Travis County Commissioners Court
October 3, 2006
Items 3 & 21
Number 3 is to approve resolution celebrating national 4-h week in Travis County. And we have a few 4-hers here, don't we?
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> do you want to read it?
>> whereas 4-h is a community of young people across america who are learning leadership, citizenship and life skills and whereas 4-h is one of the largest youth organizations in Texas with nearly one in every ten Texas youth involved in 4-h. Whereas 4-h in Texas claims over 1.1 million youth members and over 34,000 adult volunteers while Travis County 4-h program numbers over 16,000 members and over 350 volunteers. Whereas 4-h is part -- as part of the Texas cooperative extension in Travis County is a program where youth learn together in all kinds of projects, events and activities. And whereas 4-h has been helping youth and adults learn, grow and work together for more than 100 years, now therefore be it resolved by the Travis County Commissioners court that we proclaim October 1st through 7th, 2006, as national 4-h week in Travis County and we urge the people of this community to take advantage of the opportunity to become more aware of the special program which gives youth the chance to learn together and on their own as part of Travis County's 4-h and to join us in recognizing the unique partnership between our county -- you made me do this -- and the Texas a&m university system who I'm very proud to say yes.
>> good morning.
>> thank you.
>> hi, I'm lindsay dance. I'm the Travis County 4-h president. And on behalf of Travis County 4-h, we would just like to say thank you for everything that you all do to support the program. And we have a guest here. It's a picture of the state capitol that I took and entered in the state 4-h photography contest and won a blue ribbon. And we have one for each of you.
>> a blue ribbon first or second place?
>> first place.
>> all right, let's get it clear.
>> did you want to do that later and let's go ahead and finish our presentation?
>> that would be fine.
>> I'm here to talk to you about the 4-h capitol project which is a perfect link with our traditional program and with our americorps program. With us today we have some of our americorps members who are instructors in our after-school program and they will be talking to you in just a moment. We also have some of our -- our two -- three, excuse me, americorps coordinators who help us manage that program and they are ann and michael williams. Winston church I will said to each there comes in a lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour. I believe that the 4-h after-school program and the 4-h program in general offers to our young people that are coming to work with our americorps program that opportunity. We prepare them to be ready for their finest hour. And in turn, they offer to the youth that they serve an opportunity for them to be ready for their finest hour. Our after-school programs here in Travis County, every day that they are out teaching fulfills a 4-h motto which is to make the best better. See, we all know that. This year we are beginning our fourth year of the americorps program. And, of course, us a know, the 4-h capitol project which is working with underserved populations began in 1992. So we've seen a big change. Since 1992, we started off as a program, I kind of think of it as the little engine that could. We were a little small program, we got bigger and better. And in 2003 with the support of you, the Commissioners and health and human services and vets services, people like john bradshaw, vicky Davis and ellen heath, we were able to begin the americorps project. The americorps project for three years had a budget of $1,168,400. Of that, $637,277 came from the corporation. The money that you are already providing news the form of support for our program provided in-kind along with funding from grants that we've written as well as support from the school district which accounted for an additional $531,123. That's just in those three years. And as you can see, I think we have been very good stewards of your resources. Additionally, we have brought in in small grants including the grant from j.c. Penney which you were just notified of an additional $251,500, as I said, in fairly small grants that do support our programming and allow us to add additional schools. Last year we had -- excuse me. This year we have a staff of 40 because we've been able to increase our program, and we're conducting over 150 academically ro bust paralysis robust programs. Last year we served 250 youth in grades k through 8 in programs that were not one-shot deals. Which we don't object to one-shot deals because we get to tell people about 4-h, but we had kids enrolled in sustained programming that had an average of 17 program sessions with 51 hours for each of those kids on average. We conducted 2,740 programs. I think what that says is that people are working hard out there in the community reaching these underserved audiences and providing a unique opportunity for them. Our evaluation data is very strong in that this is a good program and it does provide something that kids do not have access to if we're not there. At this time I would like for you to see the face of the americorps members and the capitol staff, the people out making a difference in the community, taking advantage of that tap on the shoulder. I'd like to introduce you to danielle dixon ryder who is going to tell you more about why she came to our program.
