"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."

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"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...."

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Three and a half years ago, leaders of The Border Organization pressured the Val Verde Regional Medical Center board to contract with a reputable health management system in response to deteriorating hospital services and several million dollars of public debt. The Board of Val Verde eventually chose Methodist Healthcare System (MHS), and the hospital is currently millions of dollars in the black.

However, the Board recently held a secret election to vote in a new CEO, nullifying the managing contract with MHS and sparking public concern about the possibility of corruption:

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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.

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"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.

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"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.

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"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..."

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"...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.

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"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

In a prayer service and press conference organized by Austin Interfaith, Central Texas Bishops and clergy from six religious denominations "pressed Tuesday for reforms centered on keeping families together and allowing unauthorized immigrants to earn legal residency with a path to citizenship.... such principles are key to what they called just and humane immigration reforms."

Central Texas Religious Leaders: Immigration Change Must be Just, Humane, Austin American Statesman Printable version

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