The Kellogg Foundation is awarding Austin ISD $330,000 for a nine-month planning initiative to build better communication with families whose children attend schools in the Rundberg area.

The project includes training school staff and parents on community engagement strategies at Hart, McBee, Padron and Wooldridge elementary schools and at the Lucy Read pre-K Demonstration School. Trained staff and volunteers will then conduct home visits, on-campus meetings and interviews of parents and families.

“So often in education we assume what families need to be successful without asking them,” said AISD Superintendent Paul Cruz. “With the support of the Kellogg Foundation, we can take time to really listen to families and design services to enhance their strengths and address their challenges.”

During the nine-month initiative, AISD will conduct a community engagement effort to cultivate relationships with families. This will help the district better understand barriers, gaps in service and untapped assets within the Rundberg neighborhood.

“This project aligns with our premise for action … the importance and ability of people—individuals and communities—to craft their own solutions to their problems and chart paths to achieve their visions,” said Kellogg Foundation Program Officer Jon-Paul Bianchi. The results will inform a second phase of collaborative, community-driven program development and implementation.

The program will also bolster ties among families, the community and school staff at the five schools. The long-term goal is to incorporate the community engagement process throughout the district. The selection of these campuses will continue to build momentum that began in 2012 when the Austin Police Department received a $1 million dollar grant from the Department of Justice to launch Restore Rundberg. Restore Rundberg is a partnership between the City of Austin and the University of Texas focused on long-term planning and implementation of neighborhood-based revitalization strategies.

This initiative builds on the district’s commitment to programs focused on the whole child, including the Social and Emotional Learning initiative, slated to reach all AISD schools next school year. Cruz, AISD’s Office of Innovation and Development Executive Director Michelle Wallis and AISD’s Supervisor of Parent Programs Claudia Santamaria, are attending a convening of national grantees at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation national headquarters held in May.

###

The Kellogg Foundation, founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the U.S. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, the foundation works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.