General News | American Youthworks

$100,000 granted to American YouthWorks to rebuild Bastrop State Park

On January 4, 2012, In American YouthWorks, Casa Verde Builders, Environmental Corps, General News, Press Releases, By Rachel Matvy

On December 16, 2011, The Austin Community Foundation (ACF) announced it will grant $100,574 from the Central Texas Wildfire Fund (CTWF) to American YouthWorks (AYW) to aid in debris clean-up and economic recovery following the Central Texas wildfires. AYW’s grant was one of ten awarded since the creation of the CTWF on September 5, 2011, and will help fund AYW’s Environmental Corps (E-Corps) and Casa Verde Builders (CVB) service Corps programs while, under the direction of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), they work to fully re-open Bastrop State Park. AYW will clear hazardous debris, repair trails and boundary fences, rebuild damaged Park infrastructure, restore the native habitat and prevent invasive species from spreading, install protection measures to prevent erosion and recruit additional volunteers to work in the Park. According to TPWD, Bastrop State Park’s 170,000 annual visitors generate more than $2 million in revenue for Bastrop County each year.

The CTWF, which is administered by the ACF, and was created in response to the devastating wildfires that struck Central Texas over Labor Day weekend, 2011. The CTWF supports the immediate and long-term efforts of nonprofit organizations working “on the ground” in those areas hardest hit. The CTWF gives grants to 501(c)(3) nonprofits that are helping individuals, families, businesses and the community recover, rebuild and return to the quality of life that existed before the fires began. Other grants from the CTWF include money for volunteer leadership, family support, rebuilding homes and restoring safety.

“Bastrop State Park is a vital economic and natural resource. The near destruction of one of Texas’ gems is devastating, but E-Corps and CVB members are honored that they can give back to their community by helping to rebuild it,” said Parc Smith, CEO of AYW.

Youth and young adult service Corps members have been providing relief to Central Texans affected by the fire since September of 2011. These volunteers are members of AmeriCorps or YouthBuild, which are both national, community service programs that are hosted locally by AYW. Participants include young adult volunteers from all over the country as well as students attending AYW’s charter high school. As part of previous recovery efforts, AYW worked with Bastrop County, FEMA, and local organizations and individuals to create the Volunteer Reception Center, which provided a central location for volunteers to get involved. They have also been working for several weeks in Bastrop State Park to help get the Park back to full operation.

In addition, to their experience in Bastrop, crews from AYW also assisted southeast Missourians following the devastating tornados earlier this year and in 2005 and 2006, they provided hurricane relief in New Orleans and East Texas. Service Corps members at AYW are gaining valuable skills that prepare them to step into leadership roles, handle difficult situations, operate safely and work hard while giving back to their community!

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About American Youth Works

AYW is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Austin, Texas that integrates at-risk youth and AmeriCorps members to provide education, service and green jobs training. AYW operates a public charter high school, the Service Learning Academy, a GED program and green jobs and service corps programs, Casa Verde Builders, Computer Corps, Environmental Corps, and Green Energy Corps. AYW also offers on-site life services to help students overcome obstacles to their education, including a parent and child development center, academic coaching and counseling. For more than thirty years, AYW has assisted thousands of local, at-risk youth and adult graduates from around the country in transforming their lives and gaining job skills through community service, education and a commitment to preserving the natural environment.

About Environmental Corps

E-Corps is a green jobs training and service program that allows at-risk youth and adult volunteers to build and restore the natural environment through parks and trails projects, forestry, and habitat restoration. E-Corps integrates young adults from all over the United States with local youth to create a blended, transformative, cultural experience for all participants.

About Casa Verde Builders

CVB is a green jobs training and service program that teaches youth, ages 17-24, cutting-edge, green construction techniques. Participants build energy-efficient, affordable homes in East Austin for first time homebuyers and learn the construction process from foundation to finish. This award-winning program is proven to produce higher academic performance and consistent attendance for its participants and creates a foundation for youth to pursue quality higher education and job placement. In partnership with the US Department of Labor and YouthBuild USA, CVB is a nationally-recognized leader in combining green building with affordable housing.

Contact Rachel Matvy with questions, 512-744-1904.

Tagged with: ACF • American YouthWorks • at-risk youth • Austin Community Foundation • AYW • Bastrop • Casa Verde Builders • central texas • Central Texas Wildfire Fund • CTWF • CVB • donate • E-Corps • Environmental Corps • local events • Media Advisory • recovery • relief • service • volunteering • wild fire • wild fire recovery • wildfire • wildfire recovery

Where are AYW alumni?

