Austin Coming Together 022818

February 28, 2018

AUSTIN COMING TOGETHER THRIVE 2025: 2018 QUARTER 1

INTRODUCTION PAGE 3 | QUALITY OF LIFE PLAN PRIORITY PAGE 45 | EARLY EDUCATORS TRAINING ACADEMY PAGE 7

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Austin Weekly News, February 28, 2018

THRIVE 2025: 2018 QUARTER 1

ACT BOARD OF DIRECTORS Officers

Directors

Larry Williams, Chair Broker State Farm Insurance

Mildred Wiley Community Organizer Institute for Nonviolence Chicago

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

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

Angela Waller, Secretary Community Relations Manager Loretto Hospital Deborah Williams, Treasurer Principal D. W. Provision Consulting Services

Reverend Reginald E. Bachus Pastor, Friendship Baptist Church Tenisha Jones Director of Education Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corp

ACT Member Organizations A House in Austin Academy of Scholastic Achievement American Red Cross ABC Bank 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 Channing’s Child Care Chicago Community Loan Fund Central Austin Neighborhood Association Chicago Children’s Choir Chicago Jesuit Academy ChildServ Church on the Block Community Bank of Oak Park River Forest Christ the King Jesuit College Prep

Dominican University Erikson Institute Friendship Baptist Church Friendship Community Development Corporation First United Church of Oak Park Gone Again Travel Housing Forward I.C. Stars Inspiration Corporation Institute for Nonviolence Chicago Jane Addams Resource Corporation Jumpstart Chicago Kids First Chicago KIPP Create KRA Westside American Job Center Literacy Works Loretto Hospital Manufacturing Renaissance Mary Shyrese Daycare Mead Communications Mercy Housing Lakefront Moving Everest Charter School

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HIGH-SKILLED WELDERS, LASER & PRESS BRAKE OPERATORS

Bradly Johnson Director, Community Engagement & Strategic Partnerships, BUILD Reginald Little Consumer Loan Officer ABC Bank Dawn Ferencak Associate Publisher Austin Weekly News Jack Macnamara Visiting Scholar, Center For Urban Research And Learning, Loyola University Robin Pratts Manager, Health Promotions & Community Engagement,Rush University Medical Center New Moms OAI, Inc. Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry Oak Park Regional Housing Center Positive Attitudes, Inc. Prevention Partnership Project Exploration Rape Victim Advocates Sarah’s Inn St. Anthony’s Hospital St. Joseph Services St. Leonard’s Ministries South Austin Neighborhood Association The Catalyst Schools UIC Jane Addams College of Social Work Valerie Leonard Inc. VOCEL Westside Health Authority Worldvision Youth Guidance

Austin Weekly News, February 28, 2018

THRIVE 2025: 2018 QUARTER 1 IN T RODUCTION

I

Welcome to Austin

n 2017, the Austin community made great progress towards articulating a shared vision for the future of the community and the creation of a Quality of Life Plan.

Over the first half of 2017, Austin Coming Together concentrated on organizing a strong and deeply-rooted steering committee to oversee the planning process. Resident leaders and representatives of some of Austin’s largest community institutions have committed to building power to ensure Austin’s Quality of Life Plan and its projects become a reality.

Over the second half of 2017, ACT and the Quality of Life Plan Steering Committee focused on engaging community members in the planning process. In July we held the first of three community summits to build consensus about the types of action Austinites want to take. Afterwards, 7 working groups were formed to work on articulating the outcomes they wanted to see over the next 5 years, and the type of actions that we need to take to achieve those outcomes.

In December, community members got to vote on what actions they wanted to see at a community summit held at Michele Clark High School.

Working groups have now had a chance to take those votes into account and select priority actions that will be included in the plan.

The following pages are a preview, or a general outline of what the Austin Quality of Life Plan will look like. It is by no means final. There is still a lot of work left to do. Please review them carefully and get involved at our upcoming working group meetings. You can call ACT’s community organizer, Jose Abonce, to get involved. 773-403-2799.

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Austin Weekly News, February 28, 2018

THRIVE 2025: 2018 QUARTER 1

Quality of Life Plan Priority Outcomes and Actions Results of December 2017 Planning Summit

ACTION IDEAS ON WHERE WE WANT TO BE IN 5 YEARS: Create a youth centered empowerment and inclusion plan Increase social and cultural capital • Create a hub for CBOs to provide services to Austin • Create a Facebook page for Austin Increase youth investment in self-awareness and career focused programs

• Increase in youth employment • Exposure to professionals Austin youth can relate to • Financial literacy taught in schools Increase physical, emotional, and mental well-being of youth

• More trauma training & resources for education • Supportive networks building confidence throughout life/more mentors and role models • Year-round job opportunities for youth

Development Austin community homeowners initiatives Increase housing stock owned by Austin stakeholders • Community first (“first look” opportunity to purchase homes for Austin community and community-land trust).

