The Silverton Foundation



The Silverton Foundation

Final Report

2005-2007 Matching Grant

August 1, 2008

Preface

In 2005, Capital IDEA, the Silverton Foundation, and the Sooch Foundation came together around Capital IDEA’s four-year strategic plan to increase its capacity and impact. The three-year matching grant that the Silverton and Sooch Foundations undertook in 2005 was specifically designed to help Capital IDEA meet the resource needs for the expansion, and also to set Capital IDEA up for continued success beyond the 2008 horizon of the plan. In this, our final report on the outcomes and results of your three-year grant, we also will outline our plans beyond 2008, and how our experiences with the current strategic plan inform the vision and tactics for the next several years.

In the four years since the strategic plan was conceived, there have been many adjustments, successes, challenges, and re-tooling that have helped Capital IDEA mature as an organization. The lessons learned along the way, the challenges met, the creativity utilized and the lives transformed have made us much stronger, both in terms of internal processes and also in terms of our external relationships and our reputation in the wider world of non-profits in Central Texas and workforce development initiatives nationwide. We acknowledge the early support and advocacy of the Silverton Foundation and Sooch Foundation in helping us to achieve our objectives – other foundations and partners followed your lead, providing not only new revenue sources but also new strategic partners that are key to us now as we develop our vision and plan for the next several years and beyond.

2005-2008 Strategic Plan Summary

In summary, the 2005-2008 strategic plan calls for Capital IDEA to increase its capacity as an organization by doubling our enrollment and tripling our impact. Specific objectives, and the tactics identified in the strategic plan to achieve that objective, are:

• Increase “yield” through reducing attrition of Active participants and reducing cycle time (triple impact)

o Achieve 300 Capital IDEA participants entering employment on an annual basis by 2009 (goal revised)

• Double Enrollment to 800 by the end of 2008 (In progress, targeted to achieve by December 2008-March 2009)

• Diversify and expand the funding base

o Increase funding from private sources to $1.2 million by 2008 (achieved)

o Develop and expand public funding and funding from other sources (employers, in-kind support from partners, etc.) (achieved, but with new challenges and new opportunities)

Increasing Yield

Outcomes:

One of the early lessons in the strategic plan was that the goal for increasing the number of graduates each year – our throughput – was too ambitious to be realized within the four-year time period. While improvements were made in many areas such as reducing attrition, creating strategies to shorten cycle time, and more aggressive case management of participants, it soon became clear that many of the factors that kept us from increasing our yield to the degree we had hoped were either out of our direct control, or required more time and more partners to succeed.

By 2006, Capital IDEA had identified many of the barriers to achieving the goal of 300 participants entering employment in a single year, and began thinking about how to eliminate or reduce the impact of those barriers. During our all-staff strategic retreat in December 2006, the decision was made to take the number off of the table altogether, as it was increasing the anxiety of the staff, and taking focus away from the root causes. Instead, Capital IDEA committed to making steady increases in the number of participants entering career employment each year, while also creating and implementing plans to achieve that goal at a later date.

|Fiscal Year (October 1 – September 31) |Number of Capital IDEA participants entering employment |

|2005 |74 |

|2006 |70 |

|2007 |88 |

|2008* |100 |

* Projected – to date, 75 Capital IDEA participants have entered employment, and 25 are scheduled to graduate / enter employment by September 30, 2008, the end of our fiscal year

Lessons Learned

The original goal of 300 entering the workforce annually was based on a variety of tactics and assumptions, some of which did not bear fruit. The defining factor affecting this goal was, and remains, the retreat of males from higher education. As we began to experience fewer and fewer males attending orientations and following through the enrollment process, we learned from our educational partners and national organizations with an interest in education - such as the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Aspen Institute – that the dwindling numbers of males choosing to pursue higher education was being discussed nationwide among higher education institutions and experts as a “crisis”.

This has had a domino effect on our ability to improve throughput. The careers that Capital IDEA added during this time are traditionally male-oriented careers - trades such as sheet metal workers, plumbers/pipefitters, electricians, electric utility technicians, HVAC, solar power technicians, and computer support specialists. We refer to these careers as our Fast Track careers because they usually require one year or less of education/training. The more participants that are enrolled in Fast Track careers, the greater number of participants complete the program and enter employment within one year. However, our male enrollment has remained at a steady 20% of our participants for the last two years.

