particular group, such as the math and science course or computer program. The children were very happy with the group work atmosphere, but also noted that some activities were “boring.” The children expressed a desire to work with more tools other than the computer alone, such as web cams, digital cameras, and microphones. Both staff and participants noted that they talked about issues other than class work and noted the opportunity for students to come to the center to use computers outside of class time. However, a significant number of students said that they use the computers at Carver library when they are not in the after-school program. Participants in the workforce academy are involved in more group work and interaction with staff. The first part of each three-hour class is strictly instruction that is based on curriculum established by a sponsoring entity. The second half of class is hands-on and participants can work with one another to apply the skills they have been learning about. The students also are able to interact and learn more about each other and staff. On several occasions, conversations about family, work or current events were noted by researchers. Labs are open for several hours outside of “normal” class time so that students can work on their skills. Both participants and staff expressed satisfaction with the way programs are conducted. The participants also noted that they felt that they were able to use what they had learned in class. Self-RelianceBoth programs have made diversified funding the foundation of their self-reliance. The programs collaborate with private corporations, local universities, the City of Austin, and state agencies to establish funding opportunities. As a result, Eastside Story offers all of its programs to participants at a minimal cost, eliminating any financial barrier to joining either initiative. Participants and staff both noted the benefit of the low cost. Both programs rely on volunteers in order to sustain the program. The volunteers come directly from participants, and therefore the center has had very few problems with lack of volunteers. Rather, participants often help and in some cases instruct courses in the workforce program once they have completed their course. In the after-school program, parents are required to volunteer on a monthly basis as a requirement for their child’s enrollment in the program. Volunteering is viewed as a minimal cost to the parents in exchange for the programs offered to their children. Social CapitalAt Austin Eastside Story, both programs strive to build the social capital of their participants and are successful. Both staff and participants express greater community involvement as well as an increase in skills following their participation in either program. For the after-school program, the children engage in activities that expand their knowledge and experiences in a variety of areas. For example, the students can participate in karate, tennis or golf lessons as well as field trips to see speakers at the University of Texas or other local colleges. In the workforce program, participants did express a relationship with their community, but that relationship was not significantly increased as a result of participation in the program. Participants did report that they had increased their technological knowledge as well as their ability to help others in this area. When asked what other programs should be offered, one adult participant in particular expressed a desire to partner up with the kids in the after-school program and work with elderly members of the community to learn about their history and lifestyle. The children in the after-school program expressed a desire to build a center that had more recreational activities with more computers and accessories. One recurring theme in their description of an ideal CTC was the implementation of "clubs" for specific areas of interest, such as arts/crafts, sports, and music. |
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