Wheatsville Community Action

We donate 1% of sales each Wednesday (one organization per month) to benefit community groups involved with causes important to our owners. Owners vote on the recipients each year, expanding democratic involvement and owner participation in our co-op.

 

 People's Community Clinic  |  SafePlace  |  Sustainable Food Center  |  Ecology Action  |  Austin Yellow Bike Project | 
OutYouth Austin  | Austin Pets Alive! |  Hospice Austin  |  Meals on Wheels and More  |  Capital Area Food Bank  

 

People's Community Clinic

PCC's mission is to improve the health of medically underserved and uninsured Central Texans by providing high quality, affordable healthcare. The Clinic has been offering care with respect and dignity since 1970.

Programs include:

  • PCC's Center for Adolescent Health (CAH) provides high quality medical care to infants through 17 year olds who are placed at the Austin Children's Shelter (ACS) due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment.
  • The Center for Adolescent Health provides affordable, specialized, interdisciplinary healthcare for teens and young adults ages 11-23.
  • The Chronic Disease Management Program's goal is to improve the healthcare outcomes of patients with chronic conditions through disease registry maintenance and clinic-based interventions.
  • Emilie Becker Cancer Screening Fund raises awareness and support for colon and rectal cancer screening.
  • The Goals Program is a developmental, behavioral and primary care program that promotes optimal developmental functioning, wellness and success for youth ages 4-23.
  • The Health Education Department offers educational sessions on family planning, prenatal, chronic disease and adolescent health topics.
  • Healthy Babies Initiative-- The Pediatrics Department provides a medical home that is accessible, comprehensive, family centered, compassionate, and culturally sensitive.
  • The Immunizations Program provides vaccines to patients as part our efforts to provide cost-effective healthcare through preventive measures. The majority of immunizations are given to children 1-6 years of age. The program also provides routine immunizations to uninsured and underinsured walk-in patients.
  • The mission of the Integrated Behavioral Health Program (IBH) is two-fold: to provide effective, evidence-based behavioral health services to patients with mental health issues and to increase the skill and comfort level of primary care providers in addressing mental health concerns.
  • Laboratory Services--Our on-site laboratory works with our providers to provide accurate, cost-effective results for patients.
  • The LifeWorks Street Outreach Program (LWSOP) clinic provides weekly medical care and health outreach for homeless, street dependent, at-risk or runaway youth ages 16-23.
  • The Nutrition Education Program works intensively with patients as they develop the confidence to make long-lasting lifestyle changes that will improve their health.
  • People's Community Clinic maintains an on-site Pharmacy on a limited basis.
  • Phoenix House residential drug rehabilitation program provides comprehensive medical care for enrolled adolescents.
  • The Reach Out and Read Program enriches the parent-provider-patient relationship and increase reading time in the home by providing parents with both guidance and children's books.
  • SafeHealth: Health Care Services for SafePlace Clients
  • The Tandem Teen Prenatal & Parenting Program is designed to provide medical, mental health, educational/vocational, and social support to low-income young parents and their children.

 

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SafePlace

SafePlace exists to end sexual and domestic violence through safety, healing, prevention and social change. Vision--A community free of rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence.

SafePlace:

  • Provides safety for individuals and families affected by sexual and domestic violence.
  • Helps victims in their healing so they can move beyond being defined by the crimes committed against them, and become Survivors.
  • Promotes safe and healthy relationships for the prevention of sexual and domestic violence.
  • Works to create change in attitudes, behaviors and policies that perpetuate the acceptance of, and impact our understanding and responses to, sexual and domestic violence.

Programs:

