Common Threads aspires to build communities that embrace healthy cooking, healthy eating and celebration of culture.

Common Threads is a national nonprofit that provides children and families cooking and nutrition education to encourage healthy habits that contribute to wellness. We equip under-resourced communities with information to make affordable, nutritious and appealing food choices wherever they live, work, learn, and play. We know that food is rooted in culture and tradition so we promote diversity in our lessons and recipes, encouraging our participants to celebrate the world around them.

Common Threads

Our Vision: A family for every child in our lifetime.
Our Mission: To empower vulnerable children to reach their full potential. 

Miracle Foundation is an international nonprofit that helps orphans and foster children find a safe, stable, and permanent family. Whether in an orphanage or in the Foster Care System, our vision is a family for every child in our lifetime.

For the past 23 years, Miracle Foundation has been dedicated to improving the lives of children. In 2022 alone, we supported more than 170,000 children—and this is just the beginning.  Today, we are a world leader in ending the need for orphanages and ensuring children grow up in safe, stable families.  To achieve this, we are actively uniting children with families, partnering with frontline workers, preventing children from entering the system whenever possible, and stabilizing placements for children until they find a forever family. 

Founded in 2000, Miracle Foundation has consistently received the highest ratings from Charity Navigator and other watchdog organizations that assess charities' effectiveness and financial transparency.

Miracle Foundation

We provide financial assistance and emotional support while building community spaces for people who need abortions in Texas.

Lilith Fund

Home Street Music is a nonprofit that empowers people who have experienced homelessness through the healing power of music.

Home Street Music was founded in 2017 by Austin-based songwriter Vanessa Lively, to bring the healing power of music, creative self-expression, and community to the unhoused population in Austin by organizing and hosting weekly music circles.  Over the course of the last 7 years, the pilot program has developed and evolved in partnership with Community First Village to include not just the music circles, but public events, performances, and workshops.  In that time, we’ve grown from a one-woman labor-of-love operation, to a fully actualized 501(c)(3) non-profit with an active board of directors and a roster of acclaimed songwriters.  Our programs have had an incredible healing and transformative impact on the participants we’ve reached, and we feel that our organizational foundation is built-out to the point that the time is right to begin expanding the programs reach into new underserved communities.

Home Street Music hosts inclusive weekly music circles at Community First Village for people who have experienced homelessness, and who are working to reintegrate their lives back to self-sufficiency.  For cohesion and continuity, we organize our individual music circles into eight-week seasons, with four seasons per year.  We’ve found that clustering the circles into seasons allows deeper community to develop among the group, and for individuals' comfort levels to grow, and for the free flow of personal expression to blossom.

Each music circle is led by a professional “lead” songwriter, assisted by “co-lead” musician, and backed-up by a mental health professional (in partnership with the SIMS Foundation) to help monitor and mediate any strong feelings which might arise in the sharing of music together.  The weekly program for each circle is fluid and variable, largely group-led, facilitated by the lead songwriter.  It can include a combination of the group singing and playing old well-known favorite songs together, an individual sharing a song they have written themselves, and the group writing a song together to share in the collective experience of creative expression.

Each of these brings its own virtues to the individual participants, and to the community as a whole.  Sharing old favorite songs together helps everyone feel comfortable and at-home in a way that only a beloved song can, sometimes.  Sharing their own songs can give the participants a platform and spotlight to be seen and heard among their community in a way that the unhoused are very rarely afforded.  And writing songs together as a group gives each individual a voice among the circle of their peers, while also giving the collective group a unified voice with which to share their perspective with the outer world.  We’ve found that experience to be transformative and empowering to people who have largely felt the power of their voice diminished by the isolation of homelessness.

Participants in our programs can partake in as many or few of the circles’ activities as they feel comfortable.  Some just watch and listen.  Some take part in the music-making (and merry-making) at every level.  Participants aren’t required to commit to an entire season, but we’ve found that most individuals who attend one of the circles become regulars at most of the circles.

