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Over its twenty
year history, Austin Interfaith has had many successes. These include
creation of the following programs and initiatives: 1.
Alliance School
Initiative - A
partnership with the Austin Independent School District and individual
schools to restructure relationships among staff, parents, and community
in order to build a more relational culture as well as a constituency to
support public education. 2.
Capital IDEA -
An adult, long-term job training
program which trains low-income adults for living wage jobs with
benefits and a career track. Capital IDEA has trained and placed over
500 adults in its 5 year history in nursing, medical, and technical
fields. The newest addition to Capital IDEA is the Teacher Pipeline
Project which trains teaching assistants to become certified teachers in
AISD. 3.
ESL Program -
An adult English as a Second
Language program funding by the City of Austin and administered through
Austin ISD 4.
Prime Time After School
Program - The
Austin lSD's largest after-school enrichment program funded by the City
of Austin and Travis County. 5.
Summer Youth Employment
Program - A
summer job-training and placement program funded and administered by
Travis County. Our work however,
is deeper than just the creation of programs and advocacy for funding.
At stake in our society is what it means to be citizen and neighbor. In
order to build the social capital necessary to build strong communities,
ordinary citizens need to have the necessary skills. Over the past 60
years, organizers, pastors, lay leaders, principals, and parents in IAF
organizations have developed a practice of "institutional
organizing": using the skills of community organizing to develop
leadership, identify issues, reweave relationships, and build the
capacity within their institutions to act on issues which affect
families. This process includes one-on-one relational meetings, small
group conversations called "house meetings", neighborhood and
community walks, and research actions. An organizing process is always
connected to the mission of the particular institution, and should be
flexible in order to meet the needs of each congregation or school
Since Austin Interfaith is a learning organization, or "University
of Public Life", action is always followed by reflection, which is
an effort to learn from both our successes and mistakes so that
development and formation of people remains the center of our work.
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