AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2025 QUARTER 1
June 25, 2025
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.
Delivering on our promise to the community
COMING FULL CIRCLE PAGE 3 | MEET THE ACWI TENANTS PAGE 4 | HOLISTIC MODEL AT ACWI PAGE 6 | COMMUNITY VIOLENCE INTERVENTION IN AUSTIN PAGE 7 MEET YOUR AUSTIN OUTREACH WORKERS PAGE 10
Special thanks to these Austin Forward. Together. quality-of-life plan legacy investors: THIS ISSUE INCLUDES A SPECIAL FEATURE PROFILE OF SCALING COMMUNITY VIOLENCE INTERVENTION FOR SAFER CHICAGO (SC2) STARTING ON PAGE 7
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.
OF DIRECTORS
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
Research & Evaluation
Andrew Born*
Senior Director of Community Impact
Mia Almond
Research Associate
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
Sandra Diaz*
Service Delivery Enhancement Manager, Austin Community Hub
Emone Moore
Engagement Coordinator, Austin Community Hub
Dollie Sherman
Engagement Specialist, Austin Community Hub
Tenisha Jones
Executive Management Professional
Reginald Little
Business Development Specialist, Great Lakes Credit Union
Dawn Ferencak
Senior Marketing Strategist, Chicago Parent
Deborah Williams-Thurmond
Founder & CEO, D.W. Provision Consulting Services
Saenovia Poole
Community Resources Coordinator, Austin Community Hub
Clara Bonnlander
Social Services Coordinator, Austin Community Hub
Ethan Ramsay*
Planning and Investment Manager
Grace Cooper Lead Organizer
*Also part of the ACT Leadership Team
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
Housing Forward
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
Nyla Larry
Project Coordinator
Arewa Karen Winters
Community Organizer
Natalie Goodin
Special Projects Manager
La’Shawna Bundy
Community Land Trust Coordinator
Marketing & Development
Jon Widell
Marketing and Development Specialist
Sydni Hatley
Marketing and Development Coordinator
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)
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
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
By Darnell Shields Executive Director, Austin Coming Together
In 2013, 50 Chicago Public Schools were closed by then Mayor Rahm Emmanual, with the largest number, four, being located in Austin. Low-income areas across the city that already were facing disinvestment, crime, and dwindling opportunities were hit the hardest. These closures removed even more access to necessary resources to the people of Austin. When the former Emmet School (now the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation (ACWI)), first became available ACT and Westside Health Authority (WHA) knew that this was an opportunity to reclaim what was lost in the community. A rare chance to not only have a physical and permanent space to serve as a reminder of the freedoms that had been taken away, but to also show how the future is shaping up for Austin and the Westside. To further illustrate this point and to drive home what the Aspire Center symbolizes, Juneteenth (6/19/2025) was chosen for the grand opening date.
Community buy in and input was key to the success of this project, in determining what was needed and what this needed to look like. From the start, we worked alongside
community members to provide residents with the wraparound resources they need to move from workforce development to building wealth. The community built this for itself, and the Aspire Center stands as a testament to the power of community organizing and collective vision. Built on the efforts of passionate advocates and community trailblazers, this project reflects a legacy crafted by and for the people it serves.
Located at Madison and Central, along two main commercial corridors, ACWI is part of a broader effort to revitalize our local economy and increase home ownership. When residents walk past the building, we want them to feel pride, and when they walk in, we want them to feel supported.
ACWI not only represents visible and physical change, but reclaiming a physical asset in the community serves as a reminder of the hope and the change that is possible, and that it is happening right now. While the Aspire Center is a new structure, it was important that much of the original structure, built in 1893, was preserved. It was key to show an ode to the past while pushing the boundaries forward, reimagining what was once thought possible, challenging the status quo and telling our youth their futures matter, but remembering where we came from.
Decades of disinvestment in the area have brought and shaped radical change, and this day and moment we hope serves as a point of liberation. The northeast corner of Madison and Central Avenue is no longer a reminder of Austin’s inequitable past, but an engine of new opportunities for generations of Austin families. After nearly a decade of planning and imagining, the Aspire Center has opened its doors to the community. n
Tenants Austin Coming Together, Westside Health Authority, Jane Addams Resources, and BMO
Since 2010, Austin Coming Together (ACT) has facilitated collaboration among its member network to collectively impact education and economic development outcomes in Austin. ACT assisted the community in creating its first-ever quality-of-life plan and manages its ongoing implementation, in addition to engaging with residents to get them connected to resources.
