By John Ahmann, Westside Future Fund, Inc. Last week, WFF celebrated three big wins: a milestone $5M gift from the SunTrust Foundation, Invest Atlanta’s award of 4 multi-family properties to WFF, and the extraordinary success of the Beloved Benefit fundraiser, which raised more than $5M for Westside community partners. These wins show that we can […]
Category: Historic Westside
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership
One Man’s Journey with Westside Works
Intro by John Ahmann: Demonstrating the power of We, this week’s column is a powerful personal testimonial by Nicholas Sherlock-Holmes, a successful graduate of the Westside Works’ Construction Ready program. Thanks to the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and Westside Works for facilitating this week’s column. A partnership between the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and several nonprofits collaborating together, Westside […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership
Tackling the Westside’s Wage Gap Through Holistic Vocational Training
Note from by John Ahmann, President & CEO, Westside Future Fund This week, I am continuing our series highlighting some of the Westside-based community partners who are beneficiaries of the upcoming Beloved Benefit with a guest column from Bruce Deel, Founder and CEO of the City of Refuge (CoR). Under Bruce’s leadership, City of Refuge […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership
Grove Park Foundation’s Executive Director Talks About the Importance of Resident-Centered Community Engagement
Note from John Ahmann, President and CEO, Westside Future Fund Our last column was posted on December 10th, 2018 by Kathy Colbenson, President & CEO of Chris 180, on Building Community Through Partnership. We took a break from our weekly columns to celebrate the holidays, the New Year and the Super Bowl, wonderfully hosted by […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership
NFL Foundation, Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation & Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee unveil $2.4 million renovation of the Westside’s John F. Kennedy Park
By Westside Future Fund Each year, the NFL seeks to improve the surrounding communities of the Super Bowl host city, through the Super Bowl Legacy Grant Program, by giving an annual $1 million contribution from the NFL Foundation. This year, a $2.4 million grant – supported by funding from the NFL Foundation, Atlanta Super Bowl […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
Building Community Through Partnership
Intro by John Ahmann: Thanks to Kathy Colbenson, President & CEO of CHRIS 180, for this week’s column. Chris 180 is a critical organization in our Westside ecosystem as we collectively work to build a community Dr. King would be proud to call home. The trauma and mental health care counseling support they provide is […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
Remembering Ivory Lee Young, Jr.
This last Saturday, December 1st, 2018 I joined hundreds of others at the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel in celebrating the Life, Legacy and Spirit of The Honorable Ivory Lee Young Jr. Dozens took voice to share their experiences of this remarkable man, including two former Atlanta mayors, Ambassador Andrew Young and […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
When communities like Downtown and the Westside thrive, Atlanta thrives.
Intro by John Ahmann Thanks to AJ Robinson, President of Central Atlanta Progress (CAP), for this week’s column. Founded in 1941, CAP is a member-based not-for-profit advocating on behalf of a vibrant Downtown Atlanta. As the leader of CAP, AJ has been a long-time advocate of greater connectivity between Downtown economic vibrancy and the historic […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
Building-the-Block to achieve affordable, sustainable homeownership and neighborhoods
Intro by John Ahmann: Thanks to Lisa Gordon, Atlanta Habitat for Humanity’s President and CEO, for this week’s column. Habitat for Humanity’s model is a great proof point of the “the more we, the more I can do,” from their engagement of the homeowner, to their volunteers, to their donors and sponsors. The proof is in the results: Atlanta Habitat […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
A First Step Toward a Mixed-Income Community
Intro by John Ahmann, Westside Future Fund: Thanks to the Jaren Abedania, the Westside Future Fund’s (WFF) Vice President of Real Estate, for this week’s column. In my October 2, 2018 column, Two Years of Westside Future Fund, I spoke to our commitment to increase the supply of high-quality affordable rental housing and in this […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
The Power of Service to Heal
Intro by John Ahmann, Westside Future Fund: Thanks to Michael Lucas, Deputy Director, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (AVLF), for this weeks’ Historic Westside column. In the spirit of the “more we the more I can get done,” AVLF has built a community-based collaborative model to provide top tier pro-bono legal services to Westside residents facing […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
The 1300: Atlanta’s Beloved Inspired Community Catching The Hearts of Many
Intro by John Ahmann: If you are on a tall building and happen for a moment to wonder about the law of gravity as you watch a beautiful bird soar, just release an apple from the top to be reminded that the law very much exists. If you wonder whether “the more we the more […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
Building Strong Foundations for the Westside’s Next Generation
Intro by John Ahmann: Thanks to Justin Carr, Director of Partnerships, Westside Future Fund (WFF), for this week’s column. In the spirt of “the more we, the more I can get done,” “We” have no more urgent call to action than ensuring access to highly quality, affordable early learning (birth to age 5) for families […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
Creating Sustainable Change, and a Beloved Community, on Atlanta’s Westside
Column By Rodney Bullard Intro by John Ahmann, Executive Director of Westside Future Fund “Thanks to Rodney Bullard, Vice President of Community Affairs for Chick-fil-A, Inc. and Executive Director of the Chick-fil-A Foundation, for this week’s column. In the spirt of “the more we, the more I can do,” the Chick-fil-A Foundation has been a […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized
Two years of Westside Future Fund
By John Ahmann, Westside Future Fund The Friday before last, September 21, 2018, I was honored to give the second annual update on behalf of the Westside Future Fund (WFF). Just over a year after expanding our board and team, WFF has made significant strides as an “accelerator” of the revitalization of Atlanta’s historic Westside […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership
The Power of “We” – The Atlanta University Consortium (AUC)
Note from John Ahmann: The Atlanta University Consortium (AUC) by definition demonstrate the power of We as the world’s largest consortia of African American private institutions of higher education. These constellations of institutions have long served as an anchor for the Westside and have had an incredible impact morally, economically, and politically on not only […]
Posted inHistoric Westside
It Takes a Village to Make a Park
By John Ahmann, Westside Future Fund’s president and CEO Under the leadership of Executive Director Michael Halicki, Park Pride has demonstrated the power of “we” in first leading to develop the Proctor Creek North Avenue Watershed Basin: A Green Infrastructure Vision and then helping to bring that vision to life with the recent ground breaking […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership
Building Momentum at Hollis Innovation Academy
We consider some of our greatest partners in this work to be the prominent Atlanta leaders who serve on the Westside Future Fund board, like Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, the author of this week’s piece. Dr. Tatum, like many of our board members, not only brings her professional expertise, but her keen awareness of the […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership
“A Westside Story,” by Rev. Howard Beckham
We are delighted that Westside native and community leader Rev. Howard Beckham is the author of this week’s column. Rev. Beckham wears many hats but is probably best known as the founder and CEO of Integrity Transformations CDC, the managing partner of the workforce development program Westside Works, which has already transformed the lives of many […]
Posted inHistoric Westside, http://leadership.saportareport.com/historic-westside/, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership
Building Atlanta Together
A first look at The Home Depot Backyard By John Ahmann On Friday, August 17, for our 15th Transform Westside Summit of 2018, WFF had the honor of hosting more than 150 attendees, ranging from Westside residents to members from across the city’s public, private and nonprofit sectors. What they witnessed was yet another […]
