Austin Achieve Public Schools

Austin Achieve Public Schools was the recent site of one of our art “pop ups,” as we were invited to host a class during Mental Health Awareness Day. In the wake of the pandemic, we were informed, their students have experienced a great deal of trauma, stress, and anxiety without the benefit of many of the extracurricular activities that serve as an outlet to manage big emotions so their Social Work Team wanted to organize an event that not only normalizes mental health but also provides students with a day to learn and employ strategies that alleviate stress and promote healthy coping practices. One idea was to incorporate a local partner that might be willing to provide art instruction, and Panting Pandas was at the very top of their list. We were more than happy to help as we too believe art is an important element in battling mental health. The school is a tuition-free, open enrollment public charter school preparing Austin youth to attend and excel at top universities. We could not be more proud than to have offered four classes to third and fourth graders on this important day.