AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2020 QUARTER 3
Austin Weekly News • August 19, 2020
3
Rapid Response Required By Darnell Shields Executive Director, Austin Coming Together
H
istorically, Austin has experienced many inequities that have limited access to the resources and opportunities crucial for its residents to live healthy lives. These economic and social conditions are referred to as social determinants of health. For decades, areas like Austin have struggled as a result of a lack of investment in almost all determinants, such as education, physical environment, healthcare access, and employment. COVID-19 and the civil unrest that has followed have compounded conditions even further. Many of Austin’s social service agencies were unexpectedly paralyzed. From the urgent need to reconfigure programming to fit virtual platforms, to finding creative funding sources to cover unbudgeted expenses, the survival of several organizations continues to be at risk. “Going forward, existing businesses must be comfortable in an environment that is likely changed forever,” said Ed Coleman, President and CEO of West Side Forward, an Austin-based nonprofit evolving from Bethel New Life whose services have provided critical guidance to entrepreneurs and business owners during this time.
When a crisis strikes, a community’s infrastructure is tested. So for Austin, the last few months have been an unprecedented stress test. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us all to confront our weaknesses. It has made clear for all the unstable ground on which we stand. With a situation as new and complex as this, there is no one solution. But there is certainly a desperate need for action.
SOME REAL SOLUTIONS Austin Coming Together (ACT) immediately increased our outreach, surveys, and strategy sessions. Since 2010, ACT’s goal has always been to create sustainable solutions to address Austin’s core needs, and that means adapting to change. Although the challenge was new, we took it on the same way we always have: by listening to the community and leveraging the assets we do have to create the greatest impact. Austin Coming Together (ACT) created a COVID-19 response strategy to decrease the short-term, negative impact of the pandemic on Austin, while also assisting the community to continue upward momentum for the future. The strategy builds on ACT’s existing work and on the community’s strengths to support Austin through: 1
Advocacy
2
Communication
3
Resource Development
4
Resource Deployment
For ACT, our work is relational. Having such strong relationships with key partners, frontline services, and block clubs who were able to identify families with the highest need allowed us to quickly respond. Those partners have become essential in executing our response efforts.
part of Austin’s essential support network and like ACT, had to pivot to the nuances of our shaken landscape.
two-year planning phase involving over 500 community stakeholders. The result was a shared community vision and a roadmap for economic revitalization. Implementation of the five-year strategic plan began in 2019.
The initial support from that Relief Fund allowed us to create the Austin COVID-19 Relief Fund, enabling ACT to provide subgrants to threatened organizations as well as direct deposits to struggling residents.
Austin Forward. Together is empowering residents to carry out 84 actions across seven issue areas: Community Narrative, Economic Development, Housing, Public Safety, Education, Youth Empowerment, Civil Engagement.
But although incredibly helpful, these efforts are all just temporary. We must keep up this dialogue on innovative ways to fix the City’s deep-rooted problems if we are to bring the magnitude of resources truly needed to neighborhoods like Austin.
“We have seen a drastic increase in people seeking our help. Since March, we have expanded our service provisions to include financial payment In order to connect assistance, rental Going forward, existing and homeownership residents to the resources they need resources to more businesses must be and improve the quality than 700 households,” of their lives, ACT’s says Athena Williams, comfortable in an Austin Community Hub Executive Director of team continues to build environment that is likely Oak Park Regional relationships with the Housing Center and community. The Hub Co-Chair and Strategy changed forever. is among others like Lead of Austin Forward. it across Chicago that Together’s Housing ED COLEMAN, PRESIDENT make up United Way Task Force. The OPRHC AND CEO OF WEST SIDE FORWARD of Metro Chicago’s agency has also been Neighborhood Network busy providing rental Initiative. Austin’s Hub team has led ACT’s counseling and property management resource deployment of everything from PPE education to property owners. supplies, food, and laptops, to connections And this ability to persevere by always to direct financial assistance, and COVID-19 listening and flexing to community needs testing. hasn’t gone unnoticed. Longtime partners are razor focused and new ones are realizing HOW TO MOVE FORWARD the time for commitment is now. Although the future may seem uncertain, one “...there is this incredible knowledge and thing I know for sure is that if we are to be power of communities in addressing large successful in saving lives, we must address scale problems, and we want to support the underlying systemic issues that will still that,” said Kimberlee Guenther, Chief Impact plague Austin long after the virus does. Officer at United Way of Metro Chicago. Efforts to improve social determinants for United Way’s Chicago COVID-19 Relief Austinites must be endorsed. One of those Fund made it possible for nonprofits in the is a quality-of-life plan for Austin, created by Neighborhood Network, such as ACT, to and for the community, called Austin Forward. leverage unrestricted donations that could Together. Supported by the Local Initiatives be used where necessary. Support Corporation (LISC), ACT facilitated a
MORE ACTION NEEDED The plan has made significant progress, but there is still much to do. Chicago Police Officers join the ACT team in handing out masks and resource information at a distribution event in March 2020.
The organizations committed to carrying out the work in Austin Forward. Together are
We are seeing an increased interest in neighborhood-led support, but to fully rebound from economic deprivation, Austin needs reinvestment at a level it has not seen before. n
