Group's Organization

It’s 2013 and the African-American population in Austin, Texas is dying. A panel is convened on The University of Texas at Austin’s campus and event moderator, Dr. King Davis determines that there are seventeen areas where disparities exist including “everything from the child welfare statistics to criminal justice, health, police stops, shootings, students expelled, death row inmates, prison population, mortality – on and on” (Diaz).  The odds are stacked against Black people in Austin, Texas and they are in need of resources that provide safe spaces. 
Shannon Jones with Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services made a call for an organization that would see the unique needs of the Austin Area and strive to improve prospects for African Americans and the Austin Area Behavioral Health Network rose to the occasion. “The hope is that we will have representatives in our community that speak to the needs of the individuals in that community," said Jones. Hence, the formulation of the Austin Area African American Behavioral Health Network. 
Because 4ABHN was created as a solution to the specific problems that the African American population in Austin were facing, as of yet, it only has one chapter in Austin, Texas. It's in its infancy and one woman seems to be shouldering the entire brunt of the operation (Diaz). 
Vicky Coffee-Fletcher is a founding member and coordinator of the Austin Area African American Behavioral Health Network and her contact information is the only of the members seen on the 4ABHN site as well as its mother organization site hogg.texas.edu. Coffee - Fletcher is a certified licensed professional counselor supervisor and Mental Health First Aid instructor, she holds a Bachelor of Science in child and family development and a Master of Education from Texas State University, and she has served as an executive board member and secretary for the National Leadership Council on African American Behavioral Health (Hogg Foundation for Mental 
Health).