Hermanowski Family Foundation Initial Request Form

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Organization Name: Austin Bat Cave
Legal Name (if Different): Kids Write Good
Also Known As: Kids Write Good DBA Austin Bat Cave
Mailing Address: PO Box 4762
City: Austin
State: TX
Postal Code: 78765
Main Phone: (512) 522-8489
Main Fax: n/a
Organization Website: austinbatcave.org
Employer ID Number: 46-3593848
Organization Tax Status: 501 (c) (3)

Proposal Information

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Today’s Date: 03/29/2025
Requested Amount: $7000

Project Title: School Year Creative Writing Programs
Project Description:

Austin Bat Cave is a creative community. For 18 years, ABC has provided writing programs to Central Texas youth (ages 6-18) by connecting them with local novelists, poets, journalists, and other professional artists. ABC serves students who are BIPOC, come from low-income families, and have limited access to art enrichment opportunities. Approximately 60% of our school-year students are at-risk and 71% are under-resourced.

Each semester, 28 teaching artists and volunteer instructors lead an average of 13 weekly tuition-free in-school and after-school writing workshops for more than 200 Title I students. Students explore slam poetry, bilingual poetry, comic book writing, and more.

To genuinely benefit our students, ABC develops programs to address students’ needs and hire paid teaching artists who reflect students’ cultural and ethnic diversity. ABC’s program team works with each school and community partner to craft a specialized workshop curriculum, ensuring our instructors create a safe and inclusive space for learning. Our bilingual programming enhances students’ ability to express themselves more fully in both their home and second languages, building confidence and gaining skills that promote academic and personal success. Most crucially, we use student feedback when developing new programs.

ABC’s workshops address more than artistic and academic needs: ABC carefully crafts programs to combat the ongoing mental health epidemic among young people. Public policy organization Every Texan writes that roughly 1-in-5 Texas children are affected by a mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral problem, and 1-in-3 experience a mental health disorder every year. ABC’s partners have expressed great concern over their students’ mental health needs, but budget cuts have limited or eliminated extracurricular programs that build student confidence and resilience. Further, decreased mental health resources in Texas schools leave only one counselor available for every 390 students. Today, supplementary arts programs like ABC are needed more than ever.

Total Project Budget: $200,000

Other Funding
Sources For The Project (Committed & Potential): Applied Materials Foundation, Texas Commission on the Arts: Arts Create Grant, Webber Foundation, Seawell Elam Foundation, Rae Charitable Trust, Austin Community Foundation

Project Duration: September 2025 – June 2026
Geographical Area Served: Greater Austin, Texas
Age Group To Be Served: 6-18

Contact Information

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Contact Prefix (Mr,Mrs etc.): Ms.
Contact First Name: Emily
Contact Last Name: Chammah
Contact Title: Grant Writer
Contact Phone: (313) 720-8010
Contact Email: grants@austinbatcave.org