>> I'm from oakland, california originally, innercity. I grew up seeing everybody fall through the cracks, all my friends around me dying and going to jail so I got an opportunity to move to Texas. Once I came to Austin, I was presented with the opportunity to join americorps which gave me the chance to make a difference in somebody's life. I'm now able to lend a helping hand to somebody that might not have mad it if they were not able to come into the program. I feel very strong and happy about the opportunity to be able to up lift some children that maybe never get a chance to get a hug from somebody or somebody tell them great job, you can do it. I just feel like it's a wonderful opportunity, a wonderful investment you are making into the lives of the children around Austin.
>> thank you.
>> thank you. Good luck to you.
>> sara sullivan is a returning second-year member also.
>> hi, I'm sara, and I came from the exact opposite environment, from san antonio, Texas. I went to school in alamo heights and basically the whole community is given whatever they want. Therefore nobody is -- you go into these schools and after-school programs and kids come up to you and thank you just for being there and being their teachers. And I got a hug yesterday because I helped a child learn about the parts of a leaf, and they were just so happy that someone took the time to sit down with them and help them work it out and not, you know, yell at them or tell them that they were dumb but that they knew how to do it. It's so much more rewarding to have children that are grateful for little things that are so happy that you are there and it's just like a huge smile on their face when you walk in that door. So thank you all very much for all your help and continuing our program because it makes a huge difference.
>> thank you.
>> we've also had a wonderful opportunity to be able to transition americorps members into Travis County staff and matthew is one of those members.
>> good morning. As lillian said, I'm matthew and I'm an instructional specialist with 4-h. I started out doing an amayor an amayorcore program. And now I do after school programs starting this year at brooke elementary, although I've taught at almost every elementary school I can think of in Austin. I primarily teach science and outdoor education base programming, curricula. My favorite thing about it is that whereas all of the subjects in school can be somewhat compartmentalized, I like to get the kids in the after school and have them put all the little pieces together, have them put science together and math together and reading together and then spark some sort of curiosity about science and outdoors in general. So that's my favorite thing and I'd like to say thanks for recognizing us and making this investment.
>> thank you.
>> this year we've been able to add some additional funding and we've been able to transition more people into our program. And gilbert duran is one of those two-year members who has been able to transition into another paid program.
>> my game is gilbert and matthew is an old friend of mine and introduced me to the program. I was able to refine management skills, got to be involved with the kids and see what a cafeteria in an elementary school is like just about every day for the last couple of years. There's something to be said about that and it really makes you aware of, you know, the things that the community needs and the things that the community doesn't need any more of. Through this program I've, you know, made relationships in the community. I joined big brothers, big sisters. It motivated me to get my ged and this semester I'm working on my bachelor's for biology.
>> we do really appreciate all that you do and that you continue to do. You have consistently supported what we are doing in the community. We are the community education arm of the Texas cooperative extension service which -- actually the cooperative extension service is the community education arm of the Texas a&m university system. So I think with your continued support we can continue to make these very significant differences in the lives of the youth that we serve. So at this time if we could present you with your gift, please.
>> lillian --
>> yes, I'm sorry.
>> I was able to attend on behalf of the court the 4-h banquet a couple weeks back and got to see lindsay take over the reins of power, but they put on an excellent program per usual, but what is so inspire to go see these kids come up there the program and after a number of years you are seeing kids cycle through entire families. The richter family growing up in front of you. And to see the kids go on and get scholarships through 4-h, go on to college, and many of the 4-h alum come back and see everybody else in the program. Seeing their younger siblings. Folks like matthew, james, who just left us to go back and work with his dad, family farm, you guys are rock stars when you see them walk in and work with the kids. I want to say thank you and congratulations. You make us all very proud.
>> keep up the good work.
>> thank you all.
>> all in favor of the motion to approve the resolution? That passes by unanimous vote. Okay.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much. Congratulations.
>> thank you very much.
>> lindsay, thank you very much. Good to see you.
>> keep up the good work.
>> I'm doing great. Thank you so much for testifying.
>> we have a beautiful proclamation for you here. We'll give you one of these, by the way, you have to take it with you. What you do when you get outside is your business, but --.
>> did we go ahead and cover item 21 also? Okay. That sounded a little bit like a status. We did get the notification of the grant from j.c. Penney, which is good. I would like to see the evaluation data sometime if somebody could just send me a copy. Kind of helps to be armed with that when we chat with taxpayers from time to time. Thank you all.
>> thank you all.
>> I know the workers out there are hard workers because they avoided the [inaudible]. We appreciate all you do. So I think that does it for 21 for us which was an update of the 4-h capital and americorps program.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 4:29 PM