Introduction of Strategy
Almost ten years back, the Austin History Center launched a new permanent exhibit on African American history in Travis County that has since inspired local activism, awareness, and community self-empowerment (Castillo, 2018). This strategy builds upon the success of the Austin History Center projects, which include the vast resources contained in the Austin History Center’s African American Community Archivist (2019). Building resilience through the arts, culture, and community pride will be the solution-focused approach to addressing persistent disparities in Travis County, Texas.

Vulnerabilities

A needs assessment of the African American community in Travis County reveals several areas of vulnerability this strategy aims to address by coordinating with existing ongoing initiatives and organizations.

Physical and Mental Health Disparities

Physical and mental health disparities are among the top vulnerabilities for the African American community in Travis County. Research reveals several major disparities in mental and physical health that render the African American community of Travis County less able to withstand the health-related effects of multiple types of emergencies. Poorer mental and physical health status means increased vulnerability to disaster, and less access to services—plus lower quality of said services—also means decreased resilience.

Menon (2019) found that African Americans are twenty percent more likely to experience serious mental health issues versus the general population, pointing to poverty as a key factor in precipitating mental illness. Not only are African Americans in Travis County more likely to experience serious mental health issues, but are also less likely to seek mental health services—only 25 percent of African Americans seek such services compared with 40 percent of their white counterparts (Menon, 2019). Addressing mental health service awareness and accessibility is therefore a key concern of the proposed strategy. Race-related physical health disparities are also a major vulnerability in Travis County. For example, African Americans are more likely to have HIV and diabetes than any other ethnic group (Vallejo-Aguilar, 2017). African Americans also have a disproportionately high rate of cardiovascular diseases (Vallejo-Aguilar, 2017). Rountree (2019) points out a severe vulnerability with African American women dying from pregnancy complications at a rate two to four times as high as for white women. Lack of education, inaccessible or unaffordable healthcare services, lack of awareness, and lack of access to lifestyle needs are specific vulnerabilities that can be addressed using a comprehensive resilience-building strategy like this one.

Wealth Disparity and Poverty

Wealth disparity is another major vulnerability for the African American community in Travis County. Without the appropriate fiscal resources, and lacking the robustness of a firm small business financial foundation, African American individuals, families, and companies are at a much greater risk of losing everything in the wake of a disaster. In fact, past records prove the current vulnerabilities in the African American community. According to a Prosperity Now (2019) report, the economic recessions of the early 2000s, “had a long-lasting impact particularly on African American” families, who have yet to recover due to a number of structural inequities (p. 2). Debt, low income, low property values in African American neighborhoods, low rate of savings, low educational attainment, and low entrepreneurial/small business ownership are the specific wealth gap-related vulnerabilities this strategy seeks to address.

Social Justice

Reflecting nationwide trends, Travis County African Americans “experienced significantly longer periods of confinement in jail and were jailed at a much higher rate than white people,” (“New report points to racism and longer confinement of African Americans in Travis County Jail,” 2017, p. 1). Emergencies frequently entail law enforcement...…small businesses, promoting community cohesion, and ensuring a supportive environment in which neighbor helps neighbor and in which black businesses also support each other to combat wealth disparities. Providing incentives for African American professionals to remain in Austin or Travis County as opposed to leaving for greener pastures will also be a key component of this straegy.

However, there are already some apparent concerns about the effectiveness of an empowerment/community pride strategy for building resilience. For one, surveys and quantitative research has already shown that African Americans are “spreading out over the city,” pressed by financially constraints (Davis, 2018, p. 1). A dispersed black community presents peculiar problems when aiming to use a self-empowerment strategy. Feeling “less welcome” in Austin translates to less, not more, community pride (Davis, 2018, p. 1). However, the success of the 2004 American Quality of Life Initiative inspires the current strategy to press forward, working with community organizers and business leaders to reduce vulnerabilities using comprehensive methods to improve pride and resilience.

Conclusions

Long-term resilience depends on community-wide and cross-disciplinary strategies to reduce vulnerabilities. Already there are parallel initiatives in place throughout Travis County that will help emergency management and emergency services professionals properly coordinate resources. It will be essential to work closely with existing organizations in order to create the most cost-effective means of reducing specific vulnerabilities and for increasing resilience. Both the public and private sector need to be on board with implementing these strategies in order for them to have measurable and meaningful outcomes. Strengthening community pride and promoting self-empowerment is something that benefits all residents of Travis County, improving quality of life and making Austin and its environs a safer, more welcoming community for everyone.