Amarillo Bear Paws, Inc.

Bear PAWS is an after-school program for the students that attend Austin Middle School. Members of The Church at Austin Park lead the program, including one paid employee and eighteen volunteers.

Any student at Austin Middle School is welcome at Bear PAWS regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity. The only requirement for attendance at the program is a signed permission slip from parents or guardians.

Bear PAWS meets each Tuesday from 4:00 - 5:00 during the school year in Everheart Hall at The Church at Austin Park. The current enrollment is seventy-five with an average of seventy students in attendance each week.

Thirty-three of the students that attend come from single-parent, low-income homes. Four of the students currently attending are in foster care. Many of the students struggle academically and food insecurity is prevalent among the students.

At each meeting, Bear PAWS provides a hot meal for the students, a program that addresses issues relevant to middle schoolers, one-on-one time with volunteers (including tutoring from retired schoolteachers), and activities that encourage positive social interaction with their peers and the volunteers.

The goal of the Bear PAWS program is for the students that participate to be prepared to enter high school as Christ followers, committed to doing their best to be socially and academically responsible while exhibiting leadership and good decision-making skills. The Bear PAWS program seeks to accomplish this goal by being positive, accepting, and sincere in ministering hope to each student and their family.