Travis County Commissioners Court
January 3, 2006
Item 1
Number one, is to approve a resolution for poverty awareness month in Travis County.
>> 12.6% of Travis County residents living in poverty in 2004, whereas almost half, 48.5% of children in Travis County public schools including 58% of aisd students are considered economically disadvantaged, whereas on a typical day nearly 800 of our community elders may not get enough to eat. Whereas nearly 80,000 adults in Travis County have less than a high school education. And thus may not have the skills often required for jobs that move families out of poverty. Whereas persons with the disability are more vulnerable to poverty, a Travis County resident with a physical disability is 1.5 times more likely than average to live in poverty and residents with a mental disability live in poverty at least -- at almost twice the average rate. So 1.5% physical disability and twice the average rate if you have a mental disability. Whereas the cost of living in the Austin area is significantly higher than the recognized poverty level, families need incomes two to three times greater than the federal poverty guidelines which is $19,350 for a family of four. We all know that you have to make significantly more than that to survive in this community. To be able to afford basic monthly expenses and whereas the demand for services to help individuals and families transition out of poverty continues to increase, now therefore be it resolved that we the Travis County Commissioners court do hereby proclaim the month of January, 2006, as poverty awareness month in Travis County, and encourage all citizens to increase their awareness of poverty by engaging in activities and supporting programs designed to impact and reduce the effects of poverty in our community and this calls for awareness as well as action to help relieve poverty, that's why I move approval.
>> good morning, sherri flemming, executive manager for Travis County health and human services and veterans service. Happy new year to the court, judge and Commissioners. I think that it is very fitting that we start the year by acknowledging that there are folks in our community who are still struggling despite our best efforts to meet their basic needs. That is our intent here this morning and I have here with me our partners in the basic needs coalition of central Texas and I will let each one of them make some comments and introduce themselves as they speak. We will start with -- with -- [laughter]
>> good morning, thank you all so much for letting us come this morning. My name is susan eason, the director of the arc of the capital area, I have the great honor of chairing the basic needs coalition of central Texas. We have come before you many times, we want to thank you for your continued support of our efforts. You usually see us here talking about the best single source project. But today we are looking at something that has a much broader and systemic effect on our community, that is the issue of poverty, the basic needs coalition is trying very hard to address those issues. I’m going to let allan who chairs or advocacy and public awareness committee talk to you a little bit about some of the that I was we have planned for January, which is poverty awareness month, but we wanted to thank all of you very much for recognizing the needs of our citizens who live in poverty in Travis County.
>> thank you, good morning.
>> good morning.
>> thank you for the resolution making poverty awareness month a -- to our citizens here in Travis County. Poverty awareness or January is poverty awareness month will be celebrated in communities across the country. It is a national effort that was started about five years ago by the catholic campaign for human development. A description of the efforts can be found a great website www.povertyusa.org. Locally the basic needs coalition of central Texas, our partners the county, the community action network and the united way of the capital area will be sponsoring activities throughout this month to help the citizens in this community put a face on paf poverty and understand what the issues, what the opportunities for resolution are particularly here in Travis County. We plan to have a lot of media activities. A series of e-mails with activities that will engage the public, quizzes, budgeting activities, to have people become more aware of what it really takes to live and what skills are necessary to provide the income to raise families out of poverty. We hope that there will be pulpit messages and ending the month on Wednesday, January the 25th, I would like for you to be our first invitees to a poverty tour, where we will take the media and decision makers in our community to various locations in our community to help them understand the issues, but also the opportunities for resolution and the solutions that can be gained for poverty and our community. So that's Wednesday, January the 21st, 25th, sorry, Wednesday, January 25th, 10:00 and we will be getting more formal information to you.
>> can you state your name for the record.
>> ellen balthazar. I’m the executive director of any baby can.
>> thank you very much.
>> you have been there how long now?
>> it will be a year in February. So I guess -- [laughter] so about -- about 10 and a half months.
>> I’m beth ather ton, the executive director of caritas, I have been there about four months. Brand new. But very aware of the good works that the county does with this coalition and -- and most pleased to be a part of it, but also to recognize the importance of this coming month as we look at a communities at the issues of poverty and thank you all very much for kicking this off for us.
>> thank you.
>> thanks, beth.
>> I’m [indiscernible] winchester, director of the basic needs department with caritas of Austin. I wanted to thank you for letting us be here today. To also hope that you will participate in the events transcribed by ellen -- described by ellen.
>> thank you.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you all.
>> we appreciate you all and the critical work that do you in our community.
>> thank you for your service.
>> thanks.
>> happy new year to you all.
>> actually take the proclamation. Number 2 is next, we will pull up the added item to discuss the other action we took during the emergency meeting.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 2:15 PM