Happy Black History Month! There are many incredible organizations in Austin fighting for social justice, racial equity, and preserving and furthering Black culture in our community. Here are 5 organizations you can celebrate this month, and one easy way to support them today: DONATE.
1. African-American Youth Harvest Foundation
“Through our programs, nearly 9,000 youth and adults have received services at our flagship African American Youth Resource Center. We have also helped 49 juvenile offenders enroll in our mentoring program, and nearly 2,000 youth and adults have attended our conferences, where we seek to improve our community by focusing on supporting and strengthening the family unit and addressing preconceived notions of minority youth.”
Their mission: To effectually address disparities and ensure low-barrier access to vital educational, economic, and enrichment resources to underserved, at-risk youth and their families on their path to self-sufficiency.
DONATE to African American Youth Harvest Foundation to improve our community by elevating our minority youth.
2. Austin-Area Urban League
The Austin Area Urban League is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to providing economic empowerment, educational opportunities and the guarantee of civil rights for African Americans and other underserved/underrepresented populations in the Austin/ Central Texas region.
Their mission: To enable African Americans and other underserved urban residents to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power, and civil rights, and to provide tools for them to build a foundation for social and economic equality.
DONATE to Austin-Area Urban League to help build healthy foundations for equity in our community.
3. Austin Justice Coalition
About the organization: Austin Justice Coalition (AJC) is a community organization that focuses on improving the quality of life for people who are Black, Brown, and poor. Since 2015, AJC has served as a catalyst for positive change towards economic and racial equity for Austin’s people of color by developing, organizing, and providing robust programs and events. AJC’s big four areas of advocacy are education, policing, civic engagement, and community building.
AJC’s strategy continues to create direct and indirect impact in communities of color by influencing changes in local government and advocating for policy reform. This strategy builds on AJC’s experience and knowledge from its work thus far.
DONATE to Austin Justice Coalition to support their work in ATX.
4. Black Mamas ATX
Black Mamas ATX’s mission is to ensure that Black women survive and thrive before, during, and after childbirth. They envision a world without maternal health disparities. Their goal is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the alarming maternal mortality and morbidity rates among Black mothers in Central Texas.
On average, women receiving services stay with their organization for 18 months. Over a year their services look like:
- approximately 2,380 hours of doula care;
- prenatal care to 54 women;
- postpartum care to 39;
- and assisted in 38 births.
- to date they have held 27 monthly sister circles and 91 women have benefited from this support group;
- they have a 100% breastfeeding initiation rate (African Americans continue to have the lowest rates of breastfeeding initiation (60%) and continuation at 6 months (28%) and 12 months (13%) compared with all other racial/ethnic groups in the United States.)
DONATE to Black Mamas ATX to support their work in ATX.
5. Six Square
Six Square – Austin’s Black Cultural District (formerly known as Austin’s African American Cultural Heritage District) is the first black cultural district in the state of Texas and the only cultural arts district in the city of Austin. The organization was created in 2013 as an outgrowth of the City Council’s African American Quality of Life Initiative, which detailed widespread disparities, racial biases, and a decreasing Black population. Since inception, Six Square has been dedicated to improving the quality of life for African American residents through preservation of historic Black spaces, artistic cultivation, and by serving as a catalyst for social and economic development.
Their mission: To preserve and celebrate the historic legacy of the African American community that once thrived in Central East Austin.
Their vision: Preservation of the legacy of African Americans in Central East Austin and improvement in the overall quality of life for Black residents in Austin.
DONATE to Six Square to help preserve the legacy of East Austin.
Happy Black History Month, and thank you to these organizations leading work in our community for our BIPOC neighbors!