A POSSIBLE SOLUTION TO AUSTIN’S DECLINING BLACK POPULATION?
AUSTIN (Jala Washington, KXAN)—From art to food and music—some give credit to Black Austinites for playing an integral role in shaping the city into what it is today.
Yet over at least a 10-year period, Austin’s Black population continues to decline, while the overall population grows.
To address more Black people leaving year over year, there’s one group in particular taking a solution-oriented approach that it hopes might help sustain or even grow that population. The African American Leadership Institute (AALI) is an Austin nonprofit. According to its website, it works to:
“Increase civic awareness and leadership opportunities specifically targeting Austin’s Black population.”
AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
It was founded in 2020 by longtime Austinites, Heath Creech and the organization’s CEO, Bini Coleman.
AALI has been strategic for the past few years, to come up with a real plan to tackle the complex issue of Austin’s declining Black population. “I’ve been here over 25 years, and we have not directly tackled this issue,” Coleman said. “We’ve talked about it.” Much of AALI’s work is centered around its annual cohort.
A path toward building belonging and purpose
AALI selects up to 40 participants to be members of its 10-month long Cohort. It started doing this in 2021. Participants meet once a month. “We dive into the different issue areas such as employment, education, arts, culture, and entertainment, health and wellness,” Coleman said. “We’re looking through the Black community lens at these issues.”
The cohort is an extensive long-form educational networking event. It’s an approach AALI curated after a survey found 80% of Black people who have left Austin cited, “a lack of belonging.”
A measurable impact
AALI cohort members connect with other leaders, gaining the knowledge and tools to be more successfully active in the community. “The more that they have that voice at the table, the more they’re likely to stay and feel like they have ownership in their community,” Coleman said.
