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BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Raise Your Hand Texas

September 5, 2022

What makes your business stand out?

Raise Your Hand Texas is a nonpartisan, education advocacy nonprofit organization working to strengthen and support public education for all students to build a strong future for Texas. We support public policy solutions that invest in our students, encourage innovation and autonomy, and improve college and workforce readiness. Our policy team uses data and research to provide policymakers with fact-based policy recommendations to scale improvements and provide a more complete view of the important work happening in our public schools.

Our statewide regional advocacy team strives to build coalitions of support for public education and connect lawmakers and education stakeholders to one another, while ensuring every legislative session is a public education session.

What do customers say about working with you?

Raise Your Hand Texas is a leading statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan education advocacy organization focused on bringing public policy solutions to challenges of public education while creating a stronger public education system for all 5.5 million students in Texas. We bring policy experts and regional advocacy directors into every community in Texas to better understand the opportunities and challenges within our public school system. We bring resources, such as easy to read graphics and white papers on complex issues to marry the language of legislation and policy. We are an organization who works with any and all who support public education.

Please share the value of Chamber involvement.

As we at Raise Your Hand Texas like to say, the future of Texas is in our public schools. That also means that our future doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, cooks, waitstaff, mechanics, AC technicians are in our public schools. And so are your future customers and clients. A Chamber of Commerce brings together titans of industry to promote the interests of the business community. What better way to do that than supporting your local public schools by understanding the issues impacting them and how to work as a community to fix that.

To that end, I am working to give business leaders a voice to advocate for public education programs that will support Texas industry. Public schools also provide innovative CTE and STEAM programs that help to fuel our economic engine in Texas and fill the skills gap of many jobs that propel our state forward.

For example, CTE programs through multiple initiatives, including the Skills Development Fund (SDF) Dual Credit Program allow educational institutions and business partners across the state to develop training programs and Dual Credit opportunities that give students the ability to get a jumpstart on their education or career goals as they earn credits toward a degree or professional credential while still in school. Strong public school programs will attract businesses and build the local economy and help the community thrive. Here is a video done by RYHT that highlights CTE programs in Roscoe ISD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY1eYuzMbQM

What culture do you provide within your company?

We provide an inclusive and engaging environment for our team and to support educators and families to advocate for public education. We promote positive stories across the state through our blogs, IntersectEd podcast and videos online.

How do you give back to the community?

Raise Your Hand Texas brings experts and resources in the Prek-12 policy world that enhances the future workforce of the state. Through our statewide regional advocacy directors, we are working to grow a pro-public education constituency across Texas. This team, which I am a member of and represent the Abilene region, is working in communities across the state to help educators, families, and business leaders raise their voices regarding the importance of public education. Our team has three main initiatives: We Educate to increase the understanding about public education; Engage the community and business leaders to express support for public education; and Activate to motivate others to ask a policymaker to support public education and/or oppose specific legislation.

 

Be sure and listen to 96.1 Q Country and 95.1 The Wolf for their profile.

Remember to buy local. View a full list of Chamber members here. Signup to be featured here.

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