By GEEARS We know a lot of data wonks who sit down to a pile of numbers, graphs, charts, and maps, as giddy as a foodie embarking upon a six-course meal.  As for the rest of us, who can think of many things more fun than digging into all that fact- and number-crunching, there is an easier way. You can now find the data you need and make their disparate sources play nicely together.  The Readiness Radar, a decade-old GEEARS tool that we’ve rebooted through a collaboration with Get Georgia Reading, takes care of that problem. Truly a one-stop-shop, the new Readiness Radar pools early childhood data that once existed in several different places and layers them together in a single, easy-to-use online platform. The Readiness Radar houses a range of education, health, housing, economic, and demographic data across the neighborhood, county, and state levels, helping to answer questions related to family and child well-being in Georgia.  The tool can be used as a simple search engine. If you, say, want to know how many children under 5 live in a particular county, useful in projecting school enrollment numbers, you can find that. If you need to know what percentage of children in a particular geographic area have achieved reading proficiency by third grade—a figure that might be requested by a grant application or overseeing body—you can find that, too.  But the Readiness Radar can also add a wealth of detail and nuance to such data by layering various functions.  Let’s say you’re interested in what child care access looks like in areas with high concentrations of families living in poverty. The Readiness Radar can home in on a specific geographic area and show gaps in access relative to income level. Show is the operative word here. One of the most exciting features of Readiness Radar is its visual component. The Readiness Radar uses maps with different colors (and even different shades of those colors) to communicate demographic, health, education, housing, and other information at the neighborhood, county, and state level. Layered upon that map might be color-coded dots that depict points of service such as Quality Rated child care providers, elementary schools, and more.  “The beauty of a mapping tool is you can see data in a different way than you might on a spreadsheet,” notes GEEARS’ Director of Research and Policy, Hanah Goldberg. “The Readiness Radar allows users to see both the demographic landscape of an area and the locations of specific assets, such as early learning programs, in those same areas.”  The list of users who could benefit from such a versatile tool is almost as long as its functions. Goldberg can spontaneously rattle off a number of them. “School system leaders and non-profit leaders, including funders,” she says. “Policymakers at the local and state levels. Child care providers and prospective child care providers who are interested in opening in an area of need. Journalists who need data to tell their stories. Researchers and higher education leaders. The health community. Basically, anyone who’s trying to better understand and answer questions about a community and what resources exist or might be needed there.”  Such breadth is one of things that motivated Get Georgia Reading Director Arianne Weldon to partner with GEEARS to refashion the Readiness Radar.  “At Get Georgia Reading, we’ve set out to increase the number of Georgia children reading proficiently by third grade,” Weldon says. “Multiple factors like maternal level of education, preterm birth, and lack of access to quality early care and learning cut off a child’s path to literacy. It’s tremendously helpful to have a data tool that leads us to where all these complex factors intersect so that together we can pave the way to improved outcomes—starting before birth—for every child in Georgia throughout school and life.” It speaks to Readiness Radar’s range that its most popular features are its “Early Childhood Profiles” and an important feature called the ATL Access Map.  The profiles are simply straightforward. Each one contains key education, health, program enrollment, and other census-collected data for a specific county, city, or legislative district.  The other most-used feature, the ATL ACCESS Map focuses with laser precision on all the overlapping indicators that affect child care supply and demand in five metro Atlanta counties—Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett. The mapping feature makes it particularly easy to spot child care gaps and where within a community’s demographics they land. While the Readiness Radar is user-friendly to both deep-diving professionals and average Googlers, we do recommend that you learn your way around the tool with this video tutorial from Readiness Radar builder Neighborhood Nexus.  Then let us know how you’re using the Readiness Radar—and how much time it’s saving you!   This is sponsored content.

RSVP by March 21, 2023 The gala will be held at the Atlanta History Center at 6pm on Thursday, March 30, 2023, and includes a cocktail reception, live entertainment – with a special performance by the Atlanta Women’s Chorus, seated dinner, live auction and more.  And former Families First board member Monica Kaufman Pearson will serve as emcee! There are a few sponsorships and tickets still available, but they are going fast!  Click this QR code for more details and to make your purchase.  You may also email us at marketing@familiesfirst.org for more information. Warmly, Paula M. Moody Paula M. Moody, LCSW, MS Chief Executive Officer Families First   This is sponsored content.

