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 work we do in this plan is the spark for a renaissance that goes beyond all we outline in the plan’s pages” -from the Austin Forward. Together. (AFT) quality-of-life plan.
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 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 & 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 and 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.
See details and register to attend the free Summit at AustinComingTogether.org/2024-aft-summit.