What is the Austin Forward. Together. (AFT) quality-of-life plan?
AFT is a comprehensive plan, created and led by the community, that outlines a strategy to improve the quality-of-life in Austin by building on the neighborhood’s many assets and cultivating new expertise and investment. To reach our goals, we have created deeper relationships and have been working together in a coordinated way like never before to address the seven issue areas in the plan: Community Narrative, Economic Development, Education, Housing, Public Safety, Youth Empowerment, and Civic Engagement.
AFT has been a catalyst for Austin. The work we have done and will continue to do in this plan is the spark for a renaissance. We are moving forward together.
What is the Highlighted Agenda?
The AFT Highlighted Agenda is a new approach to more effectively implement the Austin Forward. Together. quality-of-life plan. This approach is meant to amplify and optimize the impact across the plan by aligning resources and leveraging expertise from multiple task forces into ten focus areas over the next three years. Our goal is to have a comprehensive neighborhood-wide action plan, created and led by community leaders from across the seven issue areas, for each of these ten items.
| 1. Build Resilient Commercial Corridors | Coordinate strategies for Central, North, and Chicago Avenues in order to introduce more jobs, commercial opportunities, and investment for the neighborhood. |
| 2. Advance the ASPIRE Initiative | Building off the development of the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation, initiate planning for the other three projects of the ASPIRE Initiative, which will provide cradle to career supports in Central Austin. |
| 3. Build out the Austin Workforce Collaborative (AWC) | Collaborate with workforce development providers and other partners to build pathways to living-wage careers in Austin. |
| 4. Weave Restorative Justice (RJ) into the Fabric of Austin | Create an action plan focused on expanding RJ activities throughout the community in order to support relationship building and alternative responses to harm. |
| 5. Build Lasting Youth Power | Develop strategies that give youth the power to influence recommendations across the entire AFT plan and prioritize youth-led projects advancing the AFT vision. |
| 6. Sustain the Austin Eats Initiative | Grow the working groups of Austin Eats: emergency food, grocery access, culinary entrepreneurship, gardens and farms, food education, and marketing. This collaborative takes a holistic approach to address the food ecosystem with the goal of achieving a healthier community. |
| 7. Develop a Mental Health Initiative | Develop and implement an action plan that holistically addresses mental health for young children, youth, and families by expanding access and education on mental health services. |
| 8. Launch an Early Childhood Campaign | Organize a campaign to educate and engage residents and civic leaders about how to build more just and equitable support systems for young children and their families in Austin. |
| 9. Create a Local Housing Policy | Develop local policies that combat rising housing costs to ensure Austin residents can afford to live and own their homes in the neighborhood and reap the benefits of the AFT plan. |
| 10. Coordinate an Authentic Storytelling Campaign | Create an action plan that focuses on the stories we want to tell about Austin, modes of communication that will reach a larger audience, and strategies to align narratives more closely with the lived experience of the community. |
Read the full Quality of Life plan at austincomingtogether.org
For questions or to get involved, contact Grace Cooper gcooper@austincomingtogether.org