With men opting out and low enrollment in the Fast Track careers, our cycle time has remained at a steady average of 4 years. Less than 10% of our participants are enrolled in Fast Track careers; the remaining 90%+ are enrolled in 2-year degree programs, two-thirds of that number in healthcare careers. With many of our participants needing either GED and/or ESL, most of our participants needing our College Prep Academy to pass the college entrance exam, and few participants enrolling in the Fast Track careers at this time, we have not been able to reduce the average cycle time to less than 3-4 years within the strategic plan period.

At the same time, Capital IDEA’s current 3-year completion or continuing rate is 64%. This is twice the percentage of non-Capital IDEA students enrolled at community college who have completed a degree or are nearing completion after 3 years. We have a powerful story to tell about the success of our case management model in helping non-traditional adult students persist in their educational and career aspirations.

Another strategy to improve our yield was to reduce attrition to the program. The strategic plan document stated a goal of reducing attrition to 3% per semester (or 9% annually) by 2006. We did significantly reduce attrition, yet have found that after initial improvement of our semesterly attrition rate, it now remains steady at 4.5% (13.5% annually). Our 2003 attrition rate was 30%, so we did cut attrition in half over the strategic plan period. Great strides were made in reducing attrition of single parent participants and healthcare participants in pre-requisite courses. Details of those successes will be outlined in the next section.

In summary, Capital IDEA quickly recognized that the barriers to making a substantial impact on our annual yield were varied, complex, and not able to be solved in a four-year time period. Capital IDEA prides itself on always reaching for the next level, and always setting goals that help us stretch. At the same time, we also have to be flexible in response to national and local trends. Moving away from the specific number attached to the goal – 300 – allowed us to re-group, analyze the situation, and move forward at a steady pace.

Successes / Surprises

We’d like to share with the Silverton Foundation three of our successes relating to improving yield. We are quite proud of the results, and each represents the direction in which Capital IDEA is heading – solving complex problems in close cooperation with one or more partners. These successes are 1) our efforts to provide greater support to single parent participants, and 2) our efforts to better support participants through their college-level pre-requisite courses to reduce attrition, and 3) starting an Ambassador program to reach out to men, particularly men of color.

During the strategic plan period, single parents have comprised a steady 35% of Capital IDEA’s caseload. However, in 2005, single parents accounted for nearly 50% of our yearly attrition. The challenges they face are enormous – the burden for everything in the household and the family falls on their shoulders. There is tremendous pressure to earn something – anything – for day-to-day needs, on top of pressure and desire to spend more time with their children, keep up with their kids’ and their own studies, and all the other challenges that go along with being a parent. Single parent participants can become incredibly isolated in the program, with no time to socialize with friends and family. Under these circumstances, three years or more to complete a degree can seem insurmountable.

Reducing the attrition rate of single parents would not only have an impact on our attrition rates overall, but would also have an impact on one of our most vulnerable populations. With degrees and living wage careers, single parents could reduce or eliminate their need for programs like WIC and CHIP.

Capital IDEA partnered with The Samaritan Center, who provided group sessions for single parents during the spring and summer semesters in 2007. The sessions took place at ACC Riverside on Fridays at noon.  Kathy Barret from the Samaritan Center facilitated, and 12 participants – all single mothers – attended regularly. The purpose was to provide a place for single parents to talk about their personal issues and share coping strategies, frustrations and victories.  The facilitator also focused on providing life skills to help participants make better decisions, to problem solve and to find balance between being a mom and a student.

Help for single parents also came through Capital IDEA’s Alumni Association. One of our alumnae who had been a single parent when she was enrolled at Capital IDEA, Rona Walton, formed P.R.O.P.S. – Positive Reinforcement of Parent Scholars. This group of alumni surveyed single parent participants to identify what they needed most. The two most frequent responses were that they wanted more time with their kids, and that they wanted more time away from their kids. Creatively, the P.R.O.P.S. team managed to do both. Two examples of successful activities were the Children’s Museum outings and the Spa Night. Capital IDEA and the Alumni Association secured the Austin Children’s Museum for an evening. Parents got to treat their kids to an evening of fun while they bonded and socialized. The first museum night was in February 2007, and was so successful that it was repeated in February 2008. The spa night was a night for single mothers and their older daughters (12 and up) at a local salon, which donated services. The spa night gave single mothers a break from younger children, gave moms and daughters a chance to bond, and treated single moms to a rare night of pampering.

