Go Austin Vamos Austin
Go Austin Vamos Austin (GAVA) is a coalition focused on breaking down barriers to healthy living and enhancing neighborhood stability in Austin’s Eastern Crescent through community-driven and resident-led initiatives.
Services
Go Austin Vamos Austin (GAVA) focuses on breaking down barriers to healthy living and strengthening neighborhood stability in Austin’s Eastern Crescent. Their services are community-driven and resident-led, aiming to reduce barriers to health access and increase institutional capacity to respond to historic inequities. GAVA supports resident leadership and networking to improve public spaces such as parks, trails, and greenbelts. Additionally, GAVA's initiatives span multiple sectors, addressing infrastructural needs to mitigate flooding and other climate risks, and focusing on policy priorities like anti-displacement, land use, disaster response, and workforce equity.
Community Partnerships
GAVA engages over 2000 resident and community leaders to drive their initiatives. They collaborate with local agencies such as Urban Roots, Lone Star Circle of Care, and Austin Free-Net to address social determinants of health and provide essential community resources. These partnerships aim to improve access to fresh, local, and organic produce, among other health and nutrition utilities. GAVA's model emphasizes organizing and mobilizing community power to tackle health barriers while boosting the capacity of institutions to respond to historic inequities.
Community Programs and Assets
Since 2012, GAVA has enhanced, improved, or created over 40 community assets and programs. These programs include a produce distribution pilot to improve nutrition and access to local produce, in partnership with Urban Roots. GAVA's initiatives also extensively cover infrastructural improvements, spotlighting the significant re-allocation of over $12 million in public funds for neighborhood enhancements in Dove Springs, South Austin, and other areas in the Eastern Crescent.
Neighborhood Stability Initiatives
GAVA plays an active role in advocating for neighborhood stability in Austin through various efforts. They address policy issues such as the Austin Land Development Code rewrite, Project Connect, zoning cases, and economic investments in vulnerable neighborhoods. Their initiatives aim to improve parks, trails, greenbelts, and mitigate infrastructural deficits like flooding. These activities support self-determination and development of leadership for sustainability, recognizing the ethnic and cultural diversity of the neighborhoods.
Sector-Specific Work
GAVA's work is divided into sectors, each focusing on specific community needs. The early childhood sector aims to improve health access for children ages 0-5 years in the 78744 and 78745 areas. The school sector works to embed best practices at both school and district levels to provide students and their families with healthy activities, nutrition education, and health access resources. GAVA also prioritizes equitable food policy planning and workforce equity for early childhood caretakers and educators.