The Impact Factory — a collaboration between Dell Medical School and the LBJ School of Public Affairs that fosters social innovation, entrepreneurship and service-learning at The University of Texas at Austin — has partnered with United Way for Greater Austin, Foundation Communities, my529 and Lone Star Circle of Care to launch Early Bird. Early Bird is a health system-integrated scholarship program for children in poverty, and it is a part of several clinics in Central Texas. As low-income families achieve program milestones, such as attending well-child visits or enrolling in prekindergarten, Early Bird puts up to $500 in their child's 529 savings account for higher education. Early Bird, which is being evaluated by a randomized control trial, aims to improve families' health, education and financial outcomes.
Read the full blog post by Laura Rosen, director of programs at The Impact Factory, Sajani Patel, a fourth-year medical student at Dell Medical School, and Parth Malaviya, a biomedical engineering undergraduate at The University of Texas at Austin.