With relatively little effort, the group counseling sessions and the P.R.O.P.S. activities helped reduce the attrition of single parents to 27% of Capital IDEA’s overall attrition rate - nearly half what it was at the start of the strategic plan.

The second barrier to lowering attrition, which also affects cycle time, was identified during the pre-requisite phase of participants’ education, especially students in the healthcare career tracks that take the most challenging pre-requisite courses, such as anatomy, physiology, microbiology and pharmacology. This is a critical stage for these participants, many of whom are struggling with family responsibilities. 67% of the healthcare participants who left the Capital IDEA program in 2005 were in the prerequisite stage of their studies. By contrast, in the same period, only 7% of students in all fields who left Capital IDEA before graduation were in the post prerequisite stage and were taking classes in their chosen profession.

Working with ACC, and with funding from the KLE Foundation, Capital IDEA piloted a healthcare pre-requisite cohort, starting in fall 2007 and carrying them through 4 semesters to the completion of their pre-requisites. Using ACC’s Weekend College, a cohort of 12 students began taking classes as a group. Capital IDEA provided tutorials for microbiology, anatomy and physiology, and pharmacology. In the first two semesters, only one student dropped from the cohort – however, she did not drop from Capital IDEA. She was unable to continue to take classes during the Weekend College, due to an ill child and difficulty finding child care.

While this model seems to work very well in both reducing attrition and shortening cycle time, there are challenges in trying to provide the cohort model for all healthcare pre-requisites, or pre-requisites for other career fields. First, this model works for ACC because it is centered in the Weekend College. It would be a tremendous challenge to ACC to try and set aside specific classes at multiple campuses for Capital IDEA cohorts, especially as the healthcare fields are booming and classes are in demand. At the same time, the Weekend College will not work for all of our participants. Childcare is difficult to find on evenings and weekends, and the majority of our participants work part-time. Capital IDEA and ACC will be evaluating the healthcare pre-requisite cohort to determine if and how it might be possible to expand the program to more participants.

Our third success, the Ambassador program, is still in its beginning stages, but gaining ground quickly. Over the past year and a half, Capital IDEA attempted several tactics to increase the percentage of males enrolled and increase enrollment in Fast Track careers. We tried advertising orientations in different media outlets. We partnered with the unions to help their lower skilled workers get their GED, ESL, or other basic adult education so that those workers would be qualified enter the union apprenticeship program and, eventually, full-fledged tradesmen in the electrician, plumbing/pipefitting, and sheetmetal worker unions. While we were able to enroll several men through these efforts, the response was still lower than expected.

This spring, Capital IDEA held focused discussions with church leaders, program participants and community organizers. The group’s feedback was that minority men respond better to information they receive from their peers and community leaders than they do to media and advertising. We worked with ministers and community leaders to identify men who would be willing to reach out minority men, one-on-one as peers, to share with them the impact that education had had on their own lives. The Ambassadors program has recruited 39 Ambassadors from minority neighborhood churches, Capital IDEA alumni, Austin Interfaith, employer partners, and the community at-large – all minorities who are successful, respected, and who overcame significant obstacles to pursue higher education.

The Ambassadors began their outreach efforts several weeks ahead of orientations scheduled in June, exclusively targeted for Fast Track careers. We were encouraged to see that 128 of 362 attendees were men (35%), and over 50 have moved on to the final stages of the enrollment process. We look forward to reporting the total number of men who enroll, and are excited to see how the Ambassador program evolves over the next several years.

