Caritas of Austin

I just love D'Vaughncee's smile. Man. He's amazing.

For the past year I've had the amazing luck of partnering with Caritas of Austin on a number of their big projects in need of photos, such as their website redesign and their annual fundraiser.

Caritas of Austin serves an extremely critical role in the Austin community helping end homelessness with a multi-pronged approach. Here's their mission: 

"We build well-being by making sure that people have a safe home, access to healthy groceries, jobs that provide a reliable living wage, and educational opportunities to learn life skills."

Their impact over the past year has been nothing short of awesome:

Lindsey! My wonderful contact at Caritas.

• Helping to resettle 631 refugees from 16 different countries
• Helping to house 378 homeless families
• And, providing education for 830 people. 

In a time when 40.7% of the US voting population approve of Tr*mp(as of 2/7/2018), when the needs of the most vulnerable people are being actively neglected on a daily basis, the role that organizations like Caritas play in our communities are all the more important! And, the roles that we can play as volunteers using our unique skillsets (or our money) help further their mission and the people affected by it.

Samba in the upholstery workshop

This is where the pictures come in :) For their big fundraiser we created picture profiles of some of the people they've helped to find housing and jobs for. The people I photographed couldn't have been more wonderful!

Samba is a refugee migrating first out of Africa, then Russia, and then to the US.

Karen finally got a garden that she is just bringing to life.

D'Vaughncee is all kindness and smiles

And, Frank is working to stabilize things in his life after years on the move

Karen teaching us about the plants in her new garden

As you can see, in this post I've added several of my favorite pictures. I'm sorry that the pictures seem to go on forever it's just so clear how awesome these people are, how important Caritas is, and how truly negligent it is for our elected officials to refuse to empathize and understand that: we all have the same needs; that we are all the product of our opportunities and experiences; that race, income, gender, and sexual orientation have a huge say in the opportunities and experiences that we're afforded; and that we need to lift up our fellow humans to decrease inequity in our communities. 

JUMP! Go ahead and jump!

Thank you so much, Caritas of Austin, for allowing me to be a part of your work! If you'd like to volunteer with Caritas of Austin you can find opportunities here. If you don't live in Austin or would like to find other volunteer opportunities, you can head over to Volunteer Match (or just email any organization with out of the blue and let them know what you're good at and how you'd like to help... that's what I did).

Have a wonderful week and make someone's day.

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Montessori For All Groundbreaking

Magnolia Montessori For All from above when it was just a cleared plot of land

Many of you are aware that my wife, Sara Cotner, with several other awesome folks, like Sarah Kirby Tepera, started Austin’s first public Montessori School, Magnolia Montessori For All (MFA). There are over 20 Montessori schools in Austin and MFA is the only one (until this year) serving students that isn’t private (meaning the only one that does not cost anything for students in grades kindergarten and up). 

Sarah Kirby Tepera and Sara Cotner before the groundbreaking ceremony

Two students carefully carry their groundbreaking shovels

Since MFA began three years ago the classrooms have been in portable buildings on their nine acre campus. While portables do the trick, they aren’t an elegant or long-term solution. They also aren’t what students deserve. Charter schools are unique in that, though they are public, in Texas they only receive per pupil funding, which does not cover any operations or building expenses. This means that any building (temporary or permanent) need to be maintained and built using a charter school's per-pupil funding or the money needs to be fundraised.

Amazingly, because of the awesome, awesome parents and donors of Magnolia Montessori For All, MFA will be opening up their first permanent classrooms TODAY. These classrooms will be serving grades PK3 through kindergarten and construction for classrooms serving grades 1 through 6 will begin immediately and will wrap-up in January.

These kids are just incredible. Everything about this picture makes me smile.

Six months ago MFA broke ground on these grade PK3 through Kindergarten classrooms and I was on-hand to take pictures. 

Congratulations, my love. And, thank you to all the parents and foundations that put their trust and their money in this incredible project. As a husband to the founder, I know that things aren’t always perfect but that lack of perfection is never due to lack of trying or care. I can’t wait to watch what happens next!

I’ll be posting a follow-up to this blog post with footage from the completed buildings.

Two students look over the plans for their future school

This is what the classrooms actually look like!!!!!

Maggie chatting with several students about the ground breaking

Sara (again) at the groundbreaking

Attendees, funders, and architects getting ready for the groundbreaking

Parents and funders getting into the act at the groundbreaking

MFA's building foreman means business!

School layout. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? It's REAL!!!

Madison and Maggie watching the groundbreaking

Shovels at the groundbreaking

MFA-branded hard hats

Big projects require big machines

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I'm also available for hire. Just fill out my contact form and we will kick off the process!

If you are an awesome non-profit or company doing good in and for the Central Texas area I’m eager to work with you! Head over to the contact page and let’s get something started!