When Destiny Quarterman-Johnson saw how Partners in Change (PIC) had transformed her friend’s life, she knew she wanted in on the action. A year later, at Quarterman-Johnson’s graduation from the program on Nov. 8, she spoke on a panel before an audience of her peers, coaches and other supporters.
“Being in college, being in your twenties is very hard to navigate, and coming from a struggling background, I’ve always been very goal oriented,” said Quarterman-Johnson, a junior at Georgia State University. “When I learned about this program, I’m like, ‘Okay, I need some type of accountability to help me get all these goals and these thoughts on paper.’”
Partners in Change provided Quarterman-Johnson and 62 other 2025 graduates with free one-on-one life coaching designed to help members self-empower and reach their goals. Coaches are trained volunteers recruited from Volunteer Partner Organizations, and members are under-resourced adults striving for economic mobility and lifestyle changes.
“The road to self-empowerment requires people to really decide, ‘I’m going to make a difference for myself,’” PIC President Neil Shorthouse told the audience. “Every coach that I’ve talked to… they always at one point say, ‘Sometimes I feel like my member is my coach’… because we all have something to give,” he said.
To Quarterman-Johnson’s right on the panel of graduates was Delvonte Kelly, another GSU student.
“Before I got into this program, I was a felon, I was homeless,” Kelly said. “I’m not from Atlanta. I’m from Detroit. I don’t have any family down here… I was at a place in my life where I just wanted change.”
The third panelist, Allison Smith, a retired teacher, applied for the program at the suggestion of a family member who had completed it a few years before.
“She told me that this was a great way to bridge into something new,” Smith said. “Even though I came from a career, I kind of needed a partner because when you’re making a change and everything is different all of a sudden, it’s very disorienting.”
In an interview with Atlanta Way 2.0 and Saporta Report, PIC President Neil Shorthouse explained the philosophy behind the nonprofit, which he co-founded in Atlanta in 2019.
“Telling people what to do and to ‘fix’ people has been going on for many decades, and it does not truly reach people because these are ideas that come from without. Real change has to come from within,” Shorthouse said.
Shorthouse has decades of experience working to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children. He co-founded the nonprofit Communities in Schools in 1971, which operates in 28 states across the country.
“I spent way over 54 years working with kids, and these are children… that actually were in danger of failing and dropping out of school, primarily K-12 kids. And their failure to succeed in school and even drop out of school had nothing to do with their intellect. It had more to do with their circumstances,” Shorthouse said.
“At the other level of the spectrum is their adults, the key enablers or developers of these children in the first place. In order to create true change, we have to work with the adults who own this responsibility,” Shorthouse said. “If we don’t figure out a way for them to overcome these issues, they’re going to be pretty much the adults whose kids have the same problem that they have. So we’ve got to break the cycle.”
Shorthouse said relational equity is crucial to the dynamic between the coaches and members — “the member being the person who is without financial advantages,” he explained. “The best coaches are the ones that insist that they do not give answers because… the answers have to come from the [members].”
“What we need to do is own the reality that people are smart and people are competent, and if given the support, they’re going to be able to make it,” Shorthouse said.
On the panel, Kelly shared his perspective on what makes a good coach. “It’s important to be able to have conversations with people and not feel like they judge you. It’s important for people to remember your name, remember what’s important to you,” he said.
“I remember what [my coach] says. I remember the impact that I felt to be heard, or to feel like you’re not by yourself and you’re not crazy,” Kelly said. “Sometimes those invisible gifts that we can get that have no monetary value connected to them can be so impactful in our life.”
If you enjoyed this column here are 3 ways you can get involved or learn more!
First, you can find out more about Partners in Change.
Second, you can learn more about how you can support economic mobility in Atlanta. Atlanta Way 2.0 will host a series of events in 2026 focused on this topic. Become an Activator today and stay in the know.
Finally, if you know of any programs that support economic mobility in the Metro Atlanta area, we encourage you to share resources by commenting below. Atlanta Way 2.0 staff will share these with our Activator Network.
