Austin Coming Together is in the beginning stages of creating a neighborhood-wide strategy on expanding mental health resources in Austin.
ACT, with the Black Researchers Collective, aims to create an authentic mental-health resource map in Austin, and a comprehensive action plan to expand access to mental health resources in the community.
“What they’re really looking for is to lay out the assets and needs in the community. So, figuring out – through focus groups with residents – what are the big mental health needs that people are experiencing?” said Grace Cooper, the lead organizer at Austin Coming Together. “Then with the assets, what service providers are available in the neighborhood? What services are they providing? And not only just that, but how accessible are they?”
This goal comes from the “Austin Forward. Together” quality of life plan, an initiative created with the Austin community and Austin Coming Together in 2018.
“Honestly, more recently, at a lot of community meetings that we’ll be in or going to, mental health is coming up. It’s an issue people are experiencing more,” Cooper said.
The Black Researchers Collective aims to advance racial equity through training communities with research tools to increase civic engagement on topics that impact their lives in the community.
“The idea here is for the community to lead and to develop the narrative that they want, using the research and data skills that we’re teaching. Everybody uses research, and is using data every day,” said Shari Runner, director and co-founder of the Black Researchers Collective.
The Healthy Chicago Equity Zones Playbook, a research initiative created by the Chicago Department of Public Health, worked with Austin Coming Together to create a community health assessment for Austin that was published in August 2023.
Out of the 99 responses from residents, “more than half of the respondents said they have experienced mental health issues, including difficulty sleeping, anxiety, depression, and anger,” according to the assessment.
Cooper works on the mental health initiative at ACT, and said that grass-roots research of their own needs to happen first.
“We found that we needed to do some more research on the issue before we could come up with a really solid strategy. Mental health is just a really complex, multi-layered issue,” Cooper said.
They began to do research on their own, but then ACT was approached by the Black Researchers Collective for a partnership.
“It’s kind of perfect timing in that way,” Cooper said. “Now we have this great, expert resource that has come in to partner with us to do research.”
Glenance Green, executive director and co-founder of the Black Researchers Collective, said the core of the work they do is to strengthen a community’s capacity and their ability to self-determine. She said a big part of what they do is showing how data is connected to people’s everyday lives.
“The history of research in Black communities is very exploitative. It is not one of liberation, but our approach is really using it through a decolonizing lens, which situates the body of the work in the lived experiences and expertise of people who are being impacted by the work,” Green said. “They then become the drivers of that work.”
After a series of workshops in June, where community members gained knowledge on using data, policy, and research, participants were then eligible to apply to the lead civic researcher positions. The Black Researchers Collective funds the two, 6-month paid positions that will lead the research project created in the workshop series.
Katrina Bailey, a lead civic researcher and Austin resident, said that any and all information from the community is needed to make sure their research project is directly tailored to Austin. Bailey, who was born and raised in Austin, works as a mental health specialist, as well.
“You can have all the mental health services out in the world, but if you don’t have the right ones that are customized for that neighborhood, then it’s a waste of time,” Bailey said.
“So, I need to make sure that they [the community] are one, being able to access the information that they need, and two, that they understand the information that they’re receiving,” she added.
Now, the two lead civic researchers will work directly with ACT over the coming months to develop their community action research project.
In January, the project will wrap up. The findings will be reviewed by local leaders, residents and ACT partners that operate in social services and mental health, Cooper said.
The researchers will also provide recommendations for an action plan, a comprehensive neighborhood wide strategy to address an issue. Cooper said once they have the research, they will start to shape their plan for expanding access to mental health resources in Austin.
ACT Executive Director Darnell Shields also sits on the board of Growing Community Media, parent company of Austin Weekly News.
Contact Grace Cooper, lead organizer at ACT, to get involved in the neighborhood-wide strategy: gcooper@austincomingtogether.org
Contact the Austin Community Hub if in need of mental health resources. Find more information about their services.
Contact the Community Hub at hub@austincomingtogether.org or text your full name to 708- 529-5042 so a member of the Hub team can follow up with you.
