ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF AUSTIN TEXAS INC
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Mission Statement
Our mission: To transform the lives of children and adults through community programs. All programs offered by Assistance League of Austin serve low-income children and families. Our core values: Commitment, Leadership, Ethics, Accountability, and Respect. We offer compassionate, caring services with professionalism that is visionary, ethical, and sensitive. Honesty drives our communication and actions. We are fiscally responsible. And ALA and its members serve others with consideration and appreciation. Our core values: Commitment, Leadership, Ethics, Accountability, and Respect. We offer compassionate, caring services with professionalism that is visionary, ethical, and sensitive. Honesty drives our communication and actions. We are fiscally responsible. And ALA and its members serve others with consideration and appreciation. Code of Ethics: All members, volunteers and staff have a duty of loyalty to Assistance League in all organizational affairs. Assistance League believes strongly that its members must uphold the highest standards of ethical and professional behavior and to: • Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public in the performance of chapter duties. • Operate in a responsible, honest and transparent manner. Everyone is expected to exercise due diligence, reasonable care and integrity in all organizational affairs. • Treat with respect and consideration all persons, regardless of race, religion, gender, abilities, age or national origin. • Collaborate with and support others in carrying out the chapter’s mission. • Comply with all chapter policies. • Avoid any appearance of impropriety.
About This Cause
Assistance League of Austin has served the Austin area's economically disadvantaged residents for over 50 years. Today, THRIFT HOUSE (resale shop) generates a monthly income stream over $100,000; our all volunteer membership stands at 375; we offer seven programs—racking up in excess of 60,000 hours of volunteer time this past year in service to over 32,000 Austin area residents. Assistance League works with several distinct populations, all of which qualify as economically disadvantaged children and adults. These groups include children attending Title 1 schools in three Travis County independent school districts—Austin, Manor, and Del Valle; residents of homeless shelters serving Austin and Travis County; Austin Community College attendees; and patients at Dell Children’s Medical Center. The school children served by ALA provide a striking profile of those touched by our programs. From 50 to over 90% are classified as economically disadvantaged. 47% to 83% of these students are at risk of dropping out of school. All districts are predominately Hispanic—ranging from 47% to 83%. The total non-white school populations in these districts ranges from 69% to over 95%. Forty percent or more in each district lacks English proficiency. Programs Operation School Bell (OSB), with the aid of Parent Support Specialists (PSSs) at the schools in Austin, Manor, and Del Valle ISDs and social service personnel at shelters and crisis agencies, clothes children and teens using three distinct delivery systems. Elementary students receive a week’s worth of new clothing, shoes, a hygiene kit, and two books. Currently, elementary schools bus students into ALA’s Learning Center where they engage in an onsite shopping experience. If buses are unavailable, each school’s PSS helps parents fill out Fit Forms with their children's clothing sizes and as much information about each child's color preferences and interests as possible. ALA volunteers package each child’s new belongings, which are then delivered to the schools. ALA maintains 9 Clothes Closets at uniform schools. School liaisons coordinate with ALA volunteers to ensure closets remain fully stocked. Costs per student for these two delivery systems run between $90 and $100. The Teen Outfitter Project serves middle and high school students in non-uniform schools. Campus-identified disadvantaged students select $140 of school-appropriate clothing at an after-school event held at a retail venue (i.e., Target, Kohls, or Old Navy). Between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023, ALA provided clothing to 9,952 students, making their days brighter, self-esteem higher, and their ability to learn better because they felt they belonged. Toy Cart provides new toys, games, crafts, magazines, and books for Dell Children's Medical Center patients and their visiting family members. Carts travel the Center’s corridors three days per week for three weeks and four days for the fourth week each month, 50 weeks per year.This past year, over 17,000 patients and family members were served by Toy Cart with gravely ill children making the one choice within their power to make: “Which toy or book do I want.” Outreach serves at-risk children and adults through two collaboratives: the ALA Resettlement Initiative and Supporting the Underserved. The Resettlement Initiative operates in conjunction with two primary organizations: Salvation Army Women and Children’s Shelter and Liberty Ukraine. Occasionally, the program also takes reversals from the Foundation for the Homeless and Texas Refugee Services. Each of these entities provides housing subsidies but little that turns an empty apartment into a home. Outreach purchases sofas, tables and chairs, dressers, household goods, beds, and bedding. Depending on the family