Austin, TX
New trade school at Austin homeless shelter hopes to give purpose, jobs to residents
AUSTIN, Texas – An Austin emergency shelter is taking a different approach to the city’s homeless problem.
Instead of focusing solely on putting a roof over people’s heads, The Other Ones Foundation will start teaching some of its residents how to change tires, install an HVAC system, or fix a car.
“This is about finding purpose,” said Chris Baker, the founder of The Other Ones Foundation
For Baker, it’s purpose that’s driving this project.
“I dropped out of high school when I was in 9th grade,” said Baker. “I spent a couple years doing all kinds of stuff that high school dropouts do.”
Now on the other side of homelessness, he stands before a crowd Friday.
“All I wanted to do was to build sets,” said Baker. “That was what my dream was.”
So he returned for his high school diploma, then a bachelor’s degree in theater, and eventually his first job at a homeless shelter.
“Which leads to that, which leads to this,” said Baker.
It’s an invisible string of circumstances that finally leads him to Friday’s opening of the John Paul DeJoria Skill Center.
“The room we’re in right now is everything from taking apart every part of an automobile to understanding an engine,” said John Paul DeJoria, who donated a $350,000 grant for the project.
The center is an expansion of the Esperanza Community, an emergency homeless shelter in East Austin. Here, residents can learn the skills required for jobs like HVAC, auto-mechanics, plumbing, and other trades.
“It changes your life,” DeJoria. “You’re back in society, you have money, you have safety, you have a place to stay, and you are like everybody else.”
The first instructors will come from Austin Community College.
ACC, The Rework Project, and the Texas Workforce Solutions Capital Area will cover the tuition of eligible students.
“Central to our work at Austin Community College is loving our students to success, this is what it looks like,” said Donald Tracy, interim director of continuing education at ACC.
A ribbon cutting opened the center with a round of applause and a word from Austin’s mayor.
“It’s not just about recruiting jobs, it’s about putting Austinities, including the most vulnerable Austinites, in the jobs that are being created,” Mayor Kirk Watson.
This skill center is what Chris Baker thinks he was meant to do all along.
“If life is about finding purpose, found it,” said Baker.
And he hopes this place will help someone else find their purpose too.
“Everyone needs a purpose and no matter what your challenges are in life, there’s always something for you to have a purpose,” said DeJoria.
Austin, TX
How Central Texas has voted in recent Senate elections
Democrats believe the 2024 contest between Ted Cruz and Colin Allred could break a decades-long losing streak in the Lone Star State.
A Democrat has not represented Texas in the US Senate since 1993.
Recent election results show Travis County is a Democratic stronghold for United States Senate hopefuls and the margin of victory has continued to grow over the past decade.
Austin, TX
APD looking for North Austin 7-Eleven robbery suspect
AUSTIN, Texas — Austin police are looking for a suspect involved in a robbery at a 7-Eleven store in North Austin earlier this month.
Police say this happened on October 21 at around 3:47 a.m. at the 7-Eleven in the 9200 block of Burnet Road near Research Boulevard.
ALSO| APD, AT&T offering $10K reward for information on copper wire thefts
The suspect was armed with a handgun and demanded money from the store clerk.
The suspect is described as a Black man approximately 30 to 40 years of age and is medium build. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, a white N95 mask, grey sweatpants with black stripes on sides, a white sock on left foot, a black sock on right, and grey slippers. The suspect was also carrying a small black backpack.
Anyone with any information should contact APD’s Robbery unit at 512-974-5092. You may submit your tip anonymously through the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program by visiting austincrimestoppers.org or calling 512-472-8477. A reward of up to $1,000 may be available for any information that leads to an arrest.
Austin, TX
Group arrested after stealing over $50k of items from Victoria’s Secret in Austin, Central Texas
AUSTIN, Texas (KWTX) – A group of suspects believed to have been involved in multiple thefts from Victoria’s Secret in Austin and Central Texas have been arrested.
Sofia Hernandez, 20, and Angelica Chavez, 24, are charged with multiple felony counts of theft. Joe Garcia, 37, is charged with multiple felony counts of felony theft and robbery threat and Lisa Vasquez, 30, is charged with felony count of organized retail theft.
In early September 2024, members with the Austin Police Department started an organized crime theft investigation.
During the investigation, police say an organized retail crime investigator with Victoria’s Secret identified three people in connection to several high-value thefts in the Austin area with additional thefts in Central Texas.
Following the investigation, police arrested Hernandez, Chavez, Garica and Vasquez, all of Austin, on the charges listed above.
Two search warrants were performed where police say they seized 2,000 pieces of suspected stolen items belonging to more than 40 different stores, valued at $57,000, and a handgun.
Copyright 2024 KWTX. All rights reserved.
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