As the lead for the Austin Quality-of-Life Plan, ACT supported Westside Health Authority (WHA) in working with community leaders to make the Emmet School building a focal project of the plan. This led to partnershing with WHA and other organizations to submit a proposal for the CHicago Prize called the ASPIRE Initiative. While it was ultimately not selected for the prize (1 of 6 finalists), ACT became a co-developer and anchor tenant of the project to ensure the resources for construction and mobilization of the center into operations could be raised.
While mobilizing the center for operations, anchor tenants identified ACT’s role as lead for service coordination, community organizing, and evaluation. The Hub @ ACWI will play a central role in guiding the implementation of the Aspire Centers Operating Model, coordinating with all Anchor Tenants to connect residents and enhance their awareness of available services and resources. In addition, The Hub @ ACWI will also continue to support service providers and organizations in strengthening their relationship with one another and with the community, while ACT’s P&I team will leverage the center to facilitate high quality action planning sessions and host trainings that will build our collective power to realize the Austin Forward. Together. Quality-of-life plan.
For over 30 years Westside Health Authority (WHA) has been providing support to residents through community reentry, youth development, and employment services. They focus on economic development projects that revitalize and rebuild the Austin community by leveraging the power of its citizens. In 2018, WHA purchased the property of the former Emmet School, now Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, in a continued effort to create opportunities for the citizens of the Greater Westside on the recommendation of community stakeholders who desired to see the site redeveloped into a safe, attractive space for residents to access commerce and community services.
WHA has sought out to revive the once-bustling intersection of Madison and Central, and the repurposing of the Emmet School is a giant step in that mission. The Aspire Center will serve as a centralized location for Austin’s youth and unemployed and underemployed adults seeking career training and support. WHA is moving their reentry work to ACWI, in addition to their main operations and media and property management teams to make their work more accessible for the community.
Since 1985, Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) has trained low-income adults in manufacturing, and will be continuing their free on-site skills training at the Aspire Center. Austin residents will have access to Computer Numerical Control machine operation, welding, and mechanical assembly.
JARC has served as a Strategy Lead for the Austin Quality-of-Life Plan since 2019, on the Economic Development task force. They have sought to disrupt the traditional industry of manufacturing by investing in workers, targeted skills training, comprehensive support services and industry collaboration. With the goal of helping low-income workers, job seekers, and community residents attain financial selfsufficiency through manufacturing skills training and wrap-around supportive services.
JARC will be moving their main offices to ACWI, which will allow them to have a prominent and easily accessible location in Austin for the first time, to further their commitment to bringing wealth opportunities to Austin through their FOC work and continue reshaping the manufacturing industry’s relationship with its workforce.
The Freedom Defense Center of Austin fosters accountability and trust between the Public Defender’s Office and the community it serves. The Freedom Defense Center was founded in direct partnership with Austin residents, standing with and advocating for this community to reduce the impact of the carceral system and fight for justice. It works to change the narrative around harm and safety by honoring community members’ experiences and prioritizing their autonomy.
The Freedom Defense Center provides services aligned with their values: Collaboration, Transparency and Courage.
Through its partnership with United Way of Metro Chicago, BMO was a legacy investor in the Aspire Center and United Way’s ongoing work in supporting the Austin community. Through BMO’s own initiatives, it partners with organizations that drive social change, celebrate and support our local communities and families in providing financial wellness, and bring communities together. Through their community outreach sponsorship program with Aspire, their Zero Barriers to Business program, and their Bank at Work Initiative, they will play a key role in ensuring Austin residents have a clear path to equitable, sustainable wealth creation.
In conjunction with the organizations located within the Aspire Center, as well as those in ACT’s expansive member network, a partnership with BMO will ensure residents have access to integrated services of income support, financial coaching, and other banking products/services.
Legal Aid Chicago addresses legal areas that cover basic human needs. They have a vision that poverty will not be an impediment to justice in Cook County. Legal barriers that perpetuate poverty and inequality will be dismantled. Laws and legal systems will be open and equally effective for all who need their protection, especially those who experience unfair and disproportionately unjust treatment due to personal or community characteristics.
Their involvement with ACWI began with a partnership with Westside Health Authority in 2020, focusing on re-entry work. They offer an array of legal services and provide high quality civil legal aid to people living in poverty and other vulnerable groups. Their move to ACWI will allow them to help even more people in the community.
By Natalie Goodin Special Projects Manager, Austin Coming Together
Programming at the Aspire Center will foster strong connections with the community, strengthen partnerships with industry leaders, and develop innovative solutions to address gaps in small business development. These efforts will also create pathways into high-demand economic sectors, advancing our workforce development goals. As we pursue this work, it is essential that our approach to engaging individuals is as robust, thoughtful, and comprehensive as our strategy for collaborating with high-level partners.