Representatives from the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce recently joined Fiserv, a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology with a significant presence in the Atlanta area, to present three Atlanta-area small businesses with $10,000 grants in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month.  The business owners who received grants included: Joel Ferrer of Chef Joel Coco Cabana LLC, a restaurant delighting guests with unique cuisine, showcasing Chef Joel’s classically trained background and Cuban heritage. Vanessa Higgins of Clean Tu Casa, a cleaning, organizing and personal errand service company serving homes, small offices and short-term rentals in Metro Atlanta. Alejandra “Luz” Pelaez of UP Advertising, a multicultural advertising and digital marketing agency specializing in reaching the Hispanic market, ensuring companies communicate authentically. In interviews following the grant presentations, the recipients discussed the impact the grants will have on their businesses. Chef Ferrer highlighted plans to invest in upgraded technology, while Vanessa Higgins underscored that the grants will enable her to create jobs and Sebastian Uribe of UP Advertising noted an anticipated increase in sales.   The grants were awarded as part of the Fiserv Back2Business program, a $50 million commitment to support minority-owned small businesses. In addition to grants, Back2Business connects diverse small businesses with critical resources, including complimentary small business coaching, leading technology solutions such as Clover and community partners. “We’re proud to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by supporting these inspiring businesses and all the small businesses that play a crucial role in Atlanta’s economy,” said Vivian Greentree, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Corporate Citizenship at Fiserv. “Providing funding and resources to help small, diverse businesses thrive is a key tenet of the Back2Business program and it’s wonderful to see the impact this program has made in cities all over the country, and especially here in our own backyard in Atlanta.”  “It is an honor to partner with Fiserv and the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to celebrate and support entrepreneurs in the Hispanic community during Hispanic Heritage Month,” said Alex Gonzalez, Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. “Through the Back2Business grants, Fiserv is providing access to capital and resources to help these three Hispanic-owned businesses grow and thrive.” In addition to facing difficult business conditions such as rising costs, supply chain challenges and labor shortages, Hispanic-owned small businesses have their own unique set of challenges. “Fiserv recognition and support of the Hispanic community, providing valuable grants and services at a critical time for small businesses through Back2Business, is key to assuring equitable opportunities for our community and to being seen as the vital force that we are for the economy and the great state of Georgia,” said Verónica Maldonado-Torres, President and CEO, Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “When one group thrives, we all thrive as a society, and that is our goal at the GHCC – to match businesses with the resources, tools and opportunities to inspire them and help them reimagine the next for their company.”  In addition to Atlanta, Fiserv has sponsored the Back2Business program in cities including New York, Milwaukee, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, Tulsa, Oakland, Washington. D.C. and Omaha. To date, Fiserv has presented nearly 1,500 grants to small businesses through the program.   This is sponsored content.

BY ANSLEY WHIPPLE, MIDTOWN ALLIANCE PROJECT MANAGER Midtown Atlanta is a place for people, and the innovation capital of the South, where big ideas come to life. Our goal is to have something fun and exciting in our neighborhood everywhere you look — a pop-up bakery on the corner, a free holiday event in a plaza, spruced up outdoor seating at your favorite café. The future of Midtown as a vibrant place depends on ample opportunities to gather together in spaces like these. Improving and activating public spaces with events, amenities and reasons to spend time here are key to the long-term success and resilience of Midtown. The importance of these strategies emerged during the development of the Midtown Public Life Action Plan. To build and maintain momentum, Midtown needs fresh ideas and partnerships. Midtown Alliance is trying a new approach this year: we’re investing more directly in ideas that support public life through our new (Ad)Venture Capital Fund. We’re looking for project ideas from individuals, teams, nonprofits, property owners, small business owners, and others that we can support with expertise and potential seed funding to help catalyze efforts in the following areas: 1. Community Activations: events and programming in existing public spaces. Midtown has a variety of existing public spaces, including some in public right-of-way like streets and sidewalks, and other dedicated spaces like parks and plazas. Some are maintained by Midtown Alliance, such as Arts District Plaza, Commercial Row Commons, Spring Street Parklets, and 10th Street Park. Others are managed by individual property owners.  Some of these spaces already are being programmed to attract people, but others are not. Community activation partners are invited to submit proposals for events and programming that bring people outside to enjoy public spaces. Need some inspiration? Think temporary artisan, farmers or holiday markets; outdoor fitness or art classes; interactive art installations; social events; lawn games; block parties or street festivals with art, food and music; live music and concert series; outdoor movies; and more. 2. New or Enhanced Spaces for People: any size, open to all and accessible from the sidewalk. This category focuses on existing spaces that need programming or enhancements to come to life, including places that have never functioned as public spaces before. The only requirement is that the space not be restricted only to owners, tenants or customers. 3. Ground Floor Enhancements: facade upgrades to make a ground floor more vibrant and inviting at street level. Simple upgrades such as lush planters, public art, outdoor seating and patio dining can be good for business as well as an enhancement to the overall street-level experience. While we don’t have the money to help fund ground floor facade construction, we can help with design inspiration, ideas for simple retrofits and potentially with contracted design services for the right project. We also have tables and chairs we can loan out on a trial basis to experiment with. This opportunity is right for a ground floor business, property owner or manager. Just let us know your interest and what you have in mind and let’s talk.  Midtown Alliance’s role in (Ad)venture Capital is to assist with early inspiration, permitting and regulatory guidance, expertise, promotional support, introductions to other partners and seed funding for the right projects.  Have an idea that you believe everyone in the Midtown Improvement District would enjoy? Make your pitch! Get details about the (Ad)venture Capital Fund, share your ideas, and we’ll go from there.   This is sponsored content.

