Accounts from the Field

Texas

Report from Austin

I have been volunteering the past week in Austin at the Convention Center. I am helping organize child care workers for the kids. Child Inc., the Austin Head Start grantee, jumped in and set up a child care center across the street from the convention center where parents can drop off the kids while they look for jobs and find new homes.

The population here in Austin has dropped from 4000 to @1600. Many families who are resourceful have moved on, obtained jobs and even housing. Most of the families that are left are those that many folks deem as "lazy". However, I see a different picture. As I walk around the convention center floor, I see elderly, frail people who have no one to turn to and no where to go. Everything they owned and knew is gone. There is no family to help them. Many of the younger people left have mental illnesses and/or substance abuse issues. Their children are running around out of control. We try to help by sending out "roving nannnies" to provide one on one attention and help then access the services.

As I was walking through today, a lady asked me to help change her 2 year old. He was kicking and screaming. He was swinging his arms and slapped her in the face, as some two year olds do. I stood there as she threw him across their bed and started spanking him. I immediately asked if I could take him for a while and she gladly gave him up. She didn't even ask who I was. I took him where some other volunteers were doing art and painting with the kids. We set there for an hour. He drew, painted, had his hand print on the big poster, and laughed and played. Everyone was commenting on how cute he was. He was a darling child. We then walked to the food area and he had some snacks. Thinking that his mom may be worried, I went back to look for her. We found his sister, I guess she was about 15 years old. She and another girl were huddled under a blanket,. It was cold in there today and all they had on were shorts and tank tops. She said her mom and step-dad were sitting out back listening to the "concert". Apparently the back dock is a great gathering place for some to sit and listen to all the music coming from 6th street. We walked up, then down, then back again. The third time the little boy(I never knew his name) pointed to some people sitting and smoking. I walked him over and asked if he belonged to them. The man said yes. AS soon as I brought him over, the little boy started kicking and acting up. His mother proceeded to tell me "he's a bad boy, isn't he?" I said no, actually, he was very good. I had no choice but to walk away and leave him and pray that he would be OK. I then went and found the girls some sweaters and warm clothing and took it back to them.

Jackie L. Taylor
Resource and Retention Specialist
Institute for Child Care Excellence