AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2024 QUARTER 1
March
THE AUSTIN COMMUNITY PUBLISHED ITS FIRST QUALITY-OF-LIFE PLAN CALLED AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. (AFT) IN 2018. THIS QUARTERLY PUBLICATION DESCRIBES HOW AUSTIN COMING TOGETHER (ACT) IS SUPPORTING THE COMMUNITY TO IMPLEMENT AFT AND OTHER EFFORTS.
PROGRESS IN SIGHT: HOW THE COMMUNITY’S PLAN LOOKS TO ADVANCE PAGE 3
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AUSTIN EATS INITIATIVE PAGE 4
THE COMMUNITY SUMMIT: AN ANNUAL FORUM TO CULTIVATE AUSTIN’S FUTURE PAGE 7
Special thanks to these Austin Forward. Together. quality-of-life plan legacy investors:
Since 2010, Austin Coming Together (ACT) has facilitated collaboration to improve education and economic development outcomes in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.
Today, we serve a network of 50+ organizations committed to improving the quality of life in the Austin community. Our strategic plan is called Thrive 2025 and outlines how we will mobilize our resources to achieve four impact goals by the year 2025: Quality Early Learning, Safe Neighborhoods, Living Wage Careers, and Stable Housing Markets.
Officers
CHAIR
Larry Williams
Broker, State Farm Insurance
VICE CHAIRMAN
Bradly Johnson
Chief Community Officer, BUILD Inc.
SECRETARY
Jerrod Williams
Law Clerk, Illinois Appellate Court
Leadership
Darnell Shields Executive Director
Andrew Born*
Senior Director of Community Impact
*Also part of the ACT Leadership Team
Operations
TREASURER
LaDarius Curtis
Senior Director of Community Engagement & Health, West Side United
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Darnell Shields
Austin Coming Together
Directors
Sharon Morgan
Director of Graduate Support & Community Outreach, Catalyst Schools
Reverend Reginald E. Bachus Pastor, Friendship Baptist Church
Deirdre Bates*
Director of Operations
Dearra Williams
Executive Operations Lead/ Assistant to the CEO
Londen Mance
Office Administrator
Strategic Initiatives
Sandra Diaz* Service Delivery Enhancement Manager, Austin Community Hub
Emone Moore Engagement Coordinator, Austin Community Hub
WE’RE HIRING! View job openings at AustinComingTogether.org/Careers
A House in Austin
Academy of Scholastic Achievement
Austin Childcare Providers Network
Austin Community Family Center
Austin Weekly News (Growing Community Media)
Be Strong Families
Beat the Streets Chicago
Bethel New Life Beyond Hunger BUILD Inc.
By The Hand Club For Kids Cara Catholic Charities
Chicago Austin Youth Travel Adventures
Chicago Community Loan Fund
City of Refuge
Defy Ventures Illinois
Erikson Institute
Friends of the Children
Friendship Community Development Corp. of Austin
Greater West Town Community Development Project
Tenisha Jones
Vice President of Community & Government Engagement, Catholic Charities
Reginald Little
Business Development Specialist, Great Lakes Credit Union
Dawn Ferencak
Senior Marketing Strategist, Chicago Parent
Deborah Williams-Thurmond
Community Outreach & Engagement Specialist, Habilitative Systems, Inc.
Dollie Sherman Engagement Specialist, Austin Community Hub
Ethan Ramsay*
Planning and Investment Manager
Grace Cooper Lead Organizer
Mia Almond Project Coordinator
Housing Forward
i.c. stars
IFF
Institute for Nonviolence Chicago
Jane Addams Resource Corporation
Kids First Chicago
KRA Westside
American Job Center
Learning Edge Tutoring (fka Cluster Tutoring)
Ruth Kimble
Founder & CEO, Austin Childcare Providers Network
Max Komnenich
Associate Principal, Lamar Johnson Collaborative
In Memoriam
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jack Macnamara
1937–2020
FOUNDING BOARD CHAIR
Mildred Wiley
1955–2019
Arewa Karen Winters
Community Organizer
Natalie Goodin
Special Projects Manager
Nicholas Galassini
Chicago Neighborhood Recovery Program Associate
Rachel Follenweider Research and Evaluation Intern
Legal Aid Chicago (fka LAF)
Manufacturing Renaissance
Mary Shyrese Daycare
Maryville Academy
Mercy Housing Lakefront
New Moms
OAI, Inc.
