For Troya Lusand Underwood Jackson, Families First Program Manager, the power of resilience to change lives is very personal. Troya has been part of Families First for more than 15 years but admits that it was not until she started leading the innovative resilience work for Families First that she looked back on her own […]
Category: Thought Leadership
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100 Days Report
Our Public Policy team has been following every twist and turn of President Biden’s first 100 days in office, captured in this primer that examines the landscape in Washington, DC, currently, and also assesses Congressional and Administration priorities through the remainder of 2021. Features of this report include: View Report This is sponsored content.
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5 Q’s for ARC Executive Director Doug Hooker, Who Plans to Retire Next Year
By Paul Donsky Doug Hooker, who has served as Executive Director of the Atlanta Regional Commission since 2011, has announced that he will retire in March 2022. Hooker has led the agency through a dynamic period of growth and change. We recently sat down with him for a Q&A in which he reflected on his nearly 10 […]
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Emory Pipeline Collaborative prepares high school students for health professions
As an Emory Pipeline Collaborative (EPiC) graduate, Emory University sophomore Jamal Hilaire appreciates the in-depth view of health care that the program provided and for which it is principally known. However, his participation yielded so much more. “I associate so much of what EPiC is with who I am today,” Hilaire says. “I feel pride about what […]
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If Each One will Reach One, A Healthy Georgia will Emerge
Guest post by Gilda (Gigi) Pedraza, executive director, Latino Community Fund (LCF Georgia) Ana took a deep breath, summoned her courage and asked, “My daughter had kidney surgery a few years ago – where can she get the COVID-19 vaccine?” While the ask was simple, what she really was asking, was for a place that […]
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Spring Season Ushers in Programs, Improvements for Downtown’s Woodruff Park
Ansley Whipple, Woodruff Park Project Manager, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID) is embracing the spring season with the return of free community programs to Woodruff Park, plus the announcement of forthcoming capital improvements to Downtown’s central greenspace, supported by a Legacy Grant from Park Pride. On weekdays from 11:00 a.m. […]
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Investing in a Sustainable Region
Christina Szczepanski, Managing Director, Southeast, Reinvestment Fund Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to join an interactive simulation called the Digital Community Food Experience, created by the Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB) in collaboration with Georgia Tech design students. The aim of the activity was to help participants gain a deeper understanding of the […]
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Matching Maternal Child Health Interventions with Need
By Charles Redding, MedShare CEO & President Poor maternal, newborn and child health care remain a significant problem in low- and middle-income countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that worldwide, 250,000–280,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth every year and an estimated 6.55 million children die under the age of five each year. The […]
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MARTA Will Offer Key Parcel for “Finding the Flint”
Transit Authority Supports Innovative Conservation Program for Flint River The MARTA Board of Directors Planning and Capital Programs Committee has authorized the sale of a 7.25-acre parcel of land at the headwaters of the Flint River to the City of College Park to create the City’s first nature preserve and outdoor classroom. The Flint River […]
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United Way volunteers ‘brighten people’s day’ through virtual projects during pandemic
By Bradley Roberts, Content Manager, United Way of Greater Atlanta Note: Photos used in this story were taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic Marie Wood grew up volunteering with her family at local community food banks, for activities with her church youth group and for other nonprofits spread across the Greater Atlanta area. Volunteering was […]
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Helping Hands Transform our Communities
By Julio Carrillo, Chief Operating Officer of Families First April is set aside to celebrate the many volunteers who give of their time, talent, and treasure to positively impact the lives of others. The United Nations estimates that about one billion individuals volunteer each year to support their favorite nonprofits. As a nonprofit, Families First […]
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Racing to Protect the Future of our Food: The Working Farms Fund is Underway
By Krisztian Varsa Sowing the Seeds of Local Farms Agriculture remains a major part of Georgia’s economy, and we have a large and growing number of diverse, entrepreneurial next-generation farmers committed to innovative and sustainable farming to support our local food system. However, many of these farmers lack one key ingredient—ownership of the land they […]
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Artist Residencies in Midtown: An Essential Environment for Creativity
By Shoccara Marcus, Artist-in Residence at Cousins Properties’ Promenade I describe myself as a dancer first, and a photographer second. I fulfill love of both crafts with dance photography. I get a joy out of putting dancers in different environments and creating a dialogue with the line, shape, and form of the body in relation […]
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Atlantans reflect on 20 years of personal financial decisions
By Aron Levine, Bank of America, President, Preferred and Consumer Banking & Investments For our inaugural Bank of America Preferred Insights: Hindsight is 20/20 Personal Finance Report, we asked affluent Americans to reflect on their financial decisions over the past two decades and share their thoughts and feelings about how their past financial decisions could […]
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Pandemic Proves Global Mental Health Can’t Be Ignored
By Dr. Kashef Ijaz, Vice President-Health, The Carter Center Global mental health has been called the “silent,” “parallel,” or “next” pandemic. In fact, mental health was deteriorating even before the COVID-19 crisis unfolded. In 2018, The Carter Center contributed to a Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health, which says that “the global burden of disease […]
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Still Room to Grow for Georgia as a State for Babies
By Mindy Binderman Georgia is still just getting started when it comes to making progress for our infants and toddlers. That’s according to a ZERO TO THREE, whose latest State of Babies Yearbook: 2021 report shows while Georgia has made progress in supporting young children in our state, we still have a good deal of […]
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MARTA Restores Bus Routes Suspended Due to COVID-19
Customers Should Plan for Service Frequency Changes on Many Routes MARTA restored 58 previously suspended bus routes on Saturday, April 24, and implement service frequency adjustments to match the reduced demand in ridership and address bus capacity limitations. MARTA suspended 70 of its 110 bus routes last spring as the COVID-19 pandemic was intensifying and […]
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Emory researcher fights toxic soil contamination
The discovery of lead contamination in Atlanta’s mostly poor, largely Black, Westside neighborhood began innocuously. Two years ago, Emory environmental science professor Eri Saikawa, wanting to help her then-graduate student find a thesis topic, suggested looking at soil samples in a community where urban agriculture was proliferating. What Saikawa and her student found in the […]
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Choosing Balance Over Business
By: DePriest Waddy, CEO of Families First Quote from Anne Frank…”Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.” One of my mentees, a young, successful IT junior executive, whom I’ve known since he was 17 years old and at the time making $8.00 an hour in a retail […]
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Celebrating the impact volunteers have on nonprofits in our region
By Felix Rodriguez, program associate, strong families, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta 2020 was an incredibly hard year for a number of very obvious and very difficult reasons, and there were times when it seemed hard to find a glimmer of hope. Through these difficult times though, people have stepped up to support one another, […]