In our commitment to meeting people where they are and providing the most effective support, we recognized a broad spectrum of stability among residents. This ranges from individuals in crisis, facing unemployment or urgent basic needs, to those who are gainfully employed and actively investing in their long-term success and the well-being of the broader community.
At the heart of our programming model is a holistic approach to equitable wealth creation, which focuses on individuals. This
approach is not only comprehensive but also intentional, ensuring that each resident is met with the resources and strategies most relevant to their journey toward selfsufficiency and success.
Through this lens, we identified six core components that make up our Comprehensive Scope of Services: job/ career, financial, legal, emotional, life/ family, and aspiring. These components reflect the full range of needs for individuals striving to reach their highest potential, aligning directly with our vision for the Aspire Center.
While we recognize the importance of all six, we have prioritized job/career, financial, and legal services as foundational. These priorities guided our initial partnerships and shaped the commitments from tenant organizations at the time of our Grand Opening, laying a strong groundwork for meaningful, long-term impact.
Alongside the development of the building, tenant teams spent more than a year working together and collaboratively building this holistic programming approach. The team built a coordinated intake system to be used at the center, overhauled existing processes and procedures to streamline referrals, and together, collaboratively evaluated partnerships positioned to meet the more outlying needs of the comprehensive scope. In areas that did not have a clear program or service to connect residents with, we successfully identified new opportunities and forged new partnerships, ensuring pathways for residents.
The true innovation of this holistic approach, and the comprehensive scope of services we offer, lies in its power to inspire. It instills a sense of worth in every individual who walks through our doors, encouraging residents to envision more for themselves, their families, and their
community. It provides the motivation to dream boldly and the support to turn those dreams into reality.
We have a beautiful facility, a dedicated team, and a trusted network of partners committed to delivering impactful programming. Through this integrated and person-centered model, we aim to see more than just higher incomes and stable employment. We envision residents progressing through career pathways, setting and achieving aspirational goals such as homeownership, long-term financial planning, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement.
This freedom to dream, this freedom to aspire, can ignite a renewed sense of value, purpose, and determination. Our holistic approach represents more than a set of services; it embodies the intention and commitment behind the Aspire Center: to serve as a catalyst for transformation in the Austin community. n
In 2018, Austin Forward. Together. (AFT) leaders identified the need to expand violence intervention initiatives in Chicago. In 2024, AFT leaders and organizations seized an opportunity to meet this need by partnering with a citywide collaborative known as Scaling Community Violence Intervention for a Safer Chicago (SC2). Our goal is to substantially reduce the annual number of shooting incidents in Austin by 2027.
A community-based approach to addressing violence
Engages individuals most at risk of being a victim of or committing an act of gun violence
Goal is to prevent and disrupt cycles of violence and retaliation
Provides services that save lives, address trauma, provide opportunity and improve the physical, social and economic conditions that drive violence
We’re creating a holistic suite of services for Austinites who are most at risk of perpetrating or being a victim of violence. This includes:
Street Outreach & Victim Services
Outreach workers build relationships with those most at risk of perpetrating or experiencing gun violence. When violent incidents occur, they work with victims and perpetrators to prevent retaliation and repair harm.
Mental and Behavioral Health
Counseling
Outreach workers connect the young men and women that they work with to mental health professionals, who provide counseling, therapy, and other supports for their mental well-being.
Our Employment and Workforce programming is designed to prepare participants for the workforce through learning both traditional soft skills as well as cognitive behavioral skills to increase job retention.
Outreach workers also help connect individuals who want to go back to school or further their education.
Counseling and connecting people at risk of violence to new resources, social networks, and spiritual knowledge is a key component of Austin’s CVI work.
Community Mobilizations
Our faith-based partners mobilize the community to show up in both proactive and reactive ways, providing public displays of solidarity for victims, families, and neighbors.
ORGANIZATION AND LEADER
BUILD Chicago
Adam Alonso
Heartland Human Care Services
David Sinski
HOPE CDC
Pastor Steve Epting
Institute for Nonviolence Chicago
Teny Gross
Jehovah Jireh Outreach Ministry #1
Pastor Jody Bady
Together Chicago
Jonathan Banks & Mark O’Halloran
What About Us Charitable Enterprises
Dorin McIntyre aka “Pastor Mac”
Westside Health fAuthority
Morris Reed
Outreach workers are the heartbeat of CVI in Austin. Their heroic actions save lives. Whether it involves responding to violent incidents late at night, caring for victims and their families when violence occurs, or helping to negotiate non-aggression agreements between groups in conflict, the job of a CVI outreach worker never stops. We wanted to introduce you to some of Austin’s best and brightest outreach workers helping to foster peace in our community.