  • 24-hour Hotline connects the community to crisis phone support and information.
  • Hospital Advocacy -- provides accompaniment and support to survivors of rape in need of support for forensic and physical medical examinations.
  • Kelly White Family Shelter -- an emergency shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence; an off-site shelter is available for men seeking safety.
  • Legal Advocacy & Accompaniment -- supports survivors of domestic violence as they navigate court systems, particularly to assist with obtaining protective orders and referrals to free and sliding scale legal assistance.
  • The Stockton-Hicks Family Tree Child Development Center provides care and education for the children living in shelter and supportive housing.
  • Individual and family counseling for survivors of rape, sexual abuse or domestic violence.
  • Transitional Services Program provides supportive housing coupled with services for families and women leaving shelter that assists them in re-building their lives free of family violence.
  • Resource Advocacy supports survivors who are homeless or struggling financially with short-term emergency assistance.
  • LifeSkills classes designed to support the development of skills for self-sufficient living.
  • Disability Services ASAP (A Safety Awareness Program) -- an abuse prevention and counseling program.
  • Expect Respect counseling and education on the prevention of dating violence, sexual assault/abuse, domestic violence and bullying.
  • Community Dialogue -- changing the social norms that promote violence in intimacy.
  • Community Education -- information and training on the issues of sexual harassment, sexual assault or abuse, domestic violence and other related topics.
  • Family Violence Protection Team -- collaborating with APD, Travis Co. Sheriff's Department, Legal Aid, County Attorney's Office, and Texas Advocacy Project to encourage arrests and to provide survivors of domestic violence with integrated legal and support services.
  • Systems Advocacy -- working with other agencies to ensure that each system is optimally responsive to the needs of survivors of sexual or domestic violence.

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The Sustainable Food Center

Grow Share Prepare

From seed to table, the Sustainable Food Center creates opportunities for individuals to make healthy food choices and to participate in a vibrant local food system.

  • Through organic food gardening, relationships with area farmers, interactive cooking classes and nutrition education, children and adults have increased access to locally grown food and are empowered to improve the long-term health of Central Texans and our environment.
  • Through work with community and school gardens, workshops, and technical assistance, SFC's Grow Local program:
  • Empowers individuals to meet their basic food needs
  • Encourages the sharing and consumption of fresh produce with family, friends, neighbors, and food pantries
  • Promotes sustainable gardening practices
  • Educates youth about food systems, gardening, and nutrition
  • Provides opportunities for urban residents to work cooperatively
  • Transforms vacant urban lots into places of beauty, community, and abundance
  • The Farm Direct program organizes the thrice-weekly SFC Farmers' Market, Farm Direct gives local growers direct access to urban residents in demand of freshly harvested produce. Through direct marketing projects, like farm-to-cafeteria, farm-to-school and farm-to-work, Farm Direct additionally connects local farmers with hospitals, universities, schools, and worksites to provide fresh produce and strengthen the local economy.

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Ecology Action

Our mission is to educate and empower people to create a healthier environment through waste prevention, accessibility to recycling and cooperation. We operate recycling drop-off centers across Central Texas and maintain a recycling drop-off and processing center in downtown Austin.

Besides recycling and composting we provide:

  • Educational tours
  • Customer service
  • Hands-on volunteer opportunities
  • Training programs and partnerships for traditionally marginalized and differently-abled communities.
  • Staffing for public events throughout the year
  • Educational talks
  • Consultations and waste audits to small businesses
  • Mutual aid and support to other workers in labor disputes
  • Services to members of the homeless population.
  • Incubation and support for other cooperatives
  • Interface with policy makers about environmental issues in Central Texas
  • Clearinghouse for information about recycling and waste prevention through the City's 311 service.

Waste we diverted last year: We recycled enough aluminum to save 232,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. The glass we recycled saved an equivalent of 4,432 gallons of fuel oil. The paper we recycled saved 16,924 trees and 6.9 million gallons of water as well as 3,285 cubic yards of landfill space and 4 million kilowatt hours of electricity.

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The Austin Yellow Bike Project

The Austin Yellow Bike Project is an all-volunteer initiative to put bicycles on the streets of Austin and Central Texas by operating community bike shops, teaching bike mechanics and maintenance, and acting as a local bike advocacy group.

The Yellow Bike shop is an educational facility open to anyone who wants to learn about fixing and riding bikes. At the Yellow Bike Shop, we don't fix your bike for you; instead, we show you how to fix it yourself.

YBP accepts donated bikes, parts and cash. Projects are targeted towards children and those without the means of purchasing bikes.

Kid's Classes--We offer a six week course for youth aged 12-16 years. Participants get to pick out a bike from our warehouse, or bring their own. We lead them through a complete teardown and rebuild of the bikes, teach basic rules of the road, practice riding skills, and go on a safety ride. At the end of the course we outfit graduates with lights, a lock and a helmet.

After School Programs--BP works with various schools in the Austin ISD to develop riding, mechanics, and leadership skills for youth. These programs help students learn basic bike mechanics and safe riding skills. The students keep repair diaries that will be turned into a small bike repair manual that they can give to their peers when the semester ends. There is also a bike safety rodeo where students from the class can check and adjust their peer's bikes.

