United Way to get $1.5M grant

Brownsville is proving that it is serious about educating its youth to get better jobs.

The United Way of Southern Cameron County announced Tuesday that it has been awarded about $1.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The grant is part of the foundation’s Partners for Postsecondary Success initiative.

The goal — by 2025 — is to double the number of young adults, ages 16 to 26, who increase their value in the labor market by earning a degree, certificate or other credential beyond high school.

“Our leadership team was bold enough to say ‘We think we can do that,’” Traci Wickett, United Way of Southern Cameron County president and CEO, said. “We told the Gates Foundation that we were going to do it with or without them.”

The grant will certainly help the program grow more quickly and better than it might have on its own, she said.

MDC, a nonprofit organization the foundation is working with, will help “coach” those involved. Wickett said the actual grant is for $1,299,909. An additional $200,000 was awarded for MDC technical assistance, and $240,000 was given by local donors. A local commitment was required to submit the proposal for the grant, she said.

Upon receiving $99,935 from the foundation last September, a partnership among different community organizations was established to create a plan to boost the number of high school graduates attending college or vocational school. In October, it was announced that Brownsville, owing in part to its high number of young, low-income residents, was selected along with Amarillo, Charlotte and Raleigh as participating cities.

One of the keys to Brownsville’s project is a partnership involving multiple organizations with one agenda, Wickett said.

“The strong relationships and shared vision of the partnership resulted in the setting aside of individual agendas in favor of the common good,” the proposal said. “An atmosphere of trust among partners and a commitment to evidence replaced chisme (gossip) and a fear of data as a potentially harmful weapon.”

Wickett said data would now be a “tool to inform” instead of ammo for blame.

There are many smaller goals set forth in the project.

These include:

– Creating a community awareness campaign to show the connection between postsecondary credentials and future financial stability for low-income young adults;

– Creating a data management system to encourage evidence-based decision-making and even potentially creating a community report card to prompt data-driven discussions about community issues.

Without the partnership among organizations, things would be different, Wickett said.

“It’s like building a bridge with plans drawn by five different engineers,” she said. “We were charged with bridging those gaps.”

The diversity of the partnership was reflected at Tuesday’s announcement as community leaders gave their support.

“The city is going to be very encouraging,” Mayor Tony Martinez said. “We’re going to dedicate as much time and effort (as we can). I’m not sure we have a whole lot of monetary resources, but I think if they’re needed we’ll find it.”

In addition to United Way of Southern Cameron County, which leads the project, other organizations involved include the city’s economic development council, the school district, the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, and Workforce Solutions Cameron.

UTB-TSC Provost Alan Artibise said Tuesday’s announcement marked a “new era” for the city.

“Communities who tend to be poor and fractured are ones that don’t work together, while the reverse is true: communities who work together tend to pull themselves out of whatever kind of challenges they’re facing and move their community forward,” Artibise said. “We are achieving today with this announcement one of the critical goals of the United Brownsville plan.”

United Brownsville is tasked with implementing Imagine Brownsville, the city’s comprehensive plan. The group’s executive director, Mike Gonzalez, who was hired in April, said Tuesday that education is a major component of the plan because it will help attract better paying jobs.

He also said Brownsville is unique in that though its economy struggles, its population continues to grow, which creates a need for more jobs that pay well. In other places, he said, a sluggish economy usually drives people out.

“Education in itself is great, but it’s also about what that education is able to do for me,” he said. “In that case, it’s opportunities to help yourself, help your family and help your community.”

Last month, Wickett and Irv Downing, UTB-TSC vice president for Economic Development and Community Services, attended the national leadership conference of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle where they showcased their work.

The news about the grant wasn’t final then, but now that it’s official, the hard work begins, Wickett said.

There is no room for failure and no time to waste because the community, from top leaders to the average citizen, is deeply invested in the project, she said.

“Our smallest contribution is a $40 gift from the United Way custodian,” she said of the project. “He changed my life forever when he said this: ‘I can spend that money on something else and have nothing to show for it. But, if I give it to you for this I get something for it.’”