On December 30, 2011, In American YouthWorks, General News, By Rachel Matvy

I’d like to tell you a story of hope. Aimee, a graduate of the 2009 class at American YouthWorks (AYW), had been a transfer student to a school outside of her district since Kindergarten. During her freshman year she got an illness that caused her to miss a lot of classes and fall behind in her coursework. Her transfer was revoked and she had to start in a new school. Despite all her new friendships, the school wasn’t a good fit and she couldn’t catch up. Then life got harder, her parents divorced. Aimee began to lose hope of graduating and even quit going to classes!

A resourceful person, Aimee decided to look for self paced classes. She found a lot of expensive options. Then she found AYW.

Each AYW student has a unique story, but many of them have significant obstacles to graduation. Everyday, we help those who need it most, by reengaging them through service to the community while they earn their high school diploma or GED and learn job skills in our Corps programs.

Where would these young people be without the hope of a better life? I don’t want to find out.

Now Aimee is attending Austin Community College where she is working toward a two year degree in Psychology and plans to transfer to a four year university.

With your help, we’ll have many more years of graduates!

If you have already sent us your donation, thank you so much! If not, there’s still time to support at-risk youth as they earn their diploma and money for college, learn job skills and give back to their community.

Your gift can make all the difference…to our young people, their families and our community.

We can accept donations via a check sent to

American YouthWorks

1901 E. Ben White Blvd.

Austin, TX 78741

Or you can donate using our secure online cart.

Tagged with: at-risk youth • austin • careers • donate • donation • end of year • graduate • green jobs • hope • parents

Youth Power at American YouthWorks

On November 4, 2011, In American YouthWorks, Charter School, General News, Special Events, By devintern

On November 2, Margarine G. Beaman, Board President of American YouthWorks, kicked off the Youth Power series. Youth Power, which was started by Margarine, is a program designed to help young women stay in school and runs for the entire school year. Monthly, a group of 20 juniors and seniors, who start and complete the program together, attend a workshop focused on teaching key life skills such as goal setting, prioritizing, job searching, leadership development, managing personal finance and applying for college. In addition, each young woman will identify career interests and do a job shadowing day.

At the kickoff workshop, guest speaker Sgt. Felicia Williams-Dennis, of the City of Austin Police Department, served as an example of how prioritizing and goal setting could help the young women overcome obstacles to their education.

The Austin Capitol City Business Women sponsors Youth Power. Mary Kastl, business owner, will speak at the next workshop. If you would be interested in speaking or attending one of the events, contact Margarine G. Beaman at ole050@hotmail.c om or 512-921-1625.

Art Corps volunteers with local sculptor

On October 5, 2011, In American YouthWorks, Charter School, General News, Service Learning Academy, Special Events, Volunteering, By Rachel Matvy

This Friday, Art Corps will volunteer to help with a larger than life, reclaimed materials sculpture that is part of a community wide volunteer effort. The vision for this piece came from George Sabra, an internationally recognized, Austin-based sculptor who works exclusively with discarded materials, has had works displayed in the Vatican and was featured in National Geographic Magazine. Art Corps will have the opportunity to work with this artist on the 21 foot high sculpture made from 25,000-30,000 plastic caps, which will be displayed outside at City Hall during Austin’s Green City Festival.

The Art Corps program at American YouthWorks seeks to teach young people the “art of living” by inspiring them to be good stewards of the world around them. This project is a perfect learning opportunity for Art Corps members as they will participate in creating a sculpture designed to increase awareness of the natural environment and inspire people to take action. In addition, by working with a professional artist who started with a vision, created a plan and saw the plan through to fruition, they will gain a greater understanding the process of realizing their own visions of getting a high school diploma, planning for college or getting that perfect, high wage job.

The sculpture will be unveiled at 2:00 PM during the Austin Green City Festival on October 23^rd. Many groups are helping with the volunteer effort. You can get involved by coming to the unveiling, helping the artist prepare the caps or collecting plastic caps from peanut butter jars, Gatorade drinks, jelly jars, mayonnaise jars, etc. For more information, see the website for the sculpture.

Tagged with: art • art class • art in public places • austin • austin art • austin events • Austin Green Fest • Austin Green Festival • george sabra • green fest • local art • local events • sculpture • service • volunteering

American Institute of Architects designs new Casa Verde Builders houses

On September 12, 2011, In American YouthWorks, Casa Verde Builders, Charter School, General News, Volunteering, By Rachel Matvy

Last Saturday American YouthWorks’ (AYW) students and Design Voice, a committee of the Austin chapter of the American Institute of Architects, formed a design charrette to generate new, innovative and beautiful floor plans for energy efficient homes. These new designs will be used by students in AYW’s Casa Verde Builders (CVB) program to construct homes for low income, first time homebuyers.