Marcus Simpson Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, Lead Outreach Worker
I’m a Lead Outreach Worker in Austin and proud of it. I lead by example and focus on building real connections between the community. I act as the glue between communities and the organization, making sure everyone feels seen and heard. I’m passionate about what I do, and I believe I am one of the best people to do it. People in the community know and respect me because I show up and follow through, whether that means helping resolve conflict, supporting a family in crisis, or just being there when it counts. Outside of work, I’m into football, basketball when the playoffs heat up, and enjoy pro wrestling. I can’t wait for Summer Slam this year.
Together Chicago, Street Outreach Supervisor
I lead my team with boots on the ground. My job as Outreach Supervisor is to try and slow down any street violence. I lead with safety first. I personally connect with the perpetrators, giving them information that can help them do better with their life. I stay in tune with the streets to know what’s going on in the streets. I lead my team with grace. We move as one, to better our community and to show there is a better, safe way to live. Why do I do this? I was once running in the streets in my past life. I am a true example that demonstrates that anyone can change.
I love to eat at Jays Backyard BBQ, love hanging at Galewood Park where I play basketball with my family. I love sports and family time. I love going to Pastor Mac’s church to hear him speak.
PabloGalvez BUILD Chicago, SC2 Manager
“Gangs were everywhere when I was growing up,” says Pablo Galvez, SC2 Manager in Austin with BUILD. “I got exposed to a lot of it.” When he lost a close friend to violence and saw the impact of outreach workers in his neighborhood, he found his calling. For more than twenty years Pablo has led street outreach and violence intervention teams from the front lines, earning the trust and love of youth, mediating conflicts, answering calls in the middle of the night and never giving up on anyone. “Peace to me is a state of mind, and a way of living. It’s much harder to be in control of your emotions, and make peace,” says Pablo. “But peace is possible, one person at a time.” When not out on the streets you can find Pablo playing softball, checking on his friends, and staying close to his family.
With the release of the AFT Highlighted Agenda, ACT is going “on the road!” Our team will be on tour and available to co-host discussions about the new phase of Austin’s AFT quality-of-life plan and its vision and strategy, with block clubs, churches, community organizations, coalitions, etc. Other ways we’ll ensure to update the community on the progress of implementing the Highlighted Agenda are through newspaper sections like this, emails, and social media.
Community
Narrative
TASK FORCE CHAIRS
Kenneth Varner
Healthy Schools Campaign
Dearra Williams
Austin Coming Together
Reesheda Graham
Washington
The Kehrein Center for the Arts
STRATEGY LEADS
Suzanne McBride
Austin Talks
Cindy Gray Schneider
Spaces-n-Places
Maria Sorrell
Community Resident
Megan Hinchy
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Andraya Yousfi By the Hand Club for Kids
Jai Jones
PSPC, The Chicago Community Trust and Community Resident
Adrienne Otkins
Community Resident
Michael Romaine The Culture
Keli Stewart Front Porch Arts Center
Maiya Sinclaire
The Kehrein Center for the Arts
Economic Development
TASK FORCE CHAIR
Roxanne Charles West Side Forward
STRATEGY LEADS
Erica Staley Manufacturing Renaissance
Emily Peters Jane Addams Resource Corporation
Tina Augustus
Community Resident
Melissa O’Dell Defy Ventures
Baxter Swilley Community Stakeholder
Education
TASK FORCE CHAIR
Charles Anderson
Michele Clark High School
STRATEGY LEADS
Ruth Kimble
Austin Childcare Providers Network
Cata Truss Community Resident
Housing
TASK FORCE CHAIRS
Athena Williams Oak Park Regional Housing Center
Allison McGowan Community Resident
STRATEGY LEADS
Shirley Fields Community Resident
Rosie Dawson Westside Health Authority
Public Safety
TASK FORCE CHAIRS
Bradly Johnson BUILD Inc.
Marilyn Pitchford Heartland Alliance
STRATEGY LEADS
Edwina Hamilton BUILD Inc.
Jose Abonce The Policing Project
Ruby Taylor Taproots, Inc.
Youth Empowerment
TASK FORCE CHAIR
D’elegance Lane
Community Stakeholder
STRATEGY LEADS
Aisha Oliver Root2Fruit
Helen Slade Territory NFP
Dollie Sherman
Austin Coming Together
Chris Thomas YourPassion1st
Civic Engagement
TASK FORCE CHAIR
Deborah Williams-Thurmond
D.W. Provision
Consulting Services