Changes Made to the Strategies and Goals

The objective to increase the number of participants entering employment saw significant changes over the course of the strategic plan – more than the other two objectives (enrollment and funding) combined. Specifically, Capital IDEA:

1. Made the decision to focus energies on solving specific problems related to increasing yield (reducing attrition, increasing male enrollment and increasing enrollment in Fast Track Careers), rather than focusing in reaching a specific number

2. Accepted marginal increases in the number achieving employment each year as signs of progress

3. Determined that four years was not enough time to see significant increase in yield, especially given the specific challenges of the population we serve (GED, ESL, and adults who have been out of the educational system for some time)

Doubling Enrollment

Outcomes

Capital IDEA has been very successful in increasing its enrollment over the strategic plan period. We have met or exceeded all enrollment goals to date:

| |2004 |2005 |2006 |2007 |

|Total Enrollment |400 |490 |565 |645 |

|Increase over Previous Year | |90 |75 |80 |

We are working hard to achieve the goal of 800 enrolled by December 2008. We currently have 615 enrolled, and have 49 intake interviews scheduled through August 15, of which the majority will likely move forward to enroll with Capital IDEA. We are conducting extensive outreach to promote our September orientations. Our enrollment generally dips throughout the year, between graduations when the number enrolled decreases, and enrollment periods when the number increases.

Lessons Learned

Overall, increasing our enrollment has been a fairly straightforward process. We have never had difficulty attracting attendees to our orientations. Our average rate of enrollment from orientation through acceptance has remained steady at 1 in 8.

While we have struggled with increasing the percentage of men enrolled in the program, there is no shortage of women who need our services and dream of a career as a nurse or in another field. Nursing education has proved to be a core program – the demand for nurses from the employer side is only increasing, and it is one of our top careers in terms of earnings. 35% of our participants are pursuing a nursing degree.

Our biggest lesson from increasing enrollments is that we are only scratching the surface in terms of demand. With the right amount of resources, and the backing of the public and the community, Capital IDEA could increase to serve up to 2,000 participants within the next 5 years.

Successes and Surprises

Our participants pursuing degrees in medical fields continue to impress us with their successes. Last year, we had our first graduate from the dental hygiene program, and she set an earnings record by landing a job at $34 / hour right out of the gate. In fact, we have been pleased to see that our average starting wage has surpassed the $15.90 per hour, determined by the Center for Public Policy Priorities to be the threshold for true living-wage in Central Texas. With the growth of hospitals in Central Texas, the scope of the nursing shortage is well known. Less well known is the shortage of personnel in other healthcare fields such as x-ray tech, surgical tech, sonography, occupational and physical therapy assistants, and others – all careers supported by Capital IDEA. Healthcare employers report that Capital IDEA graduates are hardworking, loyal, love their jobs; and Capital IDEA graduates reflect the patients they serve, with 57% of our nursing graduates being non-Anglo. Minorities comprise only 14% of the general nursing population, while minorities make up 45% of Travis County’s total population.

In addition to the Ambassador program, Capital IDEA is also exploring two partnerships that have the potential to help increase the percentage of men enrolled. A recent meeting with the COO from Skillpoint Alliance, Karl Nichols, has resulted in an MOU to formalize our referral relationship. Capital IDEA has often referred participants to Skillpoint Alliance to obtain basic computer skills to help them better succeed in the classroom and on the job. Capital IDEA and Skillpoint discussed the possibility of working more intentionally with their clients who complete their Construction Gateway program. After learning basic construction skills at Skillpoint, some of their clients may want to move on to the trades or complete a degree through Capital IDEA.

Capital IDEA has also met with Manpower, Inc. to discuss writing a grant to provide a College Prep Academy program exclusively for their employees who are working in semiconductor manufacturing while completing a degree in technology field. Manpower pays for their tuition, and has had difficulty, as we did, helping some of their employees pass the THEA. Discussions are underway, but many of their employees in the education track would likely also qualify for our program. Manpower would be able to save money on their tuition costs if some of their students had access to our case management and support services to keep them focused and on track to graduate.

By far our biggest surprise, and our biggest challenge to overcome in terms of enrollment, is the budget shortfall that hit near the end of FY2007, and has continued into FY2008. We had great success in meeting our private fundraising goals (over $1.7 million raised in cash and pledges this year), and saw a $275,000 increase in our funding from the City of Austin due to the efforts of Austin Interfaith. We also lost $300,000 in State funding through the Texas Workforce Commission. This was due to changes at the TWC that emphasized short-term, small wage-gain training at the expense of the long-term, significant wage-gain training that Capital IDEA offers. In addition, there were changes to a child care fund set up by the City, County and Workforce Solutions to reimburse some of the daycare costs for our participants that led to a $60,000 shortage in reimbursements for our daycare costs. These and other pressures led the Board to adopt an extremely conservative FY2008 budget of $3.5 million.

