Austin Coming Together 022719

February 27, 2019

AUSTIN COMING TOGETHER THRIVE 2025: 2019 QUARTER 1

COMMUNITY PLAN

UNVEILED! Implementation of Austin’s first ever Quality-of-Life Plan begins!

The Quality-of-Life Plan Task Force Chairs and Strategy Leads pull the veil off the plan at the December 2018 release event that brought out over 250 community stakeholders.

WHY NOW? PAGE 3 | PRIORITIZED ACTIONS PAGE 4-5 | MOVING AUSTIN FORWARD PAGE 7

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Austin Weekly News, February 27, 2019

THRIVE 2025: 2019 QUARTER 1

ACT BOARD OF DIRECTORS Officers Larry Williams, Chair Broker, State Farm Insurance

Ruth Kimble, Vice-Chair Executive Director, Austin Childcare Provider’s Network

Angela Waller, Secretary Director of Community Engagement, and Strategic Partnerships, The Loretto Hospital

Deborah Williams, Treasurer

Reverend Reginald E. Bachus

Dawn Ferencak

Community Outreach & Engagement Specialist, Habilitative Systems, Inc.

Pastor, Friendship Baptist Church

Associate Publisher, Austin Weekly News

Directors

Chief Program Officer, Chicago Child Care Society

Mildred Wiley Community Organizer, Institute for Nonviolence Chicago

Tenisha Jones

Jack Macnamara Visiting Scholar, Center for Urban Research and Learning at Loyola University

Bradly Johnson Director of Core Programs, BUILD

Robin Pratts

Reginald Little

Sharon Morgan Director, Graduate Support & Community Outreach Catalyst Schools, Circle Rock Charter

Manager of Health Promotions & Community Engagement, Rush University Medical Center

Mortgage Loan Officer, Residential Lending Old Second National Bank

ACT STAFF Leadership Team

Service Delivery Team

Planning & Investment Team

• Darnell Shields Executive Director

• Sarah Meyer Neighborhood Network Manager

• Jose Abonce Lead Organizer

• Shavion Scott Director of Strategic Initiatives • Alicia Plomin-Spitler Marketing & Development Manager • Andrew Born Research & Evaluation

• Ethan Ramsay Project Coordinator

• Gina DeCoud Austin Community Hub Coordinator

• Christopher Banks Micro Market Recovery Program Coordinator

• Dollie Sherman Outreach Coordinator • Kaprisha Martin Austin Community Hub Associate

ACT MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS A House in Austin Academy of Scholastic Achievement American Red Cross Austin Childcare Providers’ Network Austin Weekly News Be Strong Families Because I Care Bethel New Life BUILD, Inc. By the Hand Club Cara Catholic Charities Chicago Austin Youth Travel Adventures Chicago Children’s Choir

Chicago Community Loan Fund Christ the King Jesuit College Prep College Mentoring Exeperience Community Bank of Oak Park River Forest Erikson Institute First United Church of Oak Park Friends of The Children Friendship Baptist Church Greater West Town Community Development Project Housing Forward I.C. Stars Inspiration Corporation

Institute for Nonviolence Chicago Jane Addams Resource Corporation Kids First Chicago KRA Westside American Job Center LAF Literacy Works Manufacturing Renaissance Mary Shyrese Daycare Mercy Housing Lakefront New Moms OAI, Inc. Oak Park Regional Housing Center Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry Positive Attitudes, Inc.

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Prevention Partnership Project Exploration ReDevelopment Management Resources, Inc. Sarah’s Inn South Austin Neighborhood Association St. Joseph Services St. Leonard’s Ministries The Catalyst Schools The Loretto Hospital UIC Jane Addams College of Social Work VOCEL Westside Health Authority Worldvision

THRIVE 2025: 2019 QUARTER 1

Austin Weekly News, February 27, 2019

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Community activist, member of the QLP Steering Committee, and ACT Board Member Mildred Wiley volunteers during one of the 3 public Community Summits held during the creation stage of the plan.

Why now?

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By Darnell Shields Executive Director, Austin Coming Together

n last quarter’s special section, I wrote about how now is our time -- our time to take action, to collaborate, and to leverage collective impact to create lasting change. But why now?

As many of us can remember, Austin has been through many challenges. The years after WWII brought disinvestment and decline to Austin, as our community experienced the demographic and economic changes that affected neighborhoods across Chicago’s West Side and many urban communities across the country.

Factories shut down and their blue-collar jobs disappeared, and when middle-class white residents left for the suburbs, they took their consumer dollars and closed their businesses. As Austin’s population went from majority white to majority African American in the 1970s, services and attention by the City of Chicago receded.

Over the last few decades, Austin has continued to face setbacks.

Several stores and community resources left or closed, and many public schools were shut down.

