A somber tone permeated the second annual “State of Everything” convening by Neighborhood Nexus on April 28 at the Junior League of Atlanta.
In a room filled with leaders from the nonprofit sector, there was a broad consensus on the need to look for solutions because there’s still much work to be done to address the economic (im)mobility problem in the Atlanta region.
Neighborhood Nexus Executive Director Tommy Pearce launched the discussion by reviewing what we know: Atlanta ranks last for economic mobility among large U.S. cities. He reminded us of the question from last year’s state of everything: “What will we let economic mobility look like for our kids?”
Neighborhood Nexus Community Engagement Manager, Lysa Moore, framed the challenge and goal of the event.
“We hope the State of Everything can articulate the painful convergence our sector is facing, federal volatility, a fragile nonprofit sector, and increasing human service demand, so we can identify solutions beyond just more programming. Things like growing empathy, strategic collaboration, and new operating paradigms.”
Did you know that more than half of the contributions to nonprofits in Georgia previously came from federal grants?
With the loss of federal funding and the data tied to it, we effectively lost much of the information about our communities. Without this data, underserved communities will become even more misrepresented. Combine that with the reality that Georgia nonprofits are now struggling to pay a consistent living wage to staff, which puts a fragile sector into more of a survival mode. The culmination is stress on both sides of the equation.
Pearce said this climate “incapacitates us from delivering what our diverse communities require.” The solutions will require more than traditional philanthropy and program delivery.
“The moment requires new operating paradigms and an urgency to work together. All of which will require defiant optimism,” said Pearce, emphasizing the need for data-driven strategies and collaboration across organizations and sectors.
How do we know what challenges the community is facing, and how do we step up to provide impactful services in this climate? The solutions will need to take many forms. But first, we have to understand the lived experience.
Mike Carnathan, co-founder of Neighborhood Nexus, and Saba Long, Executive Director of Atlanta Civic Circle, revealed findings from the Atlanta POV regional panel survey. This survey captures the “priorities, opinions, and values of metro Atlanta residents,” providing insight that can inform decisions affecting us all.
Through the point of view (POV) survey, Neighborhood Nexus and Atlanta Civic Circle collected more than 370 household responses to measure where households are directly struggling with various economic challenges or barriers. Three key takeaways from the POV Survey:
- 41 percent of households reported not making at least a living wage, which, according to the experts today, equates to just $85,000 for a single-parent household with just one child. That figure isn’t what most people think of as low income.
- 79 percent of respondents said they either know no one or only 1-2 people who can help them in a pinch, which reflects a shift into a culture of isolation that is seen nationally. This also shows the importance of social capital, which is one of the strongest predictors of upward economic mobility, and is notoriously hard to measure using traditional data sources.
- 7/10 respondents say that they believe when local residents get involved in their neighborhood, they can change the way that neighborhood is run. This is a great indicator of how people view their community as a whole.
After reviewing the data, the conversation shifted to leaders providing programs and services for the constituents at the center of the conversation. Panelists covered several critical aspects of how they do the work.
Bonnie Hardage, Executive Director of the Jessie Parker Williams Foundation, moderated a group of four leaders providing diverse programs that serve families facing complex social challenges: Alison Johnson, executive director of the Housing Justice League; Frank Lee, executive director of the 85 Community Development Corp.; Kathryn Lawler, CEO of Mercy Care; and Kiyomi Rollins, founder & community developer ot the The Ke’nect Cooperative.
Each panelist shared ways that strategic partnerships help support their work in this tenuous climate. From renters and homeowners experiencing disinvestment to creating safe spaces where the community can seek support, the panel spoke to a need for collective action.
Rollins relayed that she has seen a shift from a large-picture focus to a hyper-focused triage mentality: “What can we do right now to meet them where they are” for each constituent. That can look like providing a meal when someone is hungry, or, for Lee, organizing transportation for people who don’t have access. Lawler added, “partnership has to shift from extra to essential.”
Next up were Michael Rich, director of the Policy Analysis Laboratory at Emory University, and Doug Hooker, retired executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission. They co-led a keynote discussion on regional collectivism, an accountability framework, and the need for a regional strategy.
“It’s not that the region is not generating economic opportunity,” said Rich. “If you look back over the last 30 years or so, Atlanta is in the top three or four metropolitan areas in terms of the number of jobs that have been created.”
Atlanta is at the “corner of high job creation and low economic mobility,” Rich emphasized, before asking: “Why, despite the success the region has had of generating that economic opportunity, have not more people been able to rise up and have the affordability to be housed and have health care and the transportation or the like? There’s something amiss here, and you need to figure out what that is, and develop strategies to correct that.”
Hooker clarified that the regional approach is “more of a regional mission orientation, not a regional process orientation,” as Metro Atlanta counties and cities vary.
“We must recognize the individual quilt of communities, their histories, their cultures that exist because we all take pride in the community where we live, and it’s a place that we like for certain reasons,” Hooker said. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t also be subscribed to a regional outlook.”
To truly advance regional economic mobility, several things must happen.
There have been consistent calls to establish a dedicated backbone organization focused on this issue every day. This entity would align data, strategy, and policy to drive meaningful change while collecting and amplifying community voice to inform local decision-making.
In partnership with Neighborhood Nexus, Atlanta Regional Commission, United Way of Greater Atlanta, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, chambers of commerce, and nonprofits, the new entity would help gather reliable, neighborhood-level data, highlight programs and local governments demonstrating real impact, and navigate the complexity of Atlanta’s many counties and cities to deliver locally relevant and effective solutions.
A major gap is a lack of data on how organizations collaborate and how social capital influences economic mobility. Neighborhood Nexus is working to address that information gap with a POV survey for providers.
The call to action for everyone in the region is not only to acknowledge the economic mobility crisis in Atlanta but to strive for solutions. We won’t improve outcomes for our children if we continue to work in silos.
Malika Anderson, chief community impact officer with Atlanta’s United Way, closed the day with a poignant message.
“When we talk about systems, we are the systems, and that means we have power together to change outcomes,” she said. “At some point, we have to stop admiring the problem and get more intentional about moving the numbers and the lived experience of the neighbors that we serve, especially if we are serious about economic mobility.”