Changes Made

In response to these budget pressures as well benefitting from deepening operational expertise, we have implemented many new efficiencies and strategies to help us do more with less. To support 800 participants, we now need a budget of $4.0 million—a reduction from the $4.6 million estimated originally by our Strategic Plan in 2004. We reorganized our program department to maximize the number of the participants each Counselor can case manage by reducing the amount of time they spend outside of direct case management. We are closely managing the education of participants with large numbers of children, permitting them to be with their children during the summer and thus avoiding high per-participant child care expenses. We enroll them in the fall and spring when their children are back in school and require much cheaper after-school care. We also aggressively recruited for our less expensive career and education tracks.

With expenses slated to come in under budget, and with cash donations coming in higher than budgeted, we will end FY 2008 at or near our goal of 800 enrolled, and ready to continue to increase to even higher levels. The Board and key stakeholders are involved in conversations to expand enrollment to a short-term goal of 1,000, continue growth to 2,000, and eventually impact 5,000 working poor adults annually.

Increase Funding Base and Diversify Funding Resources

Outcomes

As stated above, success with our income sources over the past few years has been a mixed bag. Capital IDEA has met or exceeded its private fundraising goals for each year of the strategic plan, and Austin Interfaith successfully advocated for additional increases from the City of Austin and Travis County. However, as described above, key funding was lost from the State, and from changes to a local child care fund that was instrumental in offsetting childcare costs. Some of the funding anticipated at the start of the strategic plan, such as increased support from ACC, never materialized.

At the same time, Capital IDEA’s funding sources are considerably more diverse than at the start of the strategic plan. With the three-year grant from the Silverton and Sooch Foundations helping to generate more gifts at all levels in 2005, 2006, and 2007, Capital IDEA was able to add more individual donors, reach out beyond our “core” foundation supporters to reach more local family foundations, and raise our profile in the broader community.

| |FY2004 |FY2005 |FY2006 |FY2007 |FY2008* |

|Total Amount Raised |$216,195 |$260,347 |$569,020 |$855,173 |$1,253,163** |

|Strategic Plan Goals |N/A |$250,750 |$400,000 |$735,000 |$1,200,000 |

|Number of gifts |36 |80 |84 |214† |118 |

* Fiscal Year ends 9/30/2008

** Projected cash total by 9/30; adding pledges committed in writing, $1,807,113 has been raised to date

† Jump in number of gifts attributable to memorial donations received in memory of Bunky Whitlow in

Round Rock, and an event in Round Rock to raise funds for Williamson County residents

Another outcome related to diversifying our funding base is our success in working with our healthcare employers to receive increased support to upskill their lower wage employees into skilled, in-demand healthcare careers. In 2006, Asista Management Corporation, the umbrella corporation for a number of residential extended care facilities in Central Texas, entered into a partnership with Capital IDEA whereby Asista would pay all costs related to upskilling their low-wage employees to Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVN) or RNs. In effect, Capital IDEA is acting as their tuition reimbursement program. Bill Horabin, the CEO of Asista, describes the relationship as a win-win. “We were paying for all these classes, but our employees weren’t getting anywhere. They needed the support services that Capital IDEA offers. Now, I actually pay less, because I know Capital IDEA will keep my employees focused on the end-goal of getting that nursing degree.”

Based on the success of our program with Asista, we received a grant of $240,000 from HCA Cares, the umbrella corporation of St. David’s Healthcare System, to pay for education of lower-wage employees pursuing a nursing degree. The grant was renewed in 2008 for $100,000. With the two grants, Capital IDEA will assist 40 St. David’s employees achieve their nursing degrees.

Seton Family of Hospitals is considering a similar arrangement, and is in talks with a local major donor to fund a similar “grow your own” program for qualified Seton employees.

