Category: News

Welcome Table, Incorporated (St. James’ non-profit) is proud to announce that our Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools® site will begin operations this June at Oak Springs Elementary School. The site will operate from June 16^th through July 25^th.

CDF Freedom Schools are designed to interrupt the ‘cradle to prison pipeline’ by encouraging young scholars to develop a love of reading. Many of our children, especially in East Austin, are trapped in an educational system that leads them to drop out of school and then choose a life path that includes criminal behavior, which could end with a prison term…or worse. Literacy is the gateway to learning; learning helps us change our circumstances. We must learn to read, and then we can read to learn.

The Freedom Schools movement is centered around an Integrated Reading Curriculum (IRC) that has been in use for 20 years in cities across the nation. College-aged Servant Leader Interns facilitate the IRC, providing reading enrichment that will help prevent the ‘summer slide.’

Welcome Table, Inc believes in promoting holistic development, we have a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) component during the afternoon. On Fridays, the scholars will be taken on field trips that focus on expanding their understanding of the world around them.

For an overview of how the program looks, please take six (6) minutes to watch the video at:  http://freedomschoolpartners.org/photo-gallery/

This summer, we will focus our efforts on changing the perspectives of 50 children who have just completed grade levels Kindergarten through 5^th. We have ten (10) spots available for children from St. James’ and ten (10) spots for children from the wider Austin area. Thirty (30) spots are reserved for children who currently attend Oak Springs Elementary. We would love your young scholar to participate.

If you do not have a young person to enroll, there are other ways to be involved:

• Serve as a volunteer during free periods
• Donate airline miles from United or American airlines to assist with travel for Servant Leader Interns and staff to attend the June training at Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee
• Tell your friends and neighbors about Freedom Schools…ask them to consider making a tax-deductible monetary donation at https://welcometableaustin.org/
• Tell us about people and organizations who support early childhood education and enrichment

For more information, please contact Gina Houston at [email protected] or Mila Jackson at [email protected] …or just grab us after a service.

We are very excited to offer this program in Austin for the first time. We look forward to changing the lives of our young people and showing them that theycan make a difference – in Themselves, in their Families, in their Communities, in this Nation, and in the World.

Welcome Table, Inc. supports the Austin community’s deep concern for our children and their academic performance.

Our sponsorship of a Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools®, the first of its kind in Austin, reflects this care.

The program encourages each Scholar to love reading and realize that they can become contributing, caring members in their communities. If you are excited about this innovative opportunity, we urge you to consider an in-kind contribution and/or financial support for one or more Scholars in the amount of $1,400.  This amount enables a scholar to participate in the program next summer.

Watch this video to learn more about the program:

Fifty Austin children ages five through twelve will be enrolled in the program and will spend six weeks focusing on literacy, legacy, and leadership. The award-winning curriculum will be implemented with a 10:1 ratio of Scholars to college-age Servant Leader Intern who will be trained by CDF.

Gina Houston champions this initiative.  Her commitment to launching this program in Austin is a result of having met with the senior leadership of Children’s Defense Fund and having actively participated in a simulation of a day using the curriculum.

Under the direction of Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, CDF Freedom Schools® was inspired by the servant leadership approach of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools Project and was launched at CDF in 1995. Five key components of the program are behind its success in inspiring young Scholars and their parents:

• High quality literacy enrichment
• Parent and family involvement
• Social action and civic engagement
• Intergenerational leadership development
• Physical health, mental health and nutrition

The program’s Integrated Reading Curriculum uses best-practice teaching strategies to help young Scholars develop a love for reading, improve positive attitudes toward learning, and create a desire to make a personal difference in their families and in the community. Nearly 10,000 Scholars at 135 sites in 81 cities and 27 states are currently participating in the CDF Freedom Schools® experience.

More information about Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools®, including the results of a five-year longitudinal evaluation sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, can be found on CDF’s web site.

To be able to launch the CDF Freedom Schools® program, we will need the commitment and resources of those with a passion for children, literacy and social justice. The program is free to the Scholars who attend, but expenses must be paid for with community dollars. The cost of the six-week program is approximately $70,000, or $1,400 per child. I am asking you to make a commitment to sponsor one or more Scholars, in any way that is feasible.

If you have questions please feel free to contact Gina at  [email protected].