Uniting leaders from a local soccer club, HBCU, and historic Black and Latino churches, Central Texas Interfaith won approval for a city-sponsored park on Austin’s East Side with a full soccer field and facilities, helping end decades of disinvestment rooted in redlining.

Systemic Disinvestment

As a consequence of Austin’s 1928 masterplan, for generations, Black and Latino communities on Austin’s East Side have had fewer opportunities for recreational public green space as compared to their neighbors West of I-35. For the soccer team at Huston-Tillotson HBCU, the city’s oldest institution of higher learning, this means traveling over 20 miles to the nearest public soccer field for games and practice.

Organizing is Relationship Building

Less than 2 miles away from Huston-Tillotson sits Tillery Field, a 22 acre plot of land owned by the city’s Watershed Protection Department that for decades was overgrown with weeds. This changed when Ismael Guzman convinced the city to allow him to cut the grass and remove the trash from this city-owned property to provide space for him to coach his East Austin Soccer Club.

As a part of CTI’s 2,000 relational meeting campaign in 2022, leaders brought Coach Guzman into conversation with Aaron Yancy, Huston-Tillotson’s men’s soccer team coach. They began organizing around their communities’ common interests, gaining momentum with support from CTI’s historic Black and Latino East Side congregations and city-wide institutions.

Holding Power Accountable

In June, at the urging of CTI, the City approved Tillery East Austin Soccer Park as an ongoing project under the management of Watershed Protection and in partnership with CTI, East Austin Soccer Club, and Huston-Tillotson University.  CTI secured $300,000 from the City to provide critical irrigation infrastructure, facilities, and the creation of two practice fields and two NCAA regulation-sized soccer fields.

Leaders have committed to raising $200,000 to support the project, bringing in new neighborhood, municipal, or county partners to create a field worthy of its players.

New Community-Driven Soccer Facility to Revitalize East Austin's Tillery Fields, Yahoo! News / KVUE ABC [pdf] [video]