• Increase homeownership retention Austin will be affordable and accessible to low-income residents

Access to a variety of housing choices

• Quality transitional housing with aim towards permanent housing • Senior housing development Decrease vacancy rate of buildings

• Preserve and invest in vacant buildings • Get banks/organizations to assist residents in facilitating purchases of homes Decrease building violations and increase in housing education participation

• Tenant-landlord communication/ education

Create an “Amazing Austin!” narrative about our community Investment in the arts and cultural spaces

• Turn Laramie State Bank (5200 W. Chicago Ave.) into a large scale community arts and cultural center • Build a public/private partnerships to support the work • Utilize school spaces for arts shows, arts programming and cultural activities.

Increase in authentic images and stories

• Bridge gap between residents and their stories and local newspapers.

• Youth-led Social media campaign Increase in health and wellness

• Voucher holder meeting requirements • Invest in and obtain community buy-in are eligible to purchase housing for food co-op with vouchers • Invest in healthier food choices • Raise awareness of barriers to accessing • Petition schools to be trauma-informed housing in order to push for policy/ Restore Austin community pride program/development change • Promote Retail Thrive Zone • Allocating TIF funding in Austin for rental • Create Austin marketing material subsidies/affordable housing

Sustain collaborative community involvement Empowered Voters and Elected Officials

• Recruit and train political candidates • Educate voters and increase voter turn out • Promote civics classes in CPS Youth Led Involvement

• Provide paid internships • Identify young leaders and train organizers • Connect young people with social justice organizations Stronger Community Relations and Connections

• Engage police/police engage community • Create more block clubs • Encourage more residents to apply for Police Department jobs Cultivated Leadership

• Train parent leaders and LSCs • Train community organizers to create community campaigns

Commit to life long learning by developing a pathway to prosperity Increased Access to Quality Early Childhood Programs

• Increase education of staff

and salaries • Increase special needs services for children • Partner with CPS to align curriculum for seamless transition to kindergarten Increased parent involvement

• Help parents make sure kids are staying on level/ teach benchmarks to parents.

• Provide convenient programs for parents • Better communication about services and agencies Increased access to wrap around services

• Implement the Community School Model • Connect the comprehensive services and the schools with the people who need them • Inventory and assess services and agencies in schools Increased preparation for dual credit classes

• Build pool of quality instructors / teachers • Review curriculum program needs/ collect current data and create profiles of all schools • Expand programs into the CPS schools

THRIVE 2025: 2018 QUARTER 1

Austin Weekly News, February 28, 2018

Increased access to vocational options in Austin

• Exposure /mentorship/internships.

Seek community involvement.

Expand existing programs and internships and add more to Austin schools • Demand capital investment and balance with programming dollars • Improve communication/better marketing

Economic revitalization in and by Austin Good roads leading to Austin

• Catalogue current resources, entities/people working on infrastructure projects in Austin to partner/collaborate with agencies and residents to identify needed repair.

Survey all potential revenue streams • Signage for neighborhood assets and areas/beautification projects • Brining on an infrastructure consultant Learning and earning in Austin

• Gather existing leaders (workforce development, entrepreneurship trainings, etc.) to attract funding and recruit participants • Hold maker fairs, bootcamps, apprenticeships • Invest in entrepreneurship development programs Increased community wealth and self-sufficiency

• Co-op Model: Restaurants, grocery stores, housing • Attract full-line grocery stores • Improve existing neighborhood stores by lobbying alderman for intensive inspection and incentives for development and local hiring More beautiful booming businesses

• Expand Retail Thrive Zone • Learn from other newly successful economically thriving neighborhoods • Community engagement and outreach

Collaborate and advocate for a safe and thriving Austin Decrease rates of violent crime

• Focus on mental health and

domestic violence

• Website/door-to-door engagement to keep each other aware and connected Decrease rates of quality of life crime

• Create Austin restorative justice community court • Youth/peer support groups within school/curriculum • Police trainings (community engagement, cultural humility, mental health) Increased displays, activities, and events of culture and peace

• Art/design showcase opportunities including welcoming signage • Schools promoting community engagement opportunities Increased access to safe spaces for com-

munity

• Positive loitering in parks for youth Other diversions for youth

GET INVOLVED! This project isn’t just about making a plan. It’s about building relationships with one another and taking action together.

Join a working group and work with your fellow Austin community members to take action. Contact Jose Abonce at 773403-2799 or jabonce@austincomingtogether.org for more information.