The CVB program is made up of students seeking their GED or high school diploma while developing job skills in green construction. Since 1995, students in the program have built almost 100 energy efficient, affordable homes. Currently, CVB has a limited number of floor plans and the new designs will assist CVB with building and offering more housing choices to the community and will challenge AYW students by providing opportunities to gain new construction skills.

Currently, our young people are involved in the construction process from the foundation to the roof, but do not participate in creating floor plans. The charrette was be a unique opportunity for AYW students to learn more about the design phase of construction and get exposure to potential career paths in architecture.

Design Voice is a committee of AIA Austin that enables the greater design community to connect and collaborate with organizations and individuals interested and engaged in housing advocacy, development and community building in Austin. We thank them for their service to AYW students!

AYW Students Advise President Obama?

On July 19, 2011, In American YouthWorks, General News, By Rachel Matvy

This spring, American YouthWorks’ (AYW) students were one of 100 groups of young people across the country who formed a Roundtable of Young Americans as part of a White House Initiative to encourage youth to take an active role in the betterment of American society. This Roundtable opened the door for AYW youth to become involved in the issues that matter to them by providing feedback to President Obama’s Young Americans team. Students named their five top community concerns, education, transportation, crime, lack of affordable housing and lack of jobs. They then submitted their answers to the White House and can continue to stay involved with the Young Americans team by joining in White House conference calls and web chats about issues that matter to them. The Young Americans team is encouraging young people to write letters to the editor, host another round table and be open to differing perspectives.

Roundtable responses were included in an e-book, “100 Youth Strategies for Winning the Future.” The book includes workable, scalable models of success that young leaders can replicate in their own communities. For example, one group successfully rerouted a public transit line so that youth in that community would have better access to the bus system, and they saved their city money in the process! To view the book, click here.

Environmental Corps members exceeding expectations in Missouri

On June 8, 2011, In American YouthWorks, Environmental Corps, General News, Volunteering, By Rachel Matvy

Look closely to see our E-Corps member standing next to the tree with a big chainsaw.

According to FEMA, AmeriCorps teams have directly assisted 128 Missouri households and organized volunteers to assist 136 more to clear their properties of storm debris. Five of our E-Corps members are in Joplin and five in another town about 5 miles away, Duquesne. They are working in leadership positions where they are managing everything from distribution at FEMA supply warehouses, to volunteer teams of up to 100 individuals, to media. The word is that they are a valuable asset to the effort because of their skills and their hard work. American YouthWorks staff are in touch with the members and they are in good spirits! Stay tuned for more photos and hopefully some videos.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department awards AYW $350,000

On June 1, 2011, In American YouthWorks, Environmental Corps, General News, Service Learning Academy, By Rachel Matvy

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission (TPW Commission) approved $3,318,450 million to fund 21 National Recreational Trail Grant projects in communities across the state. The commission also awarded an additional $485,000 in re-allocated trail funds to underwrite trail improvements in seven state parks and three local communities. $350,000 of this state appropriation of federal funds will support American YouthWorks’ travelling Trails Across Texas (TAT) Environmental Corps (E-Corps) crew. The action by TPW Commission will also fund many projects for local municipalities throughout the state that E-Corps will work to contract with, including development of nature trails in the Montopolis neighborhood in Austin. The seven state parks that will receive part of the recreational trails funding are Cooper Lake, Eisenhower, Huntsville, Lake Brownwood, Lake Corpus Christi, McKinney Falls and Tyler. The money will go toward renovating existing trails, making trails more accessible, and helping with layout, design and other improvements.

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), the National Recreational Trails Fund comes from a portion of the federal gas tax generated by the sale of gasoline for use in off-road recreational vehicles such as dirt bikes and All-Terrain Vehicles. Money from the trail fund goes toward the creation and maintenance of motorized and non-motorized recreational trails. The Federal Highway Administration manages the fund and distributes portions of it to states based on a formula that takes into account the state’s population and fuel sales for off-road vehicles. Nationwide, the program was appropriated $95 million for the current fiscal year.

The TAT crew consists of 18-20 young adults that will spend six months to one year building trails while camping in state parks across Texas. The TAT crew members are considered “roving trails experts” who actually help train the TPWD staff on the technical trail building skills they learn under AYW staff. This results in Texas State Parks staff and volunteer groups with intensive training in trail building and maintenance and therefore a safer and more sustainable trail system for Texas State Parks. In addition, after completion of their six months to one year term, these 20 young adults will have gained exposure to career pathways through interacting with industry professionals and developed the problem solving and technical skills they need to become future leaders in conservation that can make a significant impact in their community.

