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Foundation Communities Learning Centers at Sierra Ridge and Vintage CreekLocation: Seven sites in Austin DescriptionFounded in 1984, Foundation Communities' mission is to create housing where families succeed. Foundation Communities helps families by owning and managing eight properties in Austin and three in Arlington and Carrollton that provide safe, affordable homes for more than 2,000 families annually; offering on-site after-school tutoring and education programs for more than 400 school-age children every day; providing money management classes, instruction in English as a Second Language and computer skills for more than 200 adults; preparing more than 40 pre-schoolers for school; and investing over $270,00 annually in matched savings accounts for 300 families. What makes this program distinctive in the group?Foundation Communities (FC) Learning Centers are located in the apartment communities where community members live. All transportation barriers are thus removed, which is especially significant for busy mothers, fathers, teenagers and children. Going to these community centers is much more like going to an extension of one's home than traveling to a facility or agency. Another key characteristic of this agency is their financial stability. Roughly forty percent of their income is from residents' rent payments. This stability provides the agency the freedom to maintain integrity to the mission. The Sierra Ridge property was the first FC site. It has well developed programs and high program participation in both adult and children programs. Classes offered cover topics such as ESL, after school programs, workforce training, tutoring, home ownership, money management, pre-school classes and computer classes. All the classes are computer assisted and encourage Internet research, and all adult classes are bilingual. Recently, construction began for a new community center which will include rooms for adults and children. The Vintage Creek property was specifically built for FC. This site houses Future Vision classes, which use the most advanced hardware. Future Visions works with youth to build business development skills, including building and maintaining websites. The goal is to work with agencies and local business as web developers. Each student builds their own website in the 8 week course. Other courses include ESL, after school, and there is open lab time. Vision and Community OwnershipFrom the beginning, this organization has been rooted in community ownership. Both centers we spent time at have residents on the board of directors, include residents in program planning, and previous program participants have become volunteers or have become staff. The Sierra Ridge community is described as tightly knit, and residents have referred other residents to the point that there is a long waiting list. 33% of the participants surveyed visit the center two times a week or more, and 16% visit once a week. Staff at Sierra Ridge speak about programs in terms of their stages of development, and they can and do add and change the programs in response to the community members. Vintage Creek clearly responds to teens' interest in fun and useful high tech tools with the Future Vision course. 50% of the participants surveyed visit the center two times a week or more, and 50% visit the center once time a week. Comprehensive Programming"Entrepreneurial" describes program development and implementation at FC. Staff at all levels are encouraged to try creative problem solving and do what works. The guiding principle is that if there is high participation in the program, the program continues. This gives staff the flexibility and participants the opportunity to request change. This agency culture grew from the history of the organization and the Executive Director's willingness to take chances. The Executive Director says that the organization has a culture of "hiring great staff that encourage and push each other to creatively problem solve." Staff are not isolated in their programmatic efforts. They have support from resident services and weekly staff meetings to give each other updates on the different centers. Formal feedback mechanism are in place, such as resident committees and surveys as well as the informal mechanisms of talking with participants. This flexibility has lead to staff at Sierra Ridge creating and recreating homeownership and money management classes specifically tailored to meet the community's needs. An outcome of this flexibility and encouragement at Vintage Creek is the Future Visions course for teens, which is evolving as students' skills and desires advance. Learning OpportunitiesThe vision at FC is to offer kids the opportunity to grow up using computers. What they use them for, whether educational or games, does not matter as much as offering them the opportunity to develop an interest in technology. All the sites use technology access as a reward - students have to complete their homework first before they are able to use the computers and access the internet. All residents, child and adult, are encouraged to actively participate and share ideas. In classes, participants often share their experience, making connections with new material and their own knowledge and also asking questions until they are answered. At Sierra Ridge, many immigrants are eager to learn the ways of America and buy their own home. The class projects connect families with family members back home through the internet and email, and help residents learn about clearing up credit, saving money, and learning how to avoid scams on home buying. All of the participants surveyed said what they do at the center is fun and they think it will be useful. All of the participants rated their teacher at the highest or second highest level. At Vintage Creek, the class atmosphere is energetic and gained momentum after the students learned the basics of web page design. All have their hobbies, pictures of themselves and their family and friends, and links to each others' sites on their personal web sites. Recently the class explored web cam work and digital camera images of their neighborhood. Some of the computers have speakers and the students listen to their favorite tunes while they work. All of the participants surveyed said that what they do is fun, and useful. All rated their teacher at the highest level, and all felt comfortable asking the teacher questions about the computer. Self-RelianceFoundation Communities, as mentioned earlier, is rare among nonprofits as its cash flow from rent creates financial stability and self reliance. Only 60% of their annual budget is third party funding, and that 60% is highly diversified, including federal and private sources. Several funding partnerships are long term, at least five years. Each property is economically stable - if funding dropped, adjustments would have to made, but each property would survive. Staff turnover is rare. This offers participants the benefit of getting to know the center staff and develop relationships with them. Social CapitalFoundation Communities assists each person associated with the agency in developing their social capital. The Executive Director assists with this development by his clarity of agency vision. One of the one year goals, to build a bigger community center at Sierra Ridge, is currently under construction. At Vintage Creek, participants reported increases in social capital after starting at the center. The average change in social capital was 1.8 illustrating an increase in social capital after coming to the center. The largest change in knowledge and skill was in building a web site, each participant significantly increased their knowledge of building web sites by coming to the Future Vision course. |
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