Release Date: October 24, 2011
Office of Mayor Julián Castro: 207-7083
SA 2020 launches next phase with SERVE SA
-Education call to service will be model for comprehensive approach to reach community goals outlined in SA 2020-
Aiming to build on the energy provided by thousands of committed citizens who set a bold vision for San Antonio during the first phase of the SA 2020 effort, Mayor Julián Castro was joined by education, business and community leaders on Monday to launch SERVE SA, a call-to-service action plan to meet the city's top education goals.
SERVE SA will drive volunteers to new and existing community organizations and programs focused on improving educational outcomes for area students. The first in a series of efforts to advance the goals in each of the 11 areas outlined in SA 2020, SERVE SA will look to deploy more than 1,500 volunteers this school year to help elementary students read at grade level, inspire and prepare middle school students for college, and assist students with obtaining the financial aid they need to bring college within their reach.
The call to service is the first major initiative to be overseen by newly-hired SA 2020 CEO Darryl Byrd. The effort will be chaired by State Representative Mike Villarreal and includes a newly revamped www.sa2020.org website which will serve as a clearinghouse for interested community volunteers.
"What made the first phase of SA 2020 so powerful was the incredible level of civic participation from folks who left their skepticism at the door and bought into the idea that San Antonio can be the next great American city," Mayor Castro said. "SERVE SA is the perfect vehicle to channel that energy into an area like education, which can literally transform the trajectory of our city."
Byrd said that community buy-in will be crucial to achieving the goals set forth in SA 2020.
"The people of San Antonio have declared that by the sunset of this decade, we will have orchestrated one of the greatest turnarounds in education in the United States," Byrd said. "Since making this bold vision a reality demands an awesome and unprecedented effort, we must begin by deploying the most powerful and abundant resource available in our city - San Antonians themselves. These volunteers understand that the San
Antonio our children and grandchildren inherit will be a direct product of the investment we choose to make in them today."
Representative Villarreal, a staunch advocate for education in the Texas Legislature, said success in the initial SERVE SA areas will not only improve student achievement, it will enhance the city’s quality of life and make it more attractive for economic development.
"We're determined to make San Antonio the best place to raise children," Villarreal said. "This effort to match volunteers with proven local education programs will help improve student success and enrich civic participation. The end result will be a stronger citizenry and workforce for San Antonio."
Through SERVE SA, volunteers will be channeled to one of three education-related initiatives - Inspire U, Student Aid Saturdays and SA Reads.
Inspire U
Inspire U is a unique mentoring program that matches adult volunteers, through their employer, with middle and high school youth to help them become the first in their family to attend college. Students visit their mentors at the workplace and are supported with career and college building activities.
Partners include Cafe College, the San Antonio Education Partnership, Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas and Communities in Schools-San Antonio.
Student Aid Saturdays
Research indicates that 90 percent of students who complete the FAFSA, the federal student aid application, will go on to college. SERVE SA is committed to increasing the number of students who seek financial aid each year by at least 5 percent in order to support the overall SA 2020 goal of having an 80 percent college enrollment rate.
Between January and March of 2012, on eight selected Saturdays, high school students and their parents will receive free help with completing their FAFSA and TAFSA forms.
Partners include the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Cafe College, the San Antonio Education Partnership, Generation TX San Antonio, the City of San Antonio, Alamo Colleges and the University of Texas at San Antonio.
SA Reads
Current standardized testing results indicate that 10 percent of third graders enrolled in public schools in San Antonio are failing basic grade-level reading tests. This number is not indicative of the many struggling readers who are also at-risk of failing.
The SA Reads campaign is dedicated to making grade-level reading a reality for all Bexar County students. A collaborative of LITERACY San Antonio, Inc., SA Reads recruits and trains volunteer reading tutors, strategically assigns them to targeted students in targeted schools by grade, and provides access to appropriate books for elementary students. This community-wide collaboration will measurably increase reading skills and student success across the San Antonio community. One piece of the program takes a guided reading approach and provides the student with a series of 30 minute, one-on-one sessions. This approach has proven to increase students' reading levels significantly in only eight weeks, with an average yearly increase of 1.2 grade levels.