The housing bubble and resulting recession hit our community hard, causing many workers to lose their jobs and homes to go into foreclosure.

For the last forty years, the main investment in Austin has become policing and incarceration, instead of human and community development.

These changes were just one of the contributing

factors that caused decades of some of the highest rates of arrest, incarceration, and police abuse, ultimating furthering poverty and disadvantage.

Now, we are at a tipping point. We must shift our perspective to focus on the facts as they currently stand, instead of Austin’s challenging history. The strategies of the past have not worked. We cannot accomplish a true transformation by offering piecemeal solutions.

We must not settle for small scale change -- we must think big!

And THAT is why the time is NOW! As eloquently stated in the book The War on Neighborhoods: Policing, prison and punishment in a divided city, what will work is “trying to understand and intervene at multiple entry points within Austin’s complex ecology of challenges and assets. Aware of the research on how incarceration produces parental absence and more challenges for youth, Austin Coming Together (ACT)’s goal is to identify areas with the greatest disadvantages -- such as Austin’s million-dollar blocks -- and work collaboratively with young people and families in an effort to break the cycle of violence and disadvantage.” Visit www.waronneighborhoods.com for details.

There has been a recent shift in Austin’s community service landscape towards network building, resulting in the largest amount of strong partnerships between agencies and those they service than ever before.

Money does not

create conditions for collective impact or collaborative action alone. Trusting relationships and a clear plan of action must exist in order for financial investments to take hold in a sustainable way.

ACT has been consistently adding to our member base and partner netwFork, engaging local entities to better leverage resources, and immersing ourselves in Austin since our founding in 2010. We have been able to grow our capacity and can now create the density of infrastructure that is needed to move Austin forward. In fact, our level of connectedness was recognized by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and led them to select us as the lead agency for Austin’s first ever Qualityof-Life Plan (QLP).

Although the concept of a 5-year QLP as a tool for strategic community improvement has been around for twenty years now, the Austin neighborhood was never chosen. Why? Because efforts in our community were uncoordinated, preventing us from picking up the torch for such a complex endeavor.

But now, Austin has a plan to leverage the collective impact of everyone’s efforts. This is a special moment in history. And we’re not the only ones who feel this way, as evidenced by all the press cov-

erage the QLP has received since the release event in December: www.austincomingtogether.org/QLP Austin is poised and ready for the next 5 years of implementation. Each of the 7 Issue Areas in the plan have a Task Force and all have been hard at work producing action plans and project plans for each of their roles in the QLP. ACT was given support to design an infrastructure for project management, and the investment needed to hire additional staff to assist with the increased level of community connections and projects that have resulted from the plan.

But let’s remember, money does not create conditions for collective impact or collaborative action alone. Trusting relationships and a clear plan of action must exist in order for financial investments to take hold in a sustainable way.

Now, with both these components in place, we are working together to secure the future that the Austin community deserves.

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Austin Weekly News, February 27, 2019

THRIVE 2025: 2019 QUARTER 1

Austin Quality-of-Life Plan Goals & Prioritized Actions

Task Force Chairs met with their Strategy Leads to asses each of the 84 actions in the plan and determine which to start with. They took into consideration any existing platforms that could be leveraged, the possible barriers to implementation, the timeline needed, what would gain early traction, and what is most critical to initiate as early as possible. Listed here are the prioritized actions that each Task Force has identified using those criteria. Read all strategies and their underlying actions at austincomingtogether.org/QLP

EDUCATION Our goal is: for our local educational system and partners to provide the services, opportunities and support to help all our students stay on track, enrich their education and serve their needs, from early childhood through high school to job and career readiness.

“On a personal level, this

plan summarizes all of my hopes and wishes to improve my community. Whenn we are successful in implementing these strategies, the impact on the larger community will be unmeasurable.

Austin residents will have a seat at the table -we may even sit at the head of the table! We will have high quality schools and we will elect public officials who would not dare pass a budget that does not include a little something for Austin. People of Austin, civic engagement starts today!”

DEBORAH WILLIAMS CHAIR OF THE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT TASK FORCE

Priority Actions*

CIVIC E ENGAGEMENT O goal is: to sustain Our ccollaborative community involvement—from community campaigns tto engaging elected officials—so we can bring vo voices and power to the effo orts to improve Austin.

Priority Actions* Priorit 11.22 Ed Educate t voters and increase voter turnout 2.2 Identify and train community organizers between the ages of 18-35

1.2 Improve the early learning environment in Austin by helping existing providers become accredited and more deeply prepared for child development

2.3 Improve communication to parents about existing services and agencies based at local schools 4.1 Establish a high-quality high school IB program and other options for students

YOUTH EMPOWERMENT Our goal is: for Austin to have healthier and more engaged youth who are able to reach their full potential.

