From left: Austin ISD Superintendent Paul Cruz, AISD District 3 Trustee Ann Teich, and Allen Weeks, Austin Voices Executive Director, announce Sept. 16 at Lanier High School the U.S. Department of Education is giving Austin Voices a $2.5 million grant.[/caption]

Local nonprofit organization Austin Voices for Education and Youth announced Sept. 16 at Lanier High School it will receive a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education during the next five years.

Austin Voices for Education and Youth, which works to improve public education, was one of 12 organizations throughout the U.S. to receive a full-service community schools grant, nonprofit Executive Director Allen Weeks said.

The funds will be used to create a family resource center at Lanier High School, Weeks said. Family resource centers assist families with employment, housing and other issues considered barriers to students receiving education, Weeks said.

“We’ve seen that schools that have family resource centers have been able to improve attendance and academic [performance],” Weeks said.

The Lanier High School Family Resource Center will have a full-time bilingual social worker and director, Weeks said.

The funds will also be used for community school coordinators at Burnet Middle School and Cook and Wooldridge elementary schools as well as parent programs for topics such as computer literacy at all four schools.

AISD District 3 trustee Ann Teich, wearing a Lanier High School shirt, said she graduated from the high school in 1970 and Burnet Middle School in 1965.

“We know that in order for students to come to school prepared to learn, they need a safe place to sleep, play and study, access to healthcare, stability in housing, access to healthy foods and enrichments activities, and freedom from worry about the safety, health, resident and employment status of their parents,” Teich said. “Family resource centers provide that connection with the community.”