Lessons Learned

From a private fundraising standpoint, diversifying the donor base is critical to our fiscal health as an organization. Giving USA, a publication of the American Association of Fundraising Counsel, analyzes giving data nationwide each year. Of the over $250 billion dollars given to non-profit organizations in the United States each year, the sources of those gifts break down as follows: 85% from individuals, 8% from foundations, and 7% from corporations.

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Capital IDEA’s giving is the reverse of this – we receive 80% of our private fundraising dollars from foundations, 12% from individuals and 8% from corporations, In order to continue to grow our fundraising dollars, we will have to spend more time and energy developing annual giving and major gifts from individuals.

Through our experience with increasing the commitment from healthcare employers and the valuable partnerships we have built and maintained through the Teacher Pipeline, we have learned that these types of partnerships are critical to our growth and success. Building mutually beneficial partnerships, and asking what we need of our partners to make our joint ventures successful, helps us to maximize all of our valuable resources – staff, time, money, and creativity.

Successes / Surprises

Our biggest success in diversifying our resources through strategic partnerships is the Teacher Pipeline, Capital IDEA’s first four-year degree program. Starting in 2004, a prior grant from the Ford Foundation helped Austin Interfaith and Capital IDEA gather partners together, including AISD, ACC, and St. Edwards University to begin strategizing how we could help address the growing teacher shortage. Soon after, Huston-Tillotson University joined, and the Teacher Pipeline was born. With a grant from Houston Endowment to St. Edwards, the partners started by addressing the three specialties with the biggest shortages in AISD – Bilingual Education, Special Education, and Math / Science Education. The KDK-Harman Foundation came forward in 2006 with a multi-year grant to support Special Education and Math / Science participants.

Pipeline participants are recruited from AISD Teacher’s Aides and other paraprofessional positions within AISD. Our first graduate, Janie Becerra, will walk across the stage at St. Edwards University on August 8, summa cum laude, with a degree in bilingual education. There are currently 22 participants, with plans underway to recruit another 15-20 participants to start Spring 2009. Capital IDEA is providing tuition, books, daycare, emergency assistance and case management of the participants. Through the partnership, we have leveraged the following contributions from partners:

• AISD is providing paid release time one day a week and paying for a classroom substitute for the Teacher’s Aides participating in the Pipeline, valued at over $500,000 over a five-years.

• AISD is also providing the ACC tuition for up to 60 transferrable credit-hours for up to 10 new Bilingual Education participants starting in spring 2009, valued at up to $25,000.

• St. Edwards has provided a tuition discount equal to 1/3 the cost of their regular tuition for Bilingual Education participants to obtain their Bachelor’s degree and teaching certification. The value for the discount could reach over $112,000 over a five-years.

• Huston-Tillotson is using funds from a multi-year grant of their own to offset Capital IDEA’s tuition costs at their institution for Special Education participants to achieve their Bachelor’s degrees and teaching certification. The value of their contribution could reach up to $288,000 over five years.

Changes Made

With the success of our efforts with the Silverton and Sooch Foundations to grow our funding base at the annual giving level (gifts under $10,000, for general operating expenses), Capital IDEA has added two new strategies designed to build on that foundation:

• Stakeholders Society – In 2007, Capital IDEA approached the Topfer Family Foundation with a proposal for a matching grant of $75,000 to help us jump start our Stakeholders Society. The Stakeholders Society is a giving club for donors to Capital IDEA of $1,000 or more annually. With the Topfer Family Foundation’s commitment secured, Bettye and Bill Nowlin opened their home for a kick-off event on October 9, 2007, which was followed by a mailing to 380 households in Central Texas. A second event was held in May for our Williamson County supporters, at the home of Jim and Lavon Mills in Georgetown, followed by a mailing to 340 Williamson County households. To date, we are 90% of the way to meeting the match. Funds raised through this effort, including the match, will total nearly $200,000 in general operating income. To date, Capital IDEA has received 10 gifts of $1,000 or above from new donors, 6 increased gifts of $1,000 and above from current donors, and 4 gifts of $1,000 and above from lapsed donors.