The feedback we’ve received from the participants of our circles (and the feedback from our community partners at Community First Village) has been extremely strong.  So much so, that the feedback is what’s fueled the growth and development of our whole program.  For many of our participants, these regular musical gatherings have become an essential component of their healing and restorative dignity.

In addition to the weekly music circles, we’ve begun to expand our program to include Community Concert Events, Workshops, and Paid Performances with other entities . . .

Our Community Concert Events are quarterly events that we organize ourselves, and which serve several worthy goals.  They shine a bright outreach spotlight onto Home Street, to let the greater Austin community know about the work we’re doing.  They give the music circle participants a group goal to work towards, as the group builds a performance repertoire to present to the public.  And the concerts are great fund raising opportunities, both for the organization and for the individual participants. We’re unwavering in our commitment to pay each participant a fair rate for their contribution at each concert event.

The Workshops, thus far, have coincided with our concert events.  We try to dovetail the theme of each concert with a workshop which complements that theme.  For instance, the theme of one of our concert events was “La Voz Latina” — and the accompanying program was a Vocal Workshop focussed on each individual finding the power of their own voice.  Primarily, our workshop leaders have been well-established professional Austin musicians, but as our Home Street circle participants gain more experience and more confidence, we’re hoping to place them in co-lead positions in our Workshops, as well.  Besides the empowerment that comes with achieving a leadership role within the community, workshop leaders will, again, be paid a fair wage for their contributions.

Paid Performances are opportunities we’ve been cultivating for the “bands” that form from within our music circles.  These are paid gigs that the bands can play at commercial venues, private events, and non-traditional pop-up venues.  We’ve found that the bands have been hired mostly because they’re legitimately great — they have incredible spirit and energy, genuine musical talent, and they’ve worked hard to be musically cohesive.  Again, each participant is paid a fair wage.  And these performances have as spiritually rewarding as financially rewarding.

We will continue to expand and evolve our programming to reach more people, and to further enrich and empower our participants.

Home Street Music

AFSSA supports survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking with free, confidential services.

AFSSA's MISSION:  Our mission is to promote abuse-free Asian communities through advocacy, support, awareness and access to social services. AFSSA envisions healthy, abuse-free Asian communities.  AFSSA specifically addresses the cultural and language needs of Asian community members and families affected by domestic violence.  Our values and mission are reflected in our programs, which integrate culture and language specific direct services, educational programs, and community-based initiatives and advocacy.

Asian Family Support Services of Austin

The 19th is an independent nonprofit newsroom reporting at the intersection of gender, politics, policy and power. 

The 19th's mission is to empower women and LGBTQ+ Americans with the information, resources, and community they need to be equal participants in our democracy. We launched at the centennial of the 19th Amendment with the goal of becoming *the* news organization of record for women and LGBTQ+ people, and of giving them a more representative seat at the civic table. It’s long overdue. While the 19th Amendment gave White women the right to vote, it took another four decades for this fundamental right to be extended to women of color. Trans and nonbinary Americans still struggle with voter ID laws and access to the ballot. The asterisk in our logo is a visible reminder of those who have been omitted from our democracy – the same people we seek to educate and inform.

The 19th is deeply committed to challenging the prevailing national narrative in a way that normalizes leadership and equity for women and the LGBTQ+ community. This requires bold ambition, deep empathy for our staff and our readers, and a willingness to challenge the status quo, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable the process may be. We have begun this work by building an equitable news organization, one that strives to reflect the nation’s diversity and encourages our colleagues to bring their lived experiences to work. And we’ve begun it by providing the kinds of benefits, flexibility and pay that help women and LGBTQ+ people who have been traditionally sidelined advance to the highest levels of an industry that sorely needs them. 

The 19th News

Knowbility's mission is to create an inclusive digital world for people with disabilities. 

