Las Vegas Trail group gets $30K from community foundation for food, parent engagement

An organization founded to support families and children in the Las Vegas Trail neighborhood as part of a revitalization effort is hiring additional staff and providing clothing and food donations to children after receiving a $30,000 grant from the Fund to Advance Racial Equity at North Texas Community Foundation.

“We are grateful for the generous support and partnership we have with North Texas Community Foundation and are proud to be a recipient of this grant,” LVTRise Executive Director Paige Charbonnet said in a statement. “We work hard to stretch every grant, donation and contribution we receive and look forward to witnessing the positive impact this has in the lives of those who call LVT home.”

Many of the schools in the Las Vegas Trails neighborhood, including Western Hills Elementary and Leonard Middle School, lack Parent-Teacher Associations or Organizations, key to providing community events and identifying areas and people who need support.

“What we wanted to do is kind of fill that gap, we wanted to have these parent engagement events, (which) PTAs typically fundraise to put together,” Charbonnet told the Star-Telegram. Those events “bring students and kids and teachers all together.”

Group holds meetings, meets school needs

The initiative also strives to hold monthly education meetings with school administrators to find out what their needs are and networking to meet them.

Examples include working to help get vaccines to the schools, connecting students with mentors and helping to put on career fairs. Other funds will go toward continuing efforts to provide snacks for children at the centers and other needs.

“There’s a bunch of food insecurity in our neighborhoods,” Charbonnet said. “So the kiddos will come by the center …on their way home and after school programming in our location, they can grab a snack. And then we’re also able, if there’s a need expressed for uniforms, or clothing for kiddos, we can fill that need.”

For meetings with parents, the organization works to have opportunities that work with their schedules.

“There’s been a misnomer, a misconception that if you’re not there, you don’t want to be involved,” Charbonnet said. “I don’t think that’s the case.”

“We want to give parents the ability to serve and be involved in their schools without any obligation, costs or anything like that,” she added.

Lindy Calzada, the community impact programs coordinator at North Texas Community Foundation, recognized the value of the work, providing the grant, which is intended for communities “to build understanding and strengthen our community across racial lines.”

“The Fund’s grant committee, comprised of community leaders from diverse backgrounds, recognized the importance of LVT Rise’s Parent Engagement Initiative,” she said in a statement. “A child’s education and the health of the school are improved when parents are engaged, and the staff supported by this grant will help more parents’ voices be heard in their child’s education.”

According to LVTRise, residents of the neighborhood are are roughly one-third black, one-third white and one-third Hispanic.

While the missions are similar, the project is separate from the COVID-relief-funded parent engagement specialists employed by the Fort Worth Independent School District, although the two work together often.

Organization began as ‘mobile community center’

LVTRise, the organization receiving the funds, began as a mobile community center, providing social services and access to other resources for area residents after significant deficiencies and a lack of resources were identified following several town hall meetings.

In 2018, the Las Vegas Trail Revitalization Project became the registered nonprofit currently known as LVTRise Inc, according to a press release and in spring of 2019, Rise Community Center became a permanent home for the center.

That center became the home to a branch of the public library, which opened in January of 2021.

In May 2022, the Fort Worth City Council approved a land lease agreement that paved the way for a Las Vegas Trail Child Development Campus, built and operated by Child Care Associates.