The area was largely home to veterans (with several neighborhoods built under the GI Bill for Bergstrom Air Force Base) and new low-income home owners from East Austin’s historically segregated communities of color. Built in suburban style on the lower income side of the river and the East side of Interstate 35, the area was isolated from many critical resources and excessively exposed to industrial pollution. After the closure of the air force base in the early 90s, the area became increasingly racially and economically segregated from the rest of Austin: over 80% non-white, predominantly Hispanic/Latine, with a median household income significantly lower than the rest of the city.

With a five-year, place-based grant to address the lack of access to healthy food and safe physical activity in areas with some of the highest concentrations of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes. GAVA built upon the momentum that community leaders had developed in the preceding 20+ years where dedicated neighborhood advocates had secured much-needed amenities for youth and families including a library and recreation center. In addition to engaging long-time community leaders, GAVA introduced bilingual organizing and school and community organizers to bring in hundreds of new and bilingual community residents from multiple networks.

In 2014, GAVA’s efforts were expanded into the adjacent South Austin ZIP code, 78745.

The GAVA coalition of partnered organizations accomplished countless wins to improve healthy food and physical activity access: GAVA and partners Sustainable Food Center (SFC), Farmshare Austin, and Foundation Communities, launched the first resident-operated farm stands at schools, apartments, and recreation centers, bringing low-cost produce to families and neighbors in Dove Springs and 78745.

GAVA and SFC supported AISD to introduce free breakfast in the classroom and salad bars at middle and elementary schools, increasing student and staff access to healthy meals.

GAVA participated in launching the first Healthy Corner Store Initiative where 10 local corner stores started carrying produce and healthier items within walking distance, two of which added large refrigerators in 2017 to include more healthy food options.

GAVA teams beautified and advocated for improvements in 16 parks and greenspaces, leveraging millions of public and private dollars in new infrastructure and maintenance including thousands of dollars in sidewalk improvements, ADA accessible amenities, extended pedestrian lights and three re-painted crosswalks.

GAVA engaged Spanish speaking early childhood caretakers and pre-school teachers, and translated the evidence-based Coordinated Approach to Child Health – Early Childhood (CATCH-EC) curriculum into Spanish for the first time, providing bilingual CATCH training workshops to providers across the city.

GAVA secured one dozen improvements to pedestrian infrastructure across South and Southeast Austin through advocacy and organizing with city elected officials and engineers from the transportation and public works departments.

We also advocated to include South Austin corridors in a $720 million Mobility Bond where they were previously excluded.

GAVA hosted a CSH (Coordinated School Health) gathering for principals to share best practices, troubleshoot on obstacles to a healthy campus, and learn about grant opportunities.

GAVA worked with and trained six child care centers to incorporate brain building and early literacy activities into their lesson plans, as well as the Coordinated Approach to Child Health-Early Childhood (CATCH-EC) curriculum.

GAVA’s EC Partner, United Way, partnered with Bikes for Goodness Sake to build and donate nine bicycles to GAVA EC sites.

A grant of $7,000 was awarded to GAVA to support the construction of a much-needed shade structure at an early childcare site to increase physical activity and outdoor learning.

GAVA & United Way trained 150 AISD Pre-Kindergarten teachers in CATCH-EC to incorporate healthy messaging into their classrooms.

and GAVA’s advisory council (residents and organizational leaders) decided to engage the coalition into the city’s initiative to comprehensively rewrite the Land Development code (LDC), so that we could advocate for regulations that support health and permanency, or neighborhood stability, to mitigate economic displacement as our neighborhoods improved and grew.

GAVA organizers and residents began to testify at the Environmental Commission and Citizens Advisory Group making recommendations about the LDC changes.

In 2018, GAVA incorporated as an independent 501(c)3 organization, and began organizing in North Austin communities along Rundberg Lane and the St. Johns neighborhood, two areas with their own distinct histories but equally stark health inequities and even more ethnically diverse populations. As a nonprofit, GAVA’s focus was to continue the mission of improving population health in these areas, but with a more explicit focus on community organizing and addressing the root causes of racism and systemic inequities. 

This is how GAVA has adapted from an original focus on obesity to influencing the social determinants of health across four portfolios: early childhood & family health equity, food justice, neighborhood stability, and climate resilience. Our neighborhoods are hardest hit by flooding and heat, and neighborhood stability is increasingly threatened by the volatility of real estate in one of the fastest gentrifying cities in the country. We continue to engage those who live, work, and worship in our neighborhoods of focus to lead the way in identifying solutions that improve community health.

In 2019 Climate Resilience became a focus when GAVA learned about the changing floodplains in our neighborhoods of focus that would impact areas that were already devastated by the Halloween floods of 2013 and 2015.  As we began to partner with the City of Austin’s Office of Sustainability, we started to learn about and include new climate resilience issues as critical to the health and activity of our neighborhoods, including excessive heat, grass fires, air quality, and tree canopy health. We also started to shift our Early Childhood portfolio to focus on the home based and informal care networks that provide the majority of care for the children in our community but are the least represented in traditional Early Childhood focused nonprofit work. This period also marked a transition from food access to food justice. We wanted to find ways to lift up community led and community owned solutions to inadequate access to healthy foods so we started engaging residents to plan a pilot program for a more resident-led produce distribution program alongside community partner, Urban Roots.

The Produce Distribution Program launched at an accelerated speed to feed families in North and South Austin and we passed through $380,000 in emergency relief funds to communities across the Eastern Crescent, providing invaluable stability during citywide and nationwide lockdowns. The pandemic brought about a whole new way of organizing for our team where we learned to use multi-lingual Zoom functions, trained residents on how to meet remotely, and engaged in new ways on every issue. We continued to organize resilience priorities to prepare for flooding and other climate emergencies on top of the pandemic.

In 2021, Winter Storm Uri devastated Texas communities. GAVA mobilized and equipped small, informal “resilience hubs” to distribute food, water, and basic supplies to schools, neighborhoods, and rec centers across North and South Austin, and coordinated with city, state, federal, and nonprofit agencies to respond. We also advocated successfully for the establishment of official resilience hubs and began informing city officials of the specific supplies and protocols needed to operationalize them.

In 2022, we had robust and active projects across all four of our portfolios. We began the process of developing a community owned food retail initiative to increase access to healthy food in Austin’s Eastern Crescent; successfully advocated and distributed funds for the City of Austin’s first Guaranteed Income Pilot Program; financially supported numerous childhood providers with professional development opportunities and created a network and spaces for these providers to build relationships and share resources with one another; developed a coalition of residents who are building their leadership skills and advocating for neighborhood stability policies at the city level; and collaborated with UT to place sensors at Brassiewood Pond and the Nuckols Crossing Bridge which will alert residents and the city to any rising water.

In 2023, our work continued as we created a multicultural resident Steering Committee to create a business plan for a culturally relevant and accessible food co-op in Austin’s Eastern Crescent; began acting as a fiscal sponsor for grassroots community groups who need access to capital for their efforts around food justice and supporting renters and unhoused neighbors, passing through over $26,000; hosted an engaging Town Hall with over 100 attendees about the critical infrastructure early childcare educators provide and the support they require from our city. Representatives in attendance were Mayor Kirk Watson and Representative Vikki Goodwin; collaborated with residents, UT, and the City of Austin to implement plans improving the accessibility of the East Williamson Creek, successfully advocated for two months of free pool access, city wide, during the 2023 summer heat wave; and supported resident leaders as they began the work to establish their own Community Development Corporation to create truly affordable housing for their diverse refugee communities.