Oak Park Regional Housing Center
Open Books
PCC Community
Wellness Center
Project Exploration
Renaissance Social Services, Inc.
Sarah’s Inn
South Austin Neighborhood Association
St. Joseph Services
St. Leonard’s Ministries
Stone Community Development Corporation
Marketing & Development
Alicia Plomin* Director of Marketing and Development
Sydni Hatley Marketing and Development Coordinator
The Catalyst Schools
The Journey Forward
The North Avenue District, Inc.
Towers of Excellence
UIC Jane Addams
College of Social Work
VOCEL
Westside Health Authority
West Side Forward Worldvision
Youth Guidance
Since its genesis in 2018, the Austin Forward. Together. (AFT) quality-of-life plan has been an impactful driver for extensive change and transformation in Chicago’s Austin community. As most readers know, the plan set forth an ambitious array of detailed actions outlined in five years between 2019 and 2024. Despite these parameters, the plan’s impact will go beyond these five years by continually tapping the collective and collaborative power of the community.
The success and implementation of the AFT plan and key actions have established a world of opportunity for Austin and has been the recipient of many awards. Austin Coming Together (ACT) is incredibly proud of the
unrelenting commitment and work put into the plan by community residents and partners and is excited to see what it will evolve into in the future.
In recent months, ACT has been working closely with AFT leaders to begin discussing and envisioning just how the massive plan will look moving ahead. As part of the assessment period, these convenings allowed AFT leaders to gain a better understanding of the plan at its five-year mark and its unique implementation landscape regarding current actions.
ACT staff were able to provide an in-depth overview of progress, along with key takeaways from the five-year implementation period. Some of these takeaways have included:
• Tested by a global pandemic, AFT’s leadership remained strong and emerged more unified than ever, working together in new, innovative, and exciting ways.
• Our impact has been driven by continuous and growing community engagement as we use and promote the AFT plan as a compass for Austin.
• AFT Leaders are committed to the plan, making slow and steady progress—some
The work we do in this plan is the spark for a renaissance that goes beyond all we outline in the plan’s pages.
aided by unique opportunities and accelerants, and others struggling against strong headwinds.
• In partnership with numerous Implementation Partners, we’ve used the plan, its Actions, Focal Projects, and Infrastructure to gain traction, catalyze change, and attract investment to Austin.
• There are still unrealized opportunities across the plan that can help propel us forward as we seek to make a greater impact.
Symbolically, AFT has represented a unified vision AND agenda for comprehensive community development in Austin. As such, it has been highly influential—attracting millions of dollars of investment, inspiring countless hours of change-making activity, and catalyzing numerous projects and partnerships that would not have happened if not for the plan.
When we started implementing AFT in 2019, we began with three key assumptions:
• AFT Strategies and Actions are not all equal in scope, effort, and resources needed
• AFT was too massive to mobilize all at once
• We needed to identify initial priorities to gain traction
After our first five years, we’ve both confirmed these assumptions and learned new lessons:
• There is a great deal of overlap and intersection across the plan.
• Priorities change over time.
• We should continue to prioritize different Actions in the plan.
• Unique implementation models, like the Austin Eats initiative, have emerged from the Action planning processes, showing that once Action plans are created, they are more likely to generate successful projects if there is dedicated funding involved.
The AFT quality-of-life plan continues to exist and progress but is entering a new phase where we sustain and deepen community ownership and amplify its impact, and conduct robust research & evaluation to better understand what works and what needs to change in the future.