Knowbility leads the way to digital equity with and for disabled people. Since 1999, we have advocated for born-accessible technology. Our Community Programs and Accessibility Services teams teach, train, and promote inclusive and accessible design across all sectors and industry. We help make the Internet and other technologies accessible to people who are blind, visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, have limited mobility, and have cognitive or learning disabilities. Our goal is to create a barrier-free world of information technology so that people with disabilities can fully participate in the business, educational, and cultural marketplace and reach their full potential. Through education, awareness, and advocacy, we work to ensure equal access to technology for the over one billion disabled people around the world.

Knowbility

Ladies Lets Talk is a nonprofit organization that helps refugee and immigrant women achieve belonging in their new community.

We connect them with women volunteers for:

- Language practice        

- Navigating daily life

- Friendship and sisterhood

Ladies Lets Talk

The Greater San Marcos Youth Council is a nonprofit organization serving abused and neglected children ages 2-17 since 1986.  

Mission: Shelter children, strengthen families.

GSMYC is a human services agency with programs designed to accomplish our mission of sheltering children and strengthening families. 

History

In 1986, in response to the legislative mandate that runaways could no longer be housed with adult inmates, a group of concerned citizens organized and developed the Greater San Marcos Youth Council (1986) to provide shelter to maltreated children. As a private, non-profit, our 16 bed residential program exists as an alternative home for children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect. In 1990, GSMYC added non-residential prevention and intervention services to support children remaining in their homes.  

Our goal is show children they are here through no fault of their own and that they will be safe with us. We give them our respect and make every effort to allow them their dignity. With the overall goal of establishing a trusting relationship with at least one adult during their stay, so that he/she will know that not all grown-ups will hurt them and that they are worthy of love and respect. 

The children who come to the shelter operated by GSMYC are seeking refuge from abuse or neglect. Serving as temporary caregivers for these children, we are responsible for meeting their physical and emotional needs. Many arrive with little else save the clothes on their backs. We take care of them with genuine love and care, until a more permanent home can be found. 

Goals of our non-residential program are to strengthen families through our youth and family services available to Hays County residents and youth who are eligible to attend Hays County schools. Our objective is to reduce child maltreatment, truancy, juvenile delinquency, as well as, increase families’ protective factors and resiliency to crisis. These services include; child and family counseling, parenting classes and anger management classes, youth and family advocacy, case management, and delinquency and truancy intervention, as well as a 24-hour toll-free crisis hotline available year-round by youth and family counselors at 1-800-457-0797.
 
Values

The safety and needs of the children in care take precedence over all else with what is best for each child as the guiding principle. Individuals connected with GSMYC will always conduct themselves in an ethical and professional manner exhibiting initiative, genuine caring and a positive attitude. Creating and maintaining a relaxed and friendly environment benefits both clients and employees. Investing in employees is an investment in clients. Additional values GSMYC employees and volunteers will exhibit are optimism, flexibility, empathy, compassion, respect for others.  The dignity of those we serve is ours to preserve and it is our responsibility to provide them with opportunities for success, growth and learning. 

Vision

Our vision is that every child born will be raised by a loving and supportive family who possess the skills and resources necessary to raise competent and productive citizens, therefore eradicating child abuse and neglect. 

GSMYC’s Elevator Speech

…….operates a residential program for abused and neglected children ages 2-17 who have been removed from home with a free counseling and resource center for families and their children ages 6-18 who live in Hays County or attend Hays County schools.

Tag line: Doing what’s best for kids…yours, mine, and ours. 







Greater San Marcos Youth Council (GSMYC)

Remnant Studios

Flo Code is a nonprofit organization focused on providing human services. It is based in Austin, TX. It received its nonprofit status in 2017.

Flo Code

Saffron Trust Womens Foundation

Unforgettable Families And Friends is a nonprofit organization focused on arts, culture, or humanities. It is based in Kyle, TX. It received its nonprofit status in 2016.

Unforgettable Families And Friends

Black Outside Inc is a nonprofit organization focused on providing human services. It is based in San Antonio, TX. It received its nonprofit status in 2019.

Black Outside Inc

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