Texanthropy Spotlight: LifeWorks Austin
I had the opportunity this week to visit the East Austin location of LifeWorks Austin, located on Pleasant Valley Road. LifeWorks Austin is a local non-profit with a mission to serve as fearless advocates for youth and young families seeking self-sufficiency by fulfilling needs for housing, education and workforce or counseling.
LifeWorks has a 20-year history of providing mental health services, education support and housing for more than 4,000 youth and families each year in the Austin and Central Texas area. A few years ago, the agency was selected to participate in A Way Home America’s 100-Day Challenge to house 50 or more youth in 100 days. LifeWorks exceeded that goal and is now on a mission to end youth homelessness in Austin by 2020.
Through a three-year, multi-agency initiative, LifeWorks is serving as the lead partner in developing and implementing city-wide systems and protocols to ensure that youth homelessness is rare, brief and nonrecurring. I was so pleased to hear that LifeWorks is working with partners at the local, state and federal levels to achieve their goals – Austin ISD, Caritas of Austin, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, and many others.
LifeWorks’ East Austin campus has a state-of-the-art building that is a safe, welcoming space for youth experiencing homelessness. Inside the Youth Resource Center, youth receive counseling services and workforce support in an environment that is equipped to meet their needs. On the same property, LifeWorks operates The Works, an apartment building for their clients in need of temporary and permanent housing. Construction is also underway on the same property for The Works II, a second apartment building with 29 units of safe, affordable housing for their clients.
Every day, LifeWorks is helping provide Austin area youth and young adults with a pathway to self-sufficiency, because they believe that everyone deserves a home, everyone deserves to work, and everyone deserves a chance to heal.
To learn more about how LifeWorks continues to serve as fearless advocates for youth and young families, how it provides pathways to self-sufficiency for youth and young adults, and their plan to end youth homelessness by 2020, visit lifeworksaustin.org.
