Posts by Ashley Thornton
Make your Plan to Vote!
By Rebecca McCumbers Flavin Early voting is underway! In this blog post, we provide important information to help you make your plan to vote. 1. Plan when to vote: Early Voting begins Monday, October 22 and continues daily through Friday, November 2. Polls are open: Monday, October 22 through Friday, October 26, 8:00 AM –…
Read MoreEffective Drug Abuse Prevention education is a bargain for our community
By Cheryl Allen If you have a child in the public school system, you probably already know — this is Red Ribbon week! Red Ribbon is a national campaign observed annually on the last week of October. It highlights the benefits of living drug-free. It also provides a valuable opportunity for adults to engage children…
Read MoreThe Future of Historic Waco – Summary of Community Gathering
The Historic Waco Foundation has launched a strategic process to understand Waco’s story from a number of perspectives in order to form future partnerships and programs that would offer the greatest benefit to the community. This post is one in a series to share with you how that work is progressing and how you can…
Read MoreGet to know your City Council Representative!
By Graham Duncan If you’re like me, one of the first things that pops into your mind when you think of local government is the small town of Pawnee, Indiana, home of NBC’s hit comedy Parks and Recreation. In the show the politics of Pawnee are quirky, unreasonable, and unique. While the show may not…
Read MoreCommunities of Waco: El Ballet Folklorico Las Estrellas de Waco
By Alicia Pesina I have been the instructor for El Ballet Folklorico Las Estrellas de Waco for 16 years. Ballet Folklorico is a traditional Mexican dance which highlights local culture from various regions and states in Mexico. The costumes, styles of dance, and music vary from state to state. Our group was organized in October…
Read MoreWorkforce Development with Communities In Schools: Turning Passion into Careers!
According to the Prosper Waco website, one of our goals in the community of Waco is to “Increase youth employment.” In my job as Workforce Coordinator at Communities In Schools (CIS) that goal is in the front of my mind every day. When asked about writing a success story about our Workforce program, it was…
Read MoreMental Health: Observing Mental Illness Awareness Week
By Cynthia Cunningham This week we are observing Mental Illness Awareness Week (October 7 through October 13). Many do not think that this affects them because they do not have any mental issues. However, we are all touched by mental illness at some point in our lives. Maybe not directly ourselves but those around us:…
Read MoreThe Future of Historic Waco — Q & A with Rae Jefferson
The Historic Waco Foundation has launched a strategic process to understand Waco’s story from a number of perspectives in order to form future partnerships and programs that would offer the greatest benefit to the community. Act Locally Waco sat down recently with Rae Jefferson, Communications Director at Creative Waco, for a Q&A about the Historic…
Read MoreIntroducing OUT on Austin
By Jeffrey Vitarius of the Waco Pride Network Waco had celebrated LGBTQ Pride in the past, but had not had any kind of organized, city-wide celebration for ten years. That changed last year. After a crop of conversion therapy billboards sprouted up around Waco, organizers took the initiative to bring Waco’s LGBTQ community back out…
Read MoreProsper Waco: Using data to inform the work
By Christina Helmick As you may have heard, the US Census Bureau recently released the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) data. The ACS is an ongoing survey of individuals and households. The government uses this information to help distribute federal and state funds each year, and the Prosper Waco backbone organization uses this data to…
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