Together4Children

The youngest and most vulnerable children in Texas communities will have positive early childhood experiences so that they will become successful in life. Raising Austin originated as a direct response to a community need. In 1997, a group of community members concerned with issues facing young children participated in a fact-finding mission to gat... her information about the state of early care and education in Austin, Texas. The group analyzed public school achievement data to identify areas of town that were producing high, medium, and low outcomes and toured a sampling of child care centers located in these areas. Not surprisingly, schools with high-performance levels were in areas where children had access to high-quality child care, while children in medium to low performing schools did not have as much. Moreover, centers in low achieving areas were mostly located in impoverished neighborhoods and served predominantly low-income and minority children. Thus, in 1998, members of other community foundations and community representatives joined efforts to form Raising Austin as a not for profit organization. They believed all young children deserved high-quality early childhood programs that enriched their social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development. Furthermore, they believed that raising the level of education and training for early childhood teachers and directors was an important step to ensure that every child entered school with an equal start. This became the heart of our mission. In 2013, our name changed from Raising Austin to Together4Children to better reflect the scope of our work in Texas.Read More