COPS / Metro Convenes 100 Stakeholders for ACA Implementation
With about 100,000 Bexar County residents eligible to get healthcare insurance through the exchange, leaders from COPS/Metro Alliance and University Health System brought together close to 100 community stakeholders to evaluate ACA implementation readiness and identify concerns. The first enrollment period for the subsidized insurance runs from Oct. 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014. Leaders aim to develop a comprehensive plan to educate San Antonio area residents on the Insurance Marketplace provision.
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Border Interfaith & EPISO Leverage $1.5 Million for Training
Citing evidence that the regional return on investment for Project ARRIBA's workforce development is $26 for every $1 invested, the City Council of El Paso voted to increase funding to $1.5 Million over five years, rather than the $1.25 Million initially recommended by city staff. This is the single largest investment the city has made into ARRIBA since its inception.
This funding will enable the project to support the training and placement of 600 El Pasoans into living wage careers in the border region. Organization leaders are hopeful that this will help leverage matching funds from the State of Texas through the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education (ACE) Grant Program.
Read moreTexas IAF Reconstitutes Launchpad (Job Training) Fund
"The Launchpad Fund, which gave nonprofits $10 million starting in the 2010-11 biennium to support career training programs for low-income students, will be replaced by the Texas Innovative Adult Career Education Grant program. The ACE grant program will award about $5 million under a similar model to nonprofits for the next biennium. It will be administered by Austin Community College, which will step into the comptroller's office's current oversight role....
Said Minerva Camarena-Skeith, a representative of Austin Interfaith, the nonprofit that helped found Capital IDEA with business community members and advocates for public funding: "It still gives these job-training programs the opportunity to apply for these $5 million, and also be able to leverage more city and local funds."
Read moreAustin Interfaith's First In-District Charter Leads the Way
"The switch at Travis Heights has been in the making for nearly three years. Austin Interfaith, a coalition of schools, churches and unions, and district labor group Education Austin ...reached out to 100 campuses before they found a partner in Travis Heights willing to become a charter.
Their volunteers then went door-to-door, garnering support and hosting school meetings to find out what parents and teachers wanted in a school. They reached 90 percent of the school's households and got 99 percent support from parents and 97 percent support from staff...."
Read moreThe Border Organization Takes on Hospital Management
"Members of The Border Organization group expressed frustration Wednesday over Val Verde Regional Medical Center's process in hiring new chief executive officer Victoria "Vicky" Barnthouse. The closed-session, private-ballot vote in favor of Barnthouse was done at VVRMC's July 1 hospital district board meeting.
Read moreNYT Cites Capital IDEA-Houston as Factor in Class Mobility
"Houston is one of the few southern cities where upward social mobility is as high as cities in the Northeast and West... Roughly 22 percent of Houston children who grew up in the poorest fifth of the national income distribution have ended up in the top two-fifths today, according to the study.
Read moreAustin Interfaith Weighs in on Health Insurance Exchange
"Texas officials have declined to establish a state-based health insurance marketplace, a major provision of the federal Affordable Care Act. So private organizations are working to educate Texans about coverage options through the federal health insurance exchange, which opens on Oct. 1....The department will also finance at least two "navigators" — organizations intended to guide people through the exchange — per state.
Read more'Quest's Results...Extraordinary' Says Head of Taskforce
"Trying and difficult circumstances, namely the closing of San Antonio's Levi Strauss plant, inspired the visionary leadership that created Project Quest more than 21 years ago. Different, but equally challenging circumstances, have led to redefining that vision that will carry Quest forward stronger than ever for the next 20 or more years.
Quest, a nationally-awarded workforce development agency, was founded by COPS/Metro Alliance, leaders of the business community, the city of San Antonio, the state of Texas and the regional Private Industry Council..."
Read moreThe Border Organization Challenges Del Rio Police
"...lack of neighborhood patrols and 'collaboration' with the US Border Patrol were among issues discussed at a meeting earlier this week between a local grassroots citizens' group and members of the Del Rio Police Department.
Read moreValley Interfaith Launches Spanish GED Program
"Valley Interfaith consists of 25 churches of different creeds, one of eight similar organizations in the state, among a network distributed throughout the US. This organization has created a community program in which non-English speakers can obtain the equivalent of a high school diploma, also known as a GED. 'The idea is for people to be able to take the exam in Spanish,' says Lilia Garcia, a member of Valley Interfaith. 'We prepare them with intensive classes in math, social sciences and natural sciences....'"
Inicia Programa Paisano, El Mañana