March 2006
ACEE joins other AmeriCorps groups in day of service to Austin
EVENT: The AmeriCorps program at The University of Texas at Austin, AmeriCorps for Community Engagement and Education (ACEE), will join other Austin-area AmeriCorps groups in the second annual Austin AmeriCorps Awareness Day. Over 300 Austin AmeriCorps members will perform service projects to beautify downtown Austin. Mark G. Yudof, chancellor of the University of Texas System, will keynote the recognition ceremony.
The recognition ceremony is open to the media and the public.
WHEN: 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., Saturday, March 25
WHERE: Participants will gather at the Austin City Hall Plaza, 301 W. Second St., at 8:30 a.m. They will be engaged in service projects around downtown Austin from 9 a.m. to noon and will regroup at City Hall Plaza for a recognition ceremony from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m.
BACKGROUND: The University of Texas at Austin is home to a nationally recognized AmeriCorps program, AmeriCorps for Community Engagement and Education (ACEE). Since 1994 ACEE has involved over 400 young men and women—including over 200 University of Texas at Austin students—in research-based literacy support for young struggling readers in 11 low-income schools in the Austin Independent School District.
ACEE, currently works in four low-income AISD elementary schools and is a respected partner with AISD in helping to accelerate young children's reading. Each year an average of 75% of the children ACEE works with reach or exceed grade-level criteria in reading by the end of the year. Further contributions of ACEE include:
- high-quality professional development and leadership opportunities for students. ACEE "grows" teachers—on average, 30% of ACEE alumni pursue a teaching certification, and over 20 alumni currently teach in Central Texas schools.
- working with the Austin Partners in Education to build a strong community volunteer reading tutor program.
Austin is home to six AmeriCorps national service programs, in which participants commit to a year of national service and complete from 300 to 1,700 hours of tutoring, mentoring, building environmentally sound houses, repairing trails or teaching after-school classes.
In return for their service, they earn a small living allowance and an education award from $1,000 to $4,725 that can be used for educational loans or tuition. Since 1994, these six programs have leveraged over $38 million of federal, state and local funding to serve Austin's low-income communities and schools. During this time, Austin AmeriCorps members have earned $6.8 million in education awards.
Chancellor Yudof was recently appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation, and in this role will work closely with the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees all AmeriCorps programs in the country.
For more information contact: Mary Ellen Isaacs, ACEE program director, at 512-232-2286 or meisaacs@mail.utexas.edu.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
ACEE website: www.utdanacenter.org/acee
AmeriCorps website: www.americorps.org
AmeriCorps in Texas: www.onestarfoundation.org