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Austin Weekly News, February 28, 2018

THRIVE 2025: 2018 QUARTER 1

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Austin Quality of Life Plan Steering Committee In order to ensure that community residents will be engaged in creating a plan for Austin, Austin Coming Together has formed a Steering Committee for the plan.

Our Working Vision

An empowered and thriving Austin community.

Our Mission

To engage community stakeholders in the creation and implementation of a “Quality of Life Plan” for Austin.

Our Values

Unity, Commitment, Transparency, Collaboration, Action

Austin Coming Together Interested in joining the Steering Committee?

Contact ACT’s Community Organizer, Jose Abonce, at 773-417-8615 for more information.

STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS NAME Annette Wilkerson Cassandra Norman Crystal Bell Deborah Williams Maretta Brown-Miller Mildred Wiley Natasha Smith Walker Bradly Johnson James Bowers Ruth Kimble Terry Redmond Sharon Hartshorn Vanessa Stokes Tom Drebenstedt Athena Williams Allen Van Note Crystal Dyer Dollie Sherman Marvin Austin Stephanie Bell Danielle Dixon

AFFILIATIONS 1300 N Long Block Club South Austin Neighborhood Association Ella Flagg Young Elementary Austin Coming Together, D. W. Provision Consulting Services Chicago Park District, Friendship Baptist Church ACT, Institute for Nonviolence, Austin Community Action Council Project Exploration Build, Inc. Local Civil Rights Attorney Austin Coming Together, Austin Childcare Providers Network South Austin Neighborhood Association South Austin Neighborhood Association Austin Coming Together, 600 N Lockwood Block Club North Ave District Austin Ascending Program Austin Community Action Council, GADA Gone Again Travel Austin Coming Together, 600 N Lorel Block Club Bethel New Life Hope Community Church Westside Health Authority, Good Neighbor Campaign

THRIVE 2025: 2018 QUARTER 1

Austin Weekly News, February 28, 2018

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The Early Educators Training Academy: Professionalizing Early Childcare in Austin

By Lacey Sikora

my’s first cohort will begin to work towards getting their associate’s degrees through uth Kimble knows the early childcare Truman College, a critical step to profescommunity inside and out. As the sionalizing the childcare industry in Austin CEO of the Austin Childcare Providand improving the quality of care. Kimble ers Network and owner of Channing’s notes that the classes, held at Michele Clark Childcare Academy, this grandmother Magnet High School in the community, in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood has made make classes easily accessible for providers it her life’s mission to contribute to the eduwho work in the community during the day. cation of generations of West Side children.

The Early Educators Training Academy In 1998, as a newly-minted owner of her will also include a Developmental Screening own childcare academy in Austin, Kimble training component. The four month trainrealized there was a need for ing program will help providers support for early childhood eduidentify issues with children cators in the community. She rethat need further treatment for calls, “I was always looking for developmental delays, a crucial resources, but they just weren’t skill to help young children prethere.” pare for Kindergarten.

She founded the Austin ChildAdditionally, the Austin care Providers Network (ACPN) Childcare Providers’ Network to provide much-needed reprovides ongoing workshops for sources to childcare providers both providers and community in Austin. The program began members. This February, prowith five providers who were viders began a six week Health just opening their centers and Legacy workshop focused on needed support in 1998. Tooverall health for providers and day, the program serves eighty RUTH KIMBLE the children they serve. Kimble home providers and fifteen CEO of the Austin Childcare says of the initiative, “Providcenters, seventy five percent of Providers Network and owner of ers work long hours and are which are in Austin and the rest Channing’s Childcare Academy eating a lot of the times with throughout the Chicago area. the kids. This is a way to learn Recognizing that quality proabout good eating habits and grams create good opportunigetting your health back on ties, not only for children but for the providers themselves, Kimble says track.”

Kimble points to partnerships with Austhe Providers’ Network works to address all aspects of running a child care facil- tin Coming Together, Michelle Clark High ity whether it is providing educational op- School, Bethel New Life, Westside Health portunities, book-keeping skills or tips for Authority and other agencies in Austin, as critical to success. building communication with parents.

“You gain credibility and value when you The Early Educators Training Academy, ACPN’s newest initiative, is bringing col- develop partnerships. Partners are there to lege coursework and other workshops to the support you, and I’m there to support them.

Austin community this Spring. The Acade- That’s what’s really valuable in Austin.”

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“Partners are there to support you, and I’m there to support them.

That’s what’s really valuable in Austin.”

PROVIDED

Austin Childcare Providers at the Austin Early Childhood Symposium.

Austin Coming Together OUR COMMON AGENDA • Quality Early Learning • Living Wage Jobs • Safe Neighborhoods • Stable Housing Market Join the conversation at austincomingtogether.org

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Austin Weekly News, February 28, 2018

THRIVE 2025: 2018 QUARTER

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