REACH PROJECT
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Mission Statement
The REACH Mission is to provide the education, resources and opportunities for all members of our community to attain financial self-sufficiency, overcome multi-generational poverty, and prevail over the barriers keeping them from achieving their full potential.
About This Cause
The REACH Project (REACH) is a nonprofit organization that was formed in 2017 and received its 501c3 tax-exempt status in 2018. REACH was founded by Texas A&M University (TAMU) student Max Gerall, who sought to address the social and financial inequities borne by underserved people in his community — beginning with the essential workers on his university campus. Multigenerational poverty is one of society’s most pressing and destabilizing problems. Max was shaken by his up-close observation of the 3,000 campus contract workers struggling against poverty, and in response, he created REACH. REACH’s mission is to strengthen the fabric of the community by engaging university and community partners to eliminate social and financial inequities in college towns and beyond. REACH applies an innovative, relationship-based approach to community building that through the vehicles of education, service, and celebration, produces a profound dual impact on students and campus essential service workers by enhancing skills, sparking empathy, and generating life-changing opportunities. REACH programs and relationships transform student higher education experience and create healthy, thriving community members who have the resources, confidence, and support to achieve their full potential. REACH offers a cutting-edge, sustainable education and service-learning platform that provides the High-Impact experiential Service Opportunities (HISO) that universities seek to augment classroom learning, and that foster student empathy and enhance soft skills through real-world service learning. Through partnerships and collaboration with more than 20 TAMU colleges and departments, thousands of students each year help deliver programs to campus essential workers and other community members within REACH’s five service areas: Homeownership, Entrepreneurship, Health and Wellness, Education and Community Building. REACH’s programs offer the education, resources and access that inspire and support community members to start small businesses, become homeowners, and achieve financial stability and long-term success. But it is the unique dual impact of REACH’s programs and relationships on both the families and the students REACH serves that truly sets it apart from other organizations. Since 2018, REACH has served more than 7,500 community members through its programs and has garnered hundreds of thousands of hours from student volunteers, interns, and fellows. Community partnerships and resource referrals are vital to REACH’s ability to serve the entire university community. In furtherance of its mission, in the next two years, REACH seeks to create a Community Resource Center (CRC), located on TAMU grounds. The CRC will serve as a community-driven hub of multidisciplinary, transformational learning and activity, as well as a clearing house to reduce service redundancy, and generate and track research opportunities. The CRC will house REACH’s offices, programs, and events, and serve as a central point for evidence-based, relationship-centered education, health and social service navigation and other supports for community members. Community-based organizations will utilize the CRC to bring services (e.g., health screenings, financial coaching, etc.) directly to campus service workers. Students will serve the university community via the CRC’s various HISOs, as well as research opportunities. The CRC will help realize REACH’s mission by creating new connections and networks between TAMU students, faculty and staff, and community organizations and leaders. Longer-term, REACH intends to create a brick-and-mortar iteration of its community development model in a prototype, first-step housing community — the REACH for Home Village. Through impactful programs, powerful relationships, and a sense of community, REACH helps individuals achieve financial stability, launch a business, afford important life-purchases (e.g., homes, cars), and most importantly, have the confidence and support to pursue their goals and achieve their full potential. REACH’s replicable model of transformational education and community building is a win-win for campus communities that seek to collaborate with and collectively invest in one another, and to prosper and thrive together for generations to come.