Georgia ACT’s 2023 Annual Housing Day at the Capitol was a huge success! Over 300 people (including students from Lambert High School) attended in person and virtually on February 22, 2023, to advocate for the present and future of affordable housing issues and solutions around the State.  Attendees were from Metro Atlanta and rural Georgia. Participants represented a variety of sectors including non-profits, social workers, local neighborhoods and tenant associations, local government, and private industry, etc. Also, there was great diversity among the participants, which showed everyone’s enthusiasm for the issue of affordable housing. It was exciting that the participants included dozens of teenagers from Lambert High School, which represents the next generation of affordable housing advocates. Students had the opportunity to meet face-to-face with Senators and Representatives to learn about their work and the affordable housing issues facing Georgia.  Participants discussed the Safe House Act, Georgia Housing Vouchers, Homelessness, the Governor’s Budget and other housing issues with the Georgia General Assembly and other elected officials, including the Mayor of Atlanta – Andre Dickens, Governor Brian Kemp, Representative Sam Park, Senator Gail Davenport, Representative Kasey Carpenter, Representative Marvin Lim, and Representative Terry Cummings. Additionally, participants met with their state Senate and House members to advocate for affordable housing issues and/or viewed live Senate or House proceedings in the gallery. The overwhelming turnout showed us that the passion we share is both genuine and ACTionable! For those that may have missed this fantastic day of advocacy training, Georgia ACT will post the recording of our 2023 Housing Day at the Capitol to our website at www.georgiaact.org.  A very special “thank you” to our sponsors, Center for Community Progress, Enterprise Community Partners, and Southern First Bank, and to Mayor Dickens, Governor Kemp, and all of the legislators who spoke to attendees! See you next year! This is sponsored content.

By Monica Thornton Recently, I was named the Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy in Georgia, one of the world’s largest conservation organizations. We have been operating in this state for over 50 years and in that time, we have protected more than 400,000 acres of land, safeguarded countless waterways that traverse those lands, and stewarded our envied 100-mile coast. There is not a corner of the state that our work does not touch. We have helped protect vulnerable species such as the gopher tortoise, red-cockaded woodpecker, and eastern indigo snake. We have been leaders in revitalizing our treasured longleaf pine forests and advocated for transformational conservation legislation like the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act (GOSA).  As one might expect, stepping up to lead such an accomplished, mission critical organization can feel overwhelming. It has been two months since my first day and the breadth and scope of our work can only be described as astounding. Luckily, I am not doing it alone, and the progress we are making to conserve our treasured natural resources is only possible thanks to our expert scientists and staff, our devoted board, generous donors, committed supporters, and our incredible conservation partners. We are connected by a shared dedication to nature and it has been a source of joy to see our impact on people and nature firsthand.  The Nature Conservancy in Georgia employs an expert group of scientists and conservationists who are part of a network that touches every U.S. state and over 70 countries globally striving to protect our natural resources and our planet. Together, we are pursuing an ambitious set of goals which will help harmonize people and nature by 2030, including conserving nearly 10 billion acres of ocean, 1.6 billion acres of land, and more than 620,000 miles of rivers. Achieving those goals will take all of us working together, from the local to the global level, and that work is happening right here in Georgia.   Our work will help us fulfill TNCs global goals but make no mistake, our priority is on meeting the needs of the people, plants, and animals in our own backyard. We have a rich variety of ecosystems in Georgia, from our mountains to our coasts, and from our forests to our swamps. I am eager to plant my feet in every ecosystem to accelerate the work that must be done. Humanity’s future hangs in the balance and I am prepared to be a force of nature, for nature.  However, organizations like ours are only one piece of the puzzle. All of us have a responsibility to Mother Nature and there are small things we can do every day to meet the environmental challenges ahead of us. We can buy more sustainable products, donate our time or money, write our legislators, or even just talk to our friends and family about how to be a better ally to the world around us.  Big changes begin with small actions.  As the new leader of this storied institution in Georgia, I am confident that there is no limit to what we can accomplish if we work together.   This is sponsored content.