Priority Actions* 1.1 Involve young people in the community in the leadership of the committee 2.1 Expose youth to professionals who they can relate to 3.2 Expand the trauma support service system for youth and families

HOUSING Our goal is: to create a stabilized housing market in Austin, with support for local homeowners and a wide array of affordable housing options.

Priority Actions* 1.1 Expand community “first look” opportunity and fiscal support for residents 2.4 Increase tenant-landlord/management communication and education 4.1 Preserve and invest in vacant buildings

Only

40%

of households own their homes

*The reference numbers next to each Action coincide with the full list of Strategies and Actions in the plan.

READ THE PLAN AT austincomingtogether.org/QLP

Austin Weekly News, February 27, 2019

THRIVE 2025: 2019 QUARTER 1

$159.5

MILLION: Annual amount spent outside Austin by local residents on retail and eating out

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Our goal is: to create economic revitalization in Austin and by Austin. We will support new and existing local businesses, entrepreneurs, and the workforce; improve our commercial corridors; and attract new investment to build a stronger, more dynamic local economy.

Priority Actions*

1.2 Bring on an infrastructure consultant 2.1 Survey and connect existing [workforce and entrepreneurship] programs 3.7 Educate investors and lenders on the commercial opportunities in Austin

“I grew up here, and like most

PUBLIC SAFETY Our goal is: to collaborate and create programs that increase a sense of safety, community and quality of life to build a healthy and resilient neighborhood.

Priority Actions* 1.1 Increase restorative justice activities in the community 2.3 Expand outreach intervention programs that break the cycle of violence 3.3 Promote community engagement opportunities for local institutions 4.2 Increase other activities to engage youth

of us, have thought about what Austin could be. The potential is here to make something great even better. Like many of us, I tried to do my part...went to meetings, talked to politicians, maybe picked up some trash, but individually we do not have the capacity.

This process -- this community driven process to create the QLP -- has given me and others the opportunity we were looking for to make a BIG difference in our lives and the lives of our neighbors. It’s our chance to be a part of making Austin everything it can and should be. It is a privilege I will not squander. We will give it our all because we have been waiting, and we are ready!”

COMMUNITY NARRATIVE Our goal is: to revitalize the image and spirit of Austin by promoting assets such as our historic housing, creating a healthy community and building a more robust environment for local arts and culture.

3TO1

Priority Actions* 1.3 Utilize school spaces for arts events 2.1 Bridge the gap between residents’ experiences and how they are reflected by media outlets 3.4 Build a sense of community through activities such as creating and maintaining community gardens

>

Ratio of NEGATIVE stories about Austin to POSITIVE stories in 2017

JERROD WILLIAMS CO-CHAIR OF THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE

*The reference numbers next to each Action coincide with the full list of Strategies and Actions in the plan.

READ THE PLAN AT austincomingtogether.org/QLP

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Austin Weekly News, February 27, 2019

THRIVE 2025: 2019 QUARTER 1

Austin Quality-of-Life Plan Leaders Community Narrative Task Force Committee Chairs: Briana Shields - Briana Janeé Arts Kenneth Varner - Healthy Schools Campaign Strategy Leads: Lasondra Kern - Resident Kiana Beasley - Resident, Community Organizer Suzanne McBride - Austin Talks Mike Romain - Austin Weekly News Cindy Schneider - Spaces-n-Places

Economic Development Task Force Committee Chairs: Jerrod Williams - Community Resident Thomas Gary - Community Resident Strategy Leads: Yemisi Dinkins - Westside Health Authority Joshua Brooks - Manufacturing Renaissance

Heather Sattler - Community Development Consultant Emily Peters - Jane Addams Resource Corporation Marvin Austin - Bethel New Life

Education Task Force Committee Chairs: Natasha Smith-Walker - Project Exploration Crystal Bell - Ella Flagg Young Elementary Charles Anderson - Michele Clark High School Strategy Leads: Ruth Kimble - Austin Childcare Providers’ Network Pam Price - Chicago Public Schools Michelle Burgess - Chicago Public Schools Sean Schindl - Kids First Chicago

Interested in joining the Implementation Task Force?

