AUSTIN – Austin area educational and community leaders have joined forces to improve the educational process for Hispanic students in what may represent the first time that Hispanic/Latino education has been placed at the center of community-wide attempts to work across social, economic, and educational boundaries in a comprehensive manner. The Austin ENLACE partnership is the local component of a national ENLACE initiative, funded with $28 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Houston Endowment, Inc.

ENLACE, a Spanish word meaning "link" or "weave," is designed to increase the success of Hispanic/Latino students in elementary school, middle school, high school, college and beyond. Austin ENLACE seeks to accomplish that success through sustainable programs and models that incorporate the wisdom of the Montopolis community. Utilizing the strength and wisdom of the community as an integral resource in school redesign has been the core strategy of the Austin ENLACE project since the inception of the partnership. This strategy informed Austin ENLACE's decision to focus its attention on a specific community – the Montopolis neighborhood of Austin – and to target this community's new kindergarten through twelfth-grade vertical pipeline designated by school district boundaries. Key components of Austin ENLACE activities include:

• Empowering the Montopolis community
• Establishing the Community Wisdom site at Austin Community College Riverside Campus
• Building high expectations – community- and school-based outreach targeting K-12 youth
• Expanding Austin Community College outreach and efforts to enroll and retain Hispanic/Latino students
• Expanding St. Edward's University's outreach and efforts to enroll and retain Hispanic/Latino students and increase Hispanic/Latino faculty
• Building a Montopolis Community Fund to sustain our vision
• Evaluation, communication and dissemination of Austin ENLACE outcomes

Within the next two weeks, the ENLACE Steering Committee will name a project director for Austin ENLACE. This individual will maintain an office at St. Edward's University and at a location in the Montopolis community to be determined at a later date.

Of the $28 million earmarked for ENLACE, the Austin project has been awarded $1.5 million over a four-year period. St. Edward's University is one of only 13 lead institutions and the only private institution to receive the funding. In addition to St. Edward's, other Texas universities to receive funding were Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos and the University of Texas at Brownsville.

AUSTIN ENLACE PARTNERS

• Key institutions of the K-16 pipeline:
  * Austin Independent School District
  * The K-12 target pipeline: Allison Elementary, Martin Junior High and Johnston High School
  * Austin Community College
  * St. Edward's University
• Key community organizations:
  * Dolores Parish and the larger Montopolis community
  * Austin Latino Alliance
  * Austin Interfaith

St. Edward's University, founded by the Congregation of Holy Cross, is an independent, Catholic, liberal arts university of 3,800 students in Austin, Texas.