On March 9th, we are hosting our annual AFT Community Summit at By The Hand Club For Kids. We are inviting the whole community to celebrate our past five years of progress and to help us confirm our path forward.
We will seek community feedback at the Summit about what actions should be prioritized in the near term and onward into the future. After more years of implementation, the plan will once again be subject to further review and evolution. ACT firmly believes that community involvement will be essential to continue the plan. For the past five years, we have seen a deeply unprecedented level of progress, a direct result of Austin partners and residents. n
Born out of the ‘Austin Forward. Together.’ quality-of-life plan, the Austin Eats initiative is a network of deeply committed organizations working to combat food insecurity by promoting healthier food choices and building up the Austin community’s food access infrastructure. We believe by synergizing organizations already promoting healthier food choices through emergency food preparedness, grocery access, culinary entrepreneurship, food education, community gardens & farms, Austin Eats will strengthen the community’s food access ecosystem. Below are some key highlights of the initiative:
In 2023, the the Austin Town Hall Farmers Market traffic grew by over 40% with a weekly average of 100 people buying high-quality fresh-food groceries. A high proportion of the market’s customers are residents from Austin’s senior buildings and people living in Austin zip codes. Led by Forty Acres Fresh Market, the the Austin Farmers Market also hired a full-time market manager, which lead to further developments in market expansion and advertising. Forty Acres also celebrated a milestone this year in breaking ground for a future brick-and-mortar fullservice grocery store in Austin!
Austin Town Hall Farmers Market traffic grew by over 40% with a weekly average of 100 PEOPLE buying high-quality fresh-food groceries.
The Austin Garden Collective’s volunteer days have also had a positive impact on green space access in Austin. On average, around 8.25 volunteers (a total of 99 over the summer) showed up to support the community gardeners, who are primarily senior residents. A total of 12 Volunteer Saturdays had occurred in 2023.
99 PEOPLE volunteered at 12 Volunteer Saturdays
Austin Eats and One Earth Collective hosted two food justice film screenings in 2023 that took place at BUILD’s community garden and Bethel New Life. Altogether, 373 people came out to hear from panels of local food professionals, discuss pertinent food issues, and eat food prepared by local vendors. Both screenings, which happened in July and October, saw an increase in attendance from the previous year.
Bags of food distributed to 65–100 FAMILIES per week.
373 PEOPLE attended two food justice film screenings.
300+ PEOPLE fed at each Hot Meal Pop-up.
Our partner Jehovah Jireh provides healthy food to those experiencing food insecurity by distributing to homebound residents and by opening up his space to the public weekly. He continues to distribute food (5 bags/ person) to 65-100 families a week. Jehovah Jireh also serves about 300 people per hot meal pop-up.
Community Narrative
TASK FORCE CHAIRS
Briana Shields
Briana Janeé Arts
Kenneth Varner
Healthy Schools
Campaign
Dearra Williams
Austin Coming
Together
STRATEGY LEADS
Lasondra Kern Community Resident
Suzanne McBride
Austin Talks
Alicia Plomin
Austin Coming Together
Cindy Gray Schneider Spaces-n-Places
Jai Jones
PSPC, The Chicago Community Trust and Community Resident
TASK FORCE CHAIRS
Jerrod Williams South Austin
Neighborhood Association
Heather Sattler
Community Development Consultant
STRATEGY LEADS
Erica Staley
Manufacturing Renaissance
Emily Peters
Jane Addams Resource Corporation
Tina Augustus
Chicago West Side Chamber of Commerce
Roxanne Charles
West Side Forward
Melissa O’Dell Defy Ventures
Fanya Berry Community Resident
Education
Crystal Bell
Ella Flagg Young Elementary School (retired)
Charles Anderson
Michele Clark High School
STRATEGY LEADS
Ruth Kimble Austin Childcare Providers Network
Madelyn James
Austin Childcare Providers Network
Pam Price
Chicago Public Schools
Cata Truss Community Resident
Housing
Athena Williams
West Cook Homeownership Center
Allison McGowan
Community Resident
STRATEGY LEADS
Shirley Fields
Community Resident
Rosie Dawson
Westside Health Authority
Athena Williams
West Cook Homeownership Center
Baxter Swilley
Oak Park Regional Housing Center
Bradly Johnson BUILD Inc.