Adult Mechanics Class covers all basic bicycle maintenance and repairs including flat tires, brake set up and adjustments, overhaul of hubs/bottom brackets/head sets, setting up and adjusting derailleurs, truing wheels, and basic road safety.

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OutYouth Austin

Out Youth promotes the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social well being of sexual and gender minority youth so that they can openly and safely explore and affirm their identities. Out Youth envisions a world where sexual and gender minority youth receive the support needed to develop positive self-images, empower themselves and become active citizens in their communities.

Out Youth provides many programs and services that promote the educational, mental, emotional, physical and social development of LGBTQIA (lesbian/gay/bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual) youth and their allies.

Among the programs and services offered are:

  • Drop-In Center is a safe space for where LGBTQIA youth can participate in programs and services, be themselves, make friends, and develop into happy, healthy, and successful young adults.
  • The Jerry Strickland Library of books and a growing collection of movies, and an online database that can searched at any time.
  • The David Bohnett CyberCenter provides computers with broadband internet access so that our youth can stay connected anytime the Drop-In Center is open.
  • KYSS (Knowing Your Status is Smart) is Out Youth's free HIV testing, education, and outreach program. It seeks to reduce the spread of HIV.
  • Counseling--Out Youth offers free individual counseling and in-school counseling to youth between the ages of 12 and 19.
  • Support Groups--Out Youth offers several types of free support groups to youth who visit the Drop-In Center.
  • The Texas Gay-Straight Alliance Network is a youth-led statewide program that connects school-based Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) student clubs to one another through peer support, leadership development, and training.
  • Writers' Block and You Gotta Have Art are programs that give youth a space to express themselves through writing, drawing, painting, embroidery, or creative and artistic means.
  • insideOUT, Out Youth's Digital Storytelling Project, is designed to teach youth creative and innovative ways to tell their own personal stories or the stories of their communities.
  • The Young Adult Leaders Group, made up of Out Youth alumni and youth who will soon "age out," is a forum to share ideas on how to continue making Out Youth a space where young voices can be heard.

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Austin Pets Alive!

Austin Pets Alive! is run almost exclusively by dedicated volunteers and focuses solely on the pets who have been passed over by shelters' adoption programs and have no other options. Austin Pet's Alive! is committed to making Austin a no kill city. Austin Pets Alive! (APA!), founded in 1997, is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to stopping the killing of Austin's adoptable dogs and cats.

Today, we are a grassroots group of volunteers, led by Emancipet founder, Dr. Ellen Jefferson, who want to see the end of the killing of the homeless pets in Austin, Central Texas, and the entire country. APA is leading the charge towards No Kill by energizing the public and breaking down myths about sheltered pets. APA believes that actions speak louder than words and is backing up the No Kill rhetoric with lifesaving programs designed to save the animals most likely to die at kill shelters.

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Hospice Austin

Hospice Austin is a non-profit organization that serves terminally ill and bereaved persons in our community with integrity, compassion and respect. Hospice Austin provides comprehensive, specialized care to patients and families living with a life-threatening or advanced illness. We provide our services in the home, in the hospital, in a nursing home or assisted living facility, or at Hospice Austin's Christopher House

At Hospice Austin the emphasis is on living each day to the fullest, in a comfortable place, free of pain and in the company of loved ones. We provide family-centered, quality end-of-life care that emphasizes compassion, dignity, independence and respect. Hospice Austin is committed to relieving physical, emotional and spiritual pain so that life can be experienced as fully and hopefully as possible.

Hospice Austin offers a full range of health care services such as medical and nursing care, spiritual and emotional support, social work, personal care, special therapies, volunteer and bereavement services. Our services are designed to improve comfort, manage symptoms and deal with other difficulties such as emotional distress and grief. Hospice Austin also provides important emotional and spiritual support to families and friends as they cope with caring for a loved one with an advanced illness, and the grief they experience after their loved one dies.

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Meals on Wheels and More

Meals on Wheels and More seeks to nourish and enrich the lives of the homebound and other people in need through programs that promote dignity and independent living.