This week is very special because it’s the week we celebrate the 91st birthday of a truly remarkable human being, my dear friend and mentor, Ambassador Andrew Young. Words cannot adequately express my admiration and gratitude for this great man, who has played such an integral role in shaping our country’s history and inspiring future generations. Ambassador Young has lived a life of service to others, from his work as a civil rights leader and lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to his tenure as a mayor of the city of Atlanta, to his time as a congressman, and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He has been a tireless advocate for justice and equality, and his legacy continues to inspire people around the world. On a personal note, Ambassador Young has been a mentor, a friend, and a true hero. He has always been there to offer guidance and support, and I am constantly amazed by his wisdom, his kindness, and his unwavering commitment to making the world a better place. His legacy of leadership and service is a constant source of inspiration for me and for everyone at Operation HOPE. Ambassador Young has been a true blessing to our organization, and we are proud and honored to be in his social justice, moral, and spiritual lineage. His leadership and vision have helped shape our mission to empower underserved communities and promote financial dignity for all. We are grateful that he has lent us his voice to amplify our message, his shoulders on which we stand, and his giant heart to help us achieve our goals. For that, we are forever grateful. To our hero, we pray that your day was filled with love, joy, and happiness. May you continue to inspire us all with your leadership, your vision, and your unwavering commitment to justice and equality. And may you continue to be a beacon of hope for future generations. Happy birthday, Ambassador Young. We are all blessed to know you, and we look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you in the years to come.

By Charles Redding On February 6, at 4:17am, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria. This is the region’s most powerful earthquake recorded since 1939, with at least 78 aftershocks and a second 7.5 magnitude earthquake reported. In Syria, the earthquake affected a region where 4.1 million people were already dependent on humanitarian assistance, the majority of whom are women and children. These same Syrian communities have been struggling with an on-going cholera outbreak and harsh winter conditions.  In addition to the 48,000 lives that have been lost, millions of people have been injured and/or displaced, thousands of buildings damaged, and entire communities leveled. Needless to say, there is both an immediate and long-term need for medical aid to support damaged and overwhelmed hospitals now, and to help them reconstitute healthcare services in the future.  Due to the ongoing conflict in Syria and the subsequent refugee crisis, there are a number of existing international NGOs with permanent operations in the region. Charity Navigator currently lists MedShare among 43 high-performing organizations providing relief and recovery in the wake of the earthquakes, and there are hundreds of small organizations based in Turkey, Syria and elsewhere who are responding with medical aid, food, sanitation and water, psycho-social and other material support.   MedShare has a longstanding history of providing humanitarian aid to these communities in times of crises. Since 2009 MedShare has delivered over $4.7 million in humanitarian aid to provide care for over 175,000 patients and healthcare workers in the Turkey/Syria region.  Key partner organizations have included:   Orient for Human Relief  Syrian American Medical Society  Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations (UOSSM)  LEAP Global Missions After the Government of Turkey issued the call for international assistance last month, MedShare once again answered the call. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, MedShare:   Activated our disaster response protocol to guide our relief efforts and maximize our impact with a focus on marginalized communities Opened our primary care supply center to groups traveling to the region to collect critical medical supplies