size and need, costs average $3000 per family unit. Supporting the Underserved clients live at or just below subsistence levels in primary or absolute poverty but above homelessness or shelter levels. One of the most common requests we get from these families is for mattresses and bedding. New singular or unique requests also regularly materialize. If a family suffers the loss of their home through fire, not only are household items and supplies necessary, but clothing for all family members could be a dire need. In addition to referrals from the agencies listed above, these two Outreach program segments receive referrals from Austin Voices for Education and Youth (AVEY)’s six Austin ISD Family Resource Centers; and the Austin, Manor, and Del Valle independent school districts. Refugee referrals often come from AISD’s International High School. All clients are fully vetted before referred to Assistance League for aid. Project Impact became a bona fide ALA program in July 2023. In doing so it incorporated Operation Wish List as it base and added a minor clothing segment, which was initially covered by OSB along with a sector dealing with creating a sense of community originally handled by the Outreach program. A major component of the initial plan for Project Impact included developing a sense of belonging and community among students, their families, and school faculty/staff by emphasizing the importance of education in children’s future economic and societal wellbeing. The significance of this particular component revolves around the initiative’s focus on helping schools address and lower the number of high at-risk students who leave school prior to high school graduation—a move that hinders their ability to build economic stability typically gained through educational preparation. Project Impact has entered its third year and is now working with three elementary schools in the Manor ISD. Presidential Meadows Elementary is in its third year in the program and much of Project Impact’s work there deals with continued efforts to build a sense of community. Blake Manor Elementary was added in year two and at the request of the school’s administrators and faculty, Project Impact not only provided needed school and classroom equipment and supplies but introduced the Social Emotional Learning program in an effort to help students move beyond the emotional isolation they experienced during school closures caused by the COVID pandemic. In year three, the program added Oak Meadows Elementary where faculty and staff will determine how best Project Impact can help their school move forward. In addition, the program also works with Manor’s Early Learning Center and anticipates engaging with one of the district’s middle schools in the near future. Increased STAAR test scores, teacher satisfaction levels, and parental involvement on campuses speak to the program’s success. Since 1998, The Scholarship Program has partnered with the Austin Community College Foundation (ACC) providing over $1.6 million in scholarships to students determined to better themselves. Annually, ALA confers 10 to 15% of the scholarships awarded by the ACC Foundation. ACC selects our scholarship recipients based on academic potential and financial need. All scholars (our term for scholarship recipients) enroll in programs that qualify them for specific jobs, such as nursing, accounting, or computer programming. Provided they enroll in six credit hours per semester and maintain a 2.5 GPA, scholars in ALA’s program receive tuition for as long as it takes them to graduate. In addition, each student is assigned an ALA volunteer Advocate, who stays in contact with her/his scholar to ensure no unexpected expeexpense or situation keeps a student out of the classroom. If a car needs repairs, eyeglasses replaced, rent or childcare paid; or profession-specific tools, texts, or board certification exam fees prove insurmountable; Assistance League covers those expenses through a discretionary fund maintained for such emergencies. ALA’s three-pronged approach results in graduation rates more than double the national community college graduation rate. Assault Survival Kits (ASK) provides clothes and comfort items to child and adolescent assault/rape survivors and sex trafficking victims examined at Dell Children’s Medical Center. The yearly total served by this program ranges from 225 to 400. Through our Waste Not program ALA contracts with other nonprofit agencies to distribute donated items that are either not of the quality or type of merchandise sold in THRIFT HOUSE. RECOGNITION FOR OUR SERVICE -Austin ISD 2019 Latino Excellence in Advocacy Award to OSB -Austin Indepentdent Business Alliance Armadillo Hall of Fame (2019) for earning consecutive awards over a 3-year period -Austin Voices for Education and Youth (AVEY) 2020 Community Partner Award -Manor ISD 2021 Excellence in Education Award -GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency saluting our financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency In addition: -Austin Community College Board of Trustees honored ALA’s Scholarship program for providing the most scholarships of any non-profit organization in 2022, as well as for our long history of funding education. -CBS Austin and Telemundo Austin selected ALA as their February Community Partner offering public service announcements, social media posts, and a segment on the We Are Austin lifestyle show. In addition, our Operation Wish List program was featured in a Making a Difference report aired on CBS Austin Morning Show.