“Metro Atlanta’s time has come.”
According to Atlanta Regional Commission CEO and President, that is the headline for the launch of “Opportunity Rising,” a major economic mobility coalition launched on Nov. 4 at the annual State of the Region.
Metro Atlanta is ranked dead last — 50th out of the top 50 metro areas in the country — when it comes to upward economic mobility. It means individuals and families in the region are highly unlikely to improve their economic status over time. And it’s a ranking decades in the making.
Now, it’s a ranking the Atlanta Regional Commission is trying to improve.
“Over the past year, ARC and our community partners have talked a great deal about economic mobility,” Atlanta Mayor and ARC Board Chair Andre Dickens said. “One thing came through very clearly: no single organization or jurisdiction can solve this challenge alone.”
Until now, most of the regional work has been done independently. Local governments, nonprofits and agencies each run their own initiatives around housing, affordability and workforce development.
Roach said the region deserves a better story than that. With Opportunity Rising, the ARC plans to “do things differently.”
The difference is coordination. Opportunity Rising is a collaboration between the ARC, the city’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and the United Way of Greater Atlanta.
Together, the public and private organizations will “convene” the region under clear economic mobility goals.
“Opportunity Rising is not starting from scratch,” Roach said. “It is focused on building on work across Metro Atlanta that is really making a difference.”
The move seemingly follows another popular model: Charlotte, North Carolina’s “Leading on Opportunity” nonprofit.
In 2014, a study from Harvard University’s Raj Chetty and his research group Opportunity Insights ranked Charlotte dead last in economic mobility. Atlanta ranked 49th out of 50.
Three years later, Charlotte launched the nonprofit “Leading on Opportunity” to bring together economic mobility efforts and raise the region’s ranking. When Chetty’s 2024 study was released, they saw results. Charlotte had climbed to 38th.
Meanwhile, Atlanta had fallen to last place.
“It was humbling,” Roach said. “It was a wake-up call.”
The Blank Foundation invited Chetty to meet with Atlanta leaders soon after the 2024 study. It laid the foundation for a new solution: Opportunity Rising. The coalition has four main priorities: data, policy, investment and community voice.
Like Charlotte’s nonprofit, it will bring a regional effort under a single goal.
“What we would like to do is convene the region and the stakeholders that are investing and operating in this space to ensure alignment in four key areas,” Roach said.
The ARC will lead data gathering, which will inform policy and investment. Roach is focused on “key policy barriers,” like the minimum wage, access to healthcare and affordable housing. The coalition will push for policy changes alongside calls for public and private investment.
But Roach said “all of the investment in the world is not going to advance economic mobility in the face of policy barriers.”
The regional commission announced Opportunity Rising the morning after a massive political shakeup in Georgia. Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governor’s race, and Democrats won Georgia’s House of Representatives. Republicans retain control of the Senate, though Democrat Josh McLaurin will preside over the body as Lt. Governor.
Roach was careful to emphasize the ARC “outlasts political cycles,” which keeps the initiative apolitical. None of the ARC representatives addressed how a different political landscape could alter the policy push.
Instead, the regional leaders focused on the key piece to Opportunity Rising: Coordinating work already happening in the region. Basically, ARC will provide a single structure for dozens of groups already working in Metro Atlanta.
Some of that work includes Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, the nonprofit Atlanta Neighborhood Collective, investment from the Blank Family Foundation and the ARC’s own “Housing Forward 2035” regional housing strategy.
“Our region’s future depends on making the most of the talent that we already have here in every single neighborhood and every single community in Metro Atlanta,” Roach said.
The CEO said by “pulling together” around policy hurdles and pushing for change, Opportunity Rising will do things differently. It’s “something that could be really effective.”
To lead the charge, ARC has created a role for the “region’s first prosperity officer.” The agency will soon kick off a candidate search.
“This is the person we are going to charge with waking up every single day focused on one thing: economic mobility for every family across this region,” Roach said.
