By: Darnell Shields, Executive Director at Austin Coming Together
Since its inception in 2018, the Austin Forward. Together. (AFT) quality-of-life plan has significantly contributed to positive transformation in Austin, laying an in-depth foundation for action and impact. Over the past five years, AFT has driven immense change because of collaborative efforts and strategic actions led by the community.
“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.”
– JERROD WILLIAMS, CO-CHAIR OF THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE
Although the original plan had a five-year timeframe, its influence will affect generations to come, and the work is not finished. As the stewards of the AFT plan, ACT conducted an internal assessment of how and why more than 43% of the 84 actions were able to be initiated and what actions saw less success. This assessment helped us engage AFT leaders and partners to discuss how to optimize the plan’s efforts. Even though AFT has a group of 45 leaders working alongside over 70 unique implementation partner organizations, one of the priorities going forward will be deepening community ownership and amplifying impact. This involves conducting robust research and evaluation to better understand effective strategies and areas for improvement, while also continuing to assess our progress. The Austin Forward. Together. quality-of-life plan has been driven by deep commitment and collaborative effort.
Over the past five years we learned a lot, but now we felt it was time to evaluate how that went and from this assessment a new strategy to optimize our efforts developed: the Highlighted Agenda. Now that the AFT quality-of-life plan Highlighted Agenda has been released, Austin Coming Together needs the help of even more local leaders to join the AFT Task Forces carrying out the AFT plan. LEARN MORE AT austincomingtogether.org/qlp