Housing

Youth Empowerment

Task Force Committee Chairs: Athena Williams - West Cook Homeownership Center Allison McGowan - Community Resident Strategy Leads: Shirley Fields - Hunter’s Realty Dominique Davis - Mercy Housing Rosie Dawson - Westside Health Authority Athena Williams - West Cook Homeownership Center

Task Force Committee Chair: Carmen Scott-Boria - BUILD Inc. Strategy Leads: Sarah Meyer - Austin Coming Together Deonna Hart - BUILD Inc. Jeramie McGill - St. Joseph Services Victoria Tejeda - St. Joseph Services Frederica Malone - Catholic Charities Gina Young - Catholic Charities

Public Safety

Task Force Committee Chair: Deborah Williams - Habilitative Systems Inc. Strategy Leads: Arnold Bearden - South Austin Neighborhood Association Sharif Walker - After School Matters

Task Force Committee Chairs: Bradly Johnson - BUILD Inc. Marilyn Pitchford - Heartland Alliance Strategy Leads: Remona Sanders - Catholic Charities Edwina Hamilton - Catholic Charities David Cassel - Institute for Nonviolence Chicago Bradly Johnson - BUILD Inc. Adam Alonso - BUILD, Inc.

Contact ACT’s Community Organizer, Jose Abonce, at 773-417-8615 or jabonce@austincomingtogether.org for more information.

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Civic Engagement

THRIVE 2025: 2019 QUARTER 1

Austin Weekly News, February 27, 2019

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT In order to “empower local voters and elected officials to be a voice for Austin,” the Task Force planned and produced two political forums.

Implementation partner South Austin Neighborhood Association (SANA), in collaboration with the Chicago Westside NAACP, organized a forum for 29th Ward Alderman that took place Feb. 5 at Michele Clark High School. Candidates Chris Taliaferro (incumbent), Zerlina Smith, and Dwayne Truss were in attendance.

In partnership with the Chicago Westside NAACP, a Mayoral Forum was held on Feb. 9 at Malcom X College during which candidates were asked how they would address the issues presented in the QLP.

COMMUNITY NARRATIVE Every year, Chicagoans get a chance to take a look inside of buildings that are normally offlimits to the public during the Chicago Architecture Center’s annual Open House Chicago event. In 2018, for the first time ever, Austin was part of it. And we’re proud to say it was one of the very first results of the QLP, helping move towards our goal of creating a positive Community Narrative about Austin!

The 11 West Side sites that were part of the tour included an array of churches, Austin Town Hall fieldhouse, the recently opened Father Augustus Tolton Peace Center formerly the Austin State Bank, and The Loretto Hospital. It was a chance to see the neighborhood beyond headlines about violence.

Moving Austin Forward

A

YOUTH EMPOWERMENT The Youth Empowerment leads started their work in January by supporting the development of a community-wide Youth Council. ACT, Build and Territory signed on as implementation partners to leverage and evolve their current youth leadership groups. This February an initial group of 12 youth came together to build relationships and take part in one of Territory’s design studios. The studio gives youth an opportunity to articulate their current relationships with public space in Austin, receive an introduction to technical skills in community planning, and create a proposal to be submitted to the Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities. In addition to the training curriculum, the youth are being introduced to the Austin QLP, to think about ways in which they may influence the implementation of actions that impact youth in Austin. Looking forward, the agencies plan to continue offering guidance to the group to grow a sustainable, youth-led council for the Austin Community.

By Alicia Plomin-Spitler Austin Coming Together

ustin being given the opportunity to create its own Quality-of-Life Plan is a monumental victory in itself. But the strategies in the plan are already being implemented and we are seeing the impact! Here are some of the accomplishments the QLP Task Forces have completed, plus some current projects we are excited about.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

PEACE CIRCLE TRAINING

PUBLIC SAFETY The Public Safety Task Force is hard at work creating high quality prevention strategies for a safer Austin. In collaboration with BUILD and Catholic Charities, they are outlining how to educate the community about Restorative Justice practices. They will be seeking assistance from those already providing training and determine how best to advocate for them and in what ways, potentially through local school programs. These efforts will also help transform the community’s understanding of

Restorative Justice, build capacity for trainers to make a stronger impact, and create a Restorative Justice Court for Austin.

Download the full version of the Austin Quality-of-Life Plan at austincomingtogether.org/QLP

The Economic Development Task Force is tackling the prioritized action of connecting existing workforce and enp trepreneurship programs. They have started by leveraging t tthe Austin Workforce Collaborative, a group formed by ACT in i 2013 to create pathways to living wage careers (one of ACT’s Thrive 2025 impact goals) for under- and unemployed A workers in the Austin community. Organizations involved w include Jane Addams Resource Collaborative (JARC), The i Cara Program, Westside Health Authority, Manufacturing C Renaissance, Housing Forward, New Moms, St. Joseph SerR vvices, Literacy Works, Dominican University and St. Leonaard’s Ministry. Since the Austin Workforce Collaborative is ffocused on improving access, recruitment and retention, tthe group inspired the coordinated intake and referral systtem that ACT currently uses as part of the Austin Community Hub. The QLP Task Force will continue working with the n Collaborative to create an Action Plan to re-energize and C eevolve current workforce development efforts.

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Austin Weekly News, February 27, 2019

THRIVE 2025: 2019 QUARTER 1