Austin Coming Together

Founded in 2010, Austin Coming Together (ACT) is a collaboration of over fifty community organizations, residents, and leaders serving this far Westside Chicago neighborhood. ACT aligns its members’ collective resources to pursue joint initiatives and projects. It functions as the coordinating agency for its members. It is the lead implementer of a comprehensive vision and strategy, Austin Forward Together, which addresses seven issue areas: community narrative, education, housing, public safety, youth empowerment, civic engagement, and economic development. This award for ACT provides renewed general operating support as it executes the Austin Forward Together plan and supports place-based community economic development in the Austin neighborhood.

Founded in 2010, Austin Coming Together (ACT) is a collaboration of over fifty community organizations, residents, and leaders serving this far Westside Chicago neighborhood. ACT aligns its members’ collective resources to pursue joint initiatives and projects. It functions as the coordinating agency for its members. It is the lead implementer of a comprehensive vision and strategy, Austin Forward Together, which addresses seven issue areas: community narrative, education, housing, public safety, youth empowerment, civic engagement, and economic development. This award for general operating support strengthens ACT as it executes the Austin Forward Together plan and supports place-based community economic development in the Austin community.

Founded in 2010, Austin Coming Together (ACT) is a collaboration of twelve community organizations serving this far Westside Chicago neighborhood. ACT functions as the coordinating agency for its members and has led the creation of a joint vision and strategy, while working to align the members’ collective resources to pursue joint initiatives and projects. Funding enables ACT to engage Fiscal Management Associates (FMA) to undertake a thorough review of its financial management and with this information to advise the organization on financial management improvements and to provide related professional development for staff and board. 

Founded in 2010, Austin Coming Together (ACT) is a collaboration of twelve community organizations serving this far Westside Chicago neighborhood. ACT functions as the coordinating agency for its members and has led the creation of a joint vision and strategy, while working to align the members’ collective resources to pursue joint initiatives and projects. ACT coordinated its members’ creation of the Thrive 2025 Plan, which, with United Way of Metro Chicago funding, develops human services strategies to improve educational and employment outcomes for Austin residents. With assistance from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Chicago office, ACT members also engage a broad cross section of local stakeholders, including residents, to develop a "quality of life" plan that maps out strategies to expand opportunities for youth, reclaim vacant and abandoned housing, promote economic development, and improve public safety. MacArthur funding underwrites the first phase of implementation of the quality of life plan, and leverages new public and private resources for the effort.