TBO Leaders Leverage Mayoral Candidate Commitments on Water, Wages, Trash & Safety
At an accountability meeting organized by The Border Organization (TBO), both Del Rio mayoral candidates committed to work for the creation of a groundwater conservation district (long fought for by local leaders), higher wages for police officers, matched with accountability measures to be put in place, equitable trash collection rates for both city and county residents, and the establishment of another walking trail on the city's south side.
Read moreAustin Passes Historic Living Wage Ordinance for Future Economic Incentives

Catholic Bishop Joe Vasquez intervened reading a statement of support for the ordinance at a 6pm rally, which was later read by an Austin Interfaith leader in Council chambers. After four hours of testimony and debate, the City of Austin passed, for the first time ever, a requirement that corporations receiving taxpayer incentives be required to pay the City established living wage of $11 per hour or prevailing wages, whichever is higher.
Read moreProject Quest Partners with Rackspace for Cloud Academy

"Project Quest, a local jobs training program established in 1992, has partnered with San Antonio-based Rackspace to recruit individuals interested in enrolling in Rackspace's Open Cloud Academy. There have already been 17 Project Quest students enrolled in the Cloud Academy, and Quest is seeking city funding to expand participation by its clients....The additional funding would allow another 200 Project Quest clients to participate in the Cloud Academy...."
Read moreTexas IAF Reconstitutes Launchpad (Job Training) Fund

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 & Allies Victorious in Defense of Workers

In the latest segment of a long-standing battle for living wages in Central Texas, 200 supporters of construction workers, including Austin Interfaith leaders, Catholic Bishop Joe Vasquez of the Austin Diocese and Workers Defense Project, rallied on the steps of City Hall demanding that workers receive the pay promised to them by developers of White Lodging, in exchange for $3.8 million in fee waivers granted by the City.
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 Calls on City to Enforce Its Own Rules on Economic Incentives and Construction Wages

'Developers need to keep their promises to taxpayers and workers, and the city must enforce its own rules,' said Kurt Cadena-Mitchell, a leader of Austin Interfaith, a multi-congregation group pushing the city to establish a standard above minimum wage on construction projects that are granted economic development deals by the city."
Read moreProject IOWA Celebrates One Year of Success
"Douglas Wells' path to a well-paying job with potential for advancement had a few bumps, but the 27-year-old credits perseverance and a publicly and privately funded training and mentoring program with helping him reach his goal.
Wells completed a welding course and has been working at the Bridgestone Firestone tire plant in Des Moines. For now he is driving a forklift, but he is sure there are opportunities for advancement. More important, this father of two young girls will be able to set an example....
Read moreCapital IDEA Carves Out Career Paths in Austin

Capital IDEA Leads Clients to Career Path, Austin American Statesman
Austin Interfaith Applauds National Instruments for Living Wage
"National Instruments Corp. won approval Thursday for $1.7 million in city of Austin incentives to support the company's proposed expansion of 1,000 Austin jobs over the next 10 years....
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