Marilyn Pitchford
Heartland Alliance
STRATEGY LEADS
Adam Alonso BUILD Inc.
Edwina Hamilton BUILD Inc.
Gina Young
Catholic Charities
Bertha Purnell
Mothers OnA Mission28
Jose Abonce
The Policing Project
Ruby Taylor Taproots, Inc.
TASK FORCE CHAIRS
D’elegance Lane
Community Stakeholder
STRATEGY LEADS
Deonna Hart BUILD Inc.
Gina Young
Catholic Charities
Aisha Oliver
Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Helen Slade
Territory NFP
Dollie Sherman
Austin Coming Together
Chris Thomas
YourPassion1st
Civic Engagement
TASK FORCE CHAIRS
Deborah Williams-Thurmond
Habilitative Systems Inc.
STRATEGY LEADS
Arnold Bearden
Community Resident
Crystal Gardner
Protest to the Polls
Sharif Walker
Bethel New Life
Contact ACT’s Lead Organizer Grace Cooper at gcooper@austincomingtogether.org
The initial recommendations on the evolution of the Austin Forward. Together. (AFT) quality-of-life plan will be put on full display on Saturday, March 9, 2024 at the annual Community Summit.
The community summit model has been integral to the plan’s success and continuation ever since its inception in 2018. Since the plan was created, ACT has been intentional about updating the community on key actions and how residents can continually be involved in the process. In the five years between the plan’s launch and today, the community summit has also served an important purpose in convening the community to focus on what they created together. It is an opportunity for community leaders and residents to add their voice to the conversation.
Not only has the annual summit been an extremely vital method in updating the community, it has also served as an opportunity for the community to simply gather together and celebrate. The event has allowed for local small businesses to provide food for attendees such as Schweet Cheesecake, Splyt N Half Kitchen, and Forty Acres Fresh Market.
The first community summit took place in 2018, where the Austin Forward. Together. (AFT) plan was unveiled. With hundreds of residents and leaders in attendance, the community had their first glance at the massive plan and what it would come to
symbolize for Austin. After an 18-month process of engaging the community over what they felt were the most significant concerns in Austin, the plan came to life. The inaugural summit was a moment in time. A moment when the community knew it could take complete ownership of its future.
The plan celebrated one year of implementation at the 2019 Summit. At this point, nearly 30% of plan actions had been initialized in one year alone. Highlights included the launch of the implementation infrastructure for the plan as well as ACT unveiling its new logo and branding.
When the pandemic hit, the mode of the in-person community summit pivoted to something different. Throughout 2020 and into 2021, ACT began to mobilize support and programs to focus on emergency COVID-19 response, but remained intentional about updates through regular and highlevel communications. Despite the absence of the in-person summit, ACT persisted with implementation even in the face of rapid programmatic changes.
In 2021, the efforts of the AFT plan and its direct impact in the community were showcased in a short documentary film. Created by Digifé, a black-owned production company, the film not only tells the story of the year’s progress, but also aims to inspire the support needed to achieve all that was left to accomplish.
The plan represents a roadmap and a starting point for how we can convert our potential power into action, into real collective power in the neighborhood.
DARNELL SHIELDS, ACT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT THE 2018 SUMMIT
The community summit returned to its customary in-person format in January 2023. Over 300 attendees gathered to hear from community leaders about community development projects and learned more about the plan in-depth.
Additionally, the 2023 summit helped to inspire more residents and stakeholders to become part of the AFT work as it began its fifth year of implementation. This upcoming community summit will truly be something special. With attendance expected to approximate 300 community residents and partners, the summit will be unique as the AFT plan enters its next phase beyond the original five year scope. Community input will be crucial to the direction of the plan, and ACT is thrilled to use this year’s summit as a launching pad. n