• Development Council – To keep the momentum of the Stakeholders Society going, and to continue to reach out to potential individual and corporate donors, Capital IDEA is forming a Development Council as a subcommittee of the Board of Directors. Early in June 2008, Eric Hehman, CEO of Austin Asset Management, accepted the Chairmanship of the Development Council, and has worked closely with the Resource Development Director to recruit members. Several meetings have taken place throughout the summer, and one new member is confirmed. Myndi Garrett, a senior consultant with VMware and an active local volunteer and philanthropist, joined the Development Council in July. We anticipate holding the first meeting of the Development Council in September with 4-5 members, and expanding the membership to 8 by April 2009.

In addition, the Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation (AIF), the parent organization to Austin Interfaith and other community organizing groups throughout Texas, Louisiana, Arizona and California, has undertaken an effort to bring workforce development issues to the attention of state and federal entities. At the state level, Austin Interfaith and AIF are working with the State legislature to create a fund for long-term workforce development programs, like Capital IDEA and its sister organizations in San Antonio, the Valley, and El Paso.

Conclusion and Looking Ahead to 2009 and Beyond

As of July 28, Capital IDEA has 615 participants in active training, and has employed 631 Central Texans. The average earnings of our graduates are higher than ever, with average starting pay in FY2008 at $18.23 per hour. Our graduates nearly triple their earnings at graduation, going from an average annual income of $13,430 at program enrollment to an average starting pay of $38,475 upon completion.

A new study from UT Austin’s prestigious Ray Marshall Center offers powerful proof of Capital IDEA’s effectiveness. Dr. Christopher King reviewed Unemployment Insurance earnings records for 321 Capital IDEA participants from 2003-05, from a year before their training to multiple quarters after, and compared them to employed persons with comparable demographics – ethnicity, age, and 13 other characteristics. The comparison group may have received short-term training, job matching services, or nothing at all. Capital IDEA participants may sacrifice more earnings during training than the comparison group, but they will quickly surpass them and then continue to increase their earnings steadily. The comparison group reaches an earnings plateau without Capital IDEA sponsorship, as follows:

Quarterly Earnings Trajectories

Capital IDEA Participants v. Comparison Group

As we approach the conclusion of the current Strategic Plan – our first strategic plan in our ten-year history – Capital IDEA has once again been looking forward. True to our organizational culture, we are stretching yet again, with a short term goal (possibly 2 years) of reaching 1,000 participants enrolled, and a longer-term goal (possibly 4-5 years) of achieving 2,000 participants served. The leap from 1,000 to 2,000 will be a quantum one, and we have yet to determine exactly how to accomplish that.

Looking out even further, Capital IDEA believes that of the 140,000+ individuals in Central Texas that are living and working in poverty, at any given time there would be 5,000 of them that are ready and willing to undergo the hard work and life transformation that Capital IDEA offers them. Serving 5,000 will require more than just bringing 5,000 people through the door. With few economies of scale, doing what we do now for 5,000 participants could cost as much as $25 million annually.

To truly succeed in our vision will not only require more funds, it will require:

• Buy-in from the community on a large scale, including the business community (local Chambers of Commerce)

• More and deeper strategic partnerships

• The willingness of current and new partners to invest time, money and creativity in lifting the working poor out of poverty – permanently

• A sea of advocates, volunteer leaders, church leaders, political leader, philanthropists, friends and community leaders to spread the word and support our efforts

Much progress has been made. In October 2007, Capital IDEA and ACC went forward on a joint proposal to the Aspen Institute to take part in a 3-year demonstration project of successful, community college-community organization partnerships engaged in long-term workforce development. Ours was one of 7 partnerships nationwide selected to provide the basis and best practices for the formation of other successful partnerships.

We have also been reaching out to friends, supporters and leaders in the community to get their thoughts and perspectives on how to reach our goals. Our Board and staff are fully committed, and the initial feedback from the meetings and discussions that have taken place to date has been very positive.

Capital IDEA is deeply appreciative of the Silverton Foundation’s partnership. While the Foundation’s funding helped us jump-start the process of diversifying and expanding our funding base, Andy’s willingness to connect, share, and strategize with us every step of the way has proved truly invaluable. As we move forward into 2009 and beyond, it is Capital IDEA’s hope that we may deepen our partnership with the Silverton Foundation to transform the lives of Central Texans living and working in poverty, while providing employers and businesses in Central Texas with an eager and qualified workforce.

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