  • Meal Delivery Program - is a holistic nutrition program that provides healthy food and case management services to older adults and individuals with disabilities throughout the Greater Austin area. Individuals enrolled in the Meals on Wheels program receive one hot meal per day during the week and may have an option of receiving supplemental frozen meals for the weekend.
  • H.O.P.E. is for our most needy clients. Volunteers deliver an extra bag of non-perishable groceries one Saturday a month.
  • Care Calls matches homebound clients with a volunteer who calls either once a day for a friendly check-in or twice a week for a longer chat.
  • Mike's Place, a once-a-week program for folks with Alzheimer's Disease and other types of memory loss and dementia. It also serves as a source of support and rest for caregivers.
  • Meals for Kids provides over 300 low-income children in after-school programs with a nutritious evening meal each weekday.
  • PALS (Pets Assisting the Lives of Seniors) assists homebound clients by providing assistance with pet food and veterinarian care.
  • Home Repair and Architectural Barrier Removal Program provides major home improvements for low income homeowner clients who face serious structural issues with their homes resulting in a decline in health and safety.
  • Handy Wheels provides minor, safety-related home repairs and improvements to those in need.
  • Medi Wheels provides transportation for clients to and from medical appointments and day surgery.
  • Groceries to Go is for clients who can still do some cooking, but can't get to the store on their own.
  • Country Wheels Once a week, our van driver delivers 7 frozen meals to older adults in remote, rural areas.
  • Second Meals are additional meals delivered to clients who are most nutritionally at-risk.
  • The Congregate Meal Program provides a place for older adults to gather for games, physical activity, conversation and a shared nutritious lunchtime meal.

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Capital Area Food Bank of Texas

In its 30th year of service, the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (CAFB) provides food and grocery products to more than 350 Partner Agencies in 21 Central Texas counties. In 2010, CAFB provided more than 25 million pounds of food. The CAFB service area covers 19,064 square miles in Central Texas.

Nearly 96% of all resources received by CAFB are returned to the community in programs and services. And with every $5 donated, CAFB provides $25 worth of nutritious food.

CAFB distributes more than $25 million worth of food and grocery products each year. Although the agencies pay a small handling fee for the food they receive, the total of those fees is less than $800,000 per year for more than 350 agencies. This means that millions of dollars are saved by CAFB Partner Agencies -- money that can be used instead for programs and other needs.

Pounds of food and grocery products provided in 2010: 25.3 million

Number of meals provided in 2010: 20.2 million

How We Help

  • CAFB Food Pantry--St. John Community Food Center, part of a collaborative effort with For The City and other nonprofits providing complementary services for clients.
  • CHOICES A Nutrition Education Program--Classes include:Basic Nutrition, Nutrition & Health, Planning Healthy Thrifty Meals, Cooking for Your Life, Cooking Demonstrations, Eat Smart Live Strong, Power of Choice, and Kids in the Kitchen
  • Central Texas Food Rescue--collects fresh foods from area grocers and wholesalers and distributes them in the 21-county Central Texas area.
  • Disaster Preparedness and Relief--In addition to providing direct food and water assistance, CAFB works with Feeding America to obtain and transport food supplies to affected areas. In times of national disaster, CAFB is a collection point for local donations to be shipped to the disaster site.
  • H.O.P.E.-- Healthy Options Program for the Elderly helps curb hunger and food insecurity challenging the elderly.
  • Fresh Food for Families--provides low-income families with quality fruits, vegetables and other fresh foods free of charge, on a regular basis.
  • Kids Cafe--safe, nurturing places where neighborhood children can go after school and receive a hot dinner, serving more than 33,500 meals to an average of 3,300 children per month.
  • Regional Food Delivery--delivers fresh and packaged foods to centrally located drop sites in outlying areas that are easily accessible for the more remote Partner Agencies serving rural populations.
  • SNAP Outreach--(Supplimental Nutrition Assistance Program), formerly known as Food Stamps, helps individuals and families meet basic nutritional needs and afford a balanced diet.
  • Summer Food Service Program--provides free meals to children ages 18 and under during the summer, when National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program meals are not available.
  • Teaching Garden--teaches CAFB Partner Agencies how to grow food to supplement their needs.
  • Texas Second Chance--Non-violent prison inmates help sort through thousands of pounds of incoming donations each week and learn job skills.
  • Wheels of Sharing Mobile Food Pantry--fill geographic and service gaps in emergency food assistance.

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