Catch the Next, Inc. is proud to announce a three-year grant from Communities Foundation of Texas’ W.W. Caruth, Jr. Fund in the amount of $500,000 to support the implementation of the Ascender Framework for Student and Faculty Advancement at all campuses of the Dallas College district, as well as to provide customized training opportunities for leadership fellows.
Goals of the grant are to implement the program at the colleges, train a cohort of CTN Leadership Fellows after the first year and to provide a Transformative Teaching Track Institute for other Dallas faculty not engaged in the implementation of Ascender.
Catch the Next has been implementing its program in partnership with colleges committed to closing the opportunity gap for underserved students across Texas since 2012. To date, over 20 colleges have been trained in the Ascender Program Model and faculty from 32 community colleges and 20 state colleges and universities have received the Transformative Teaching Track training.
With the goal of building thriving communities for all, Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) works locally and across the state through a variety of charitable funds and strategic initiatives. The public foundation professionally manages 1,000 charitable funds for individuals, families, companies and nonprofits in addition to powering several key initiatives such as W. W. Caruth, Jr. Fund at CFT, Educate Texas at CFT and CFT’s North Texas Giving Day. CFT has awarded more than $2 billion in grants since its founding in 1953.
The William Walter Caruth, Jr. Fund is dedicated to bringing about this inclusive, multifaceted vision of community. This was Mr. Caruth’s goal when he established the fund in 1974. Motivated by a passion for science, education and crime prevention, he and his wife, Mabel Peters Caruth, contributed an estimated $300,000 to a variety of causes.
Mr. Caruth understood that the forces that shape quality of life are deeply interdependent. He observed that without “security of person and property, other desired objectives [to improve education and health] were of no consequence.” He saw the alleviation of poverty as a solution that would address the other social problems that were his greatest concern. When he died in 1990, Mr. Caruth left $400 million — the bulk of his estate — to the Communities Foundation of Texas to continue and accelerate the work he had begun. It is the largest fund at CFT, and has established a reputation for funding big ideas that have the potential for transformative impact.
The overall mission of the Caruth Fund is to encourage organizations to tackle complex social issues related to health, education and public safety systems through innovation and collaboration. We invest in solutions that are: data-driven and evidence-informed: embedded in a clear analysis of the scope and scale of the targeted problem, committed to using evidence-based practice when relevant, and engaged in ongoing review of data to track progress; innovative: creative and technologically savvy in the type of solution; collaborative: aligned with key partners to ensure efficiency and achieve systems change impacts that would not otherwise be possible; targeted: as far upstream as possible, or at the critical transition points where individuals or communities face life-altering risks. intersectional: recognizing the interdependence between risk and resiliency factors, and advancing solutions that overlap with multiple issue areas; equitable: cognizant of historical and current systems of oppression and actively seeking to undo them within the grantee organization and in the communities that are served; relationship-based: designed to strengthen relationships within the family, between neighbors and across difference to solve problems and build the resilience of the community.
Learn more at CFTexas.org. or follow-on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
With partners in thought and action like Communities Foundation of Texas, Catch the Next is poised to improve and increase postsecondary educational attainment for all Texans.