OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
We have learned alongside our Community Partners as they have faced challenges, overcome barriers, and achieved extraordinary successes. Find out more about each project and the outcomes below.
YEAR
2010
GRANT CATEGORY
Family
GRANT AMOUNT
$105,000
Organization:
CASA of Travis County
Project Title:
Transitioning Youth Program
Project Description:
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Travis County recruits, screens, trains, and supervises volunteers to provide Guardian ad Litem representation for abused and neglected children to help them reach safe, permanent, and loving homes.
Impact Austin’s grant aids the Transitioning Youth Program expansion, providing support to an estimated 100% of the cases assigned by the courts for youth ages 14 to 18 who are at risk of leaving foster care without being adopted or having a network of support to prepare them for adulthood. The program utilizes innovative services for youth, specialized training for volunteers, and broader networking with community partners to ensure that these very vulnerable youth will be able to transition to successful and independent adult living.
Grant Status:
During the grant period, CASA surpassed and/or met several of its stated goals.
With the additional funding, they were able to better structure and expand their Transitioning Youth Team. As a result, the organization surpassed the number of youth served in its first year by 53 youth (23%). Although it fell slightly short of its goal in the second year, reaching 97% of its target, serving 286 youth, this lower rate was attributed to stronger growth in demand for their services rather than a reduction in involvement on CASA’s part.
In both years, CASA surpassed the objectives of having youth served receive an assigned volunteer as well as having the youth served show an improvement in five areas, with the latter seeing actual figures eight and 14 percentage points higher than their targets.
CASA’s work during the grant period contributed to their receiving recognition from two statewide organizations for best practices, an unintended benefit of being able to implement their program with Impact Austin’s support.