Texas Education Agency Approves American YouthWorks’ move to Service-Learning Education Model

On May 31, 2011, In American YouthWorks, Charter School, General News, Parent Notice, Press Releases, Service Learning Academy, By Rachel Matvy

On May 24, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) approved AYW’s charter amendment to merge its two campuses, which were following separate models of education, to one campus called the Service Learning Academy (Academy) that will focus solely on teaching high school academics through service-learning. Starting in the fall of 2011, each student who attends AYW will earn their elective credits by participating in a Corps program where they will complete service-learning projects that benefit the community such as building energy efficient homes and refurbishing computers for low income Austinites, restoring habitat for endangered species or testing for water quality. In addition, these students will get exposure to career pathways by gaining job skills and by interacting with industry professionals.

AYW has always practiced project-based learning as a way students can engage more fully in their classes and gain job skills through hands-on experience. About 15 years ago, AYW began to incorporate service-learning practices in order to further enhance the students’ educational experience by giving them an opportunity to address authentic community needs. The Academy officially started two years ago as a pilot program. After comparing test scores, attendance rates and dropout rates between students in the Academy and the traditional campus, AYW staff decided they could better serve at-risk youth by merging the two campuses and focusing solely on the model that was getting superior results.

Based on the academic indicators of the TEA, Academy students have shown greater improvements in academics and participation. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) TAKS scores for English Language Arts of Academy students rose from 59% passing in 2008 to 87% in 2010 and during the same time period, NCLB TAKS Mathematics scores rose 23%. Since the inception of the Academy, the attendance rates for its students have increased nearly 20% and the dropout rates have decreased.

In addition to considering test scores, AYW staff also looked at a study performed by, RH2, an independent research group, which compared AYW’s student population to Austin Independent School District (AISD) and statewide populations and studied the effect of the Academy on academics and employment. The study found that almost 100% of AYW students meet the state criteria for being “at risk” of dropping out of school compared to roughly half of the students in AISD and statewide. In addition, the study found AYW’s Academy motivates students, in part, by providing opportunities for them to bond in small groups and make contributions to their community. The study went on to say, “AYW’s service-learning programs tend to have more of a practical vocational orientation to prepare students for their own futures as well as to provide services to the community.”

On May 27, AYW hosted an Enrollment Picnic. Parents and current or potential students had the opportunity to learn about participating in a Corps program, solve math problems for prizes and enjoy lunch on the back lawn at AYW.

American YouthWorks’ Environmental Corps will provide disaster relief to Joplin, MO

On May 27, 2011, In American YouthWorks, Environmental Corps, General News, Press Releases, By Rachel Matvy

Young adult volunteers will travel to Joplin, MO to provide disaster relief to tornado victims

Austin, TX– May 27, 2011 – On Tuesday, May 31, 2011, eight, American YouthWorks’ (AYW) Environmental Corps (E-Corps) members will head out for a three week disaster relief mission to Joplin, Missouri. Through an agreement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), E-Corps will provide a self-sustaining crew of young adult volunteers, trained in chainsaw operation and safety, to support state and local authorities in response to the Missouri tornadoes, severe storms and flooding.

E-Corps is a fifteen year old AmeriCorps program that empowers future leaders by engaging them in service to their community though habitat restoration and trail construction projects and disaster relief services, while they are gaining job skills and earning an education award that can be used for college or technical training. Due to its national reputation of training safe and skilled sawyers and previous experience in New Orleans and East Texas aiding Hurricane recovery efforts, the CNCS asked E-Corps to again partner with FEMA to provide similar aid to Missourians. When deployed to New Orleans in 2005, crew members cleared an entire park of downed trees and debris, assisted neighbors with clean-up and started a garden to uplift community spirits. E-Corps crews are completely self-sustaining when they travel, they: camp in the area, supply their own tools and bring and cook their own meals.

E-Corps will arrive in Joplin on Tuesday evening to set up camp and will begin assisting local authorities Wednesday morning. E-Corps was specifically called upon because of their diverse experience with tree removal, brush clearing, creek clean-ups, erosion control techniques, stream-bank restoration and volunteer coordination and reputation for providing quality work. The crew may provide support in any of the following capacities: critical clean up and removal of storm debris, emergency housing repair, flood relief, registering and coordinating volunteers, assisting the United Way with volunteer disaster operations, initiating casework to enable long term recovery and providing support for special needs.

“It takes a special individual and a prepared state of mind to volunteer to go into a disaster area. We have high standards for our E- Corps members’ work ethic and provide intensive technical and safety training to prepare our members for situations where they may be called on to provide leadership and service to others, especially under physically and mentally demanding circumstances such as this disaster in Joplin. Our E-Corps members work hard daily, giving their sweat in service to others and they are eager to put their strengths to work for the people of Missouri,” said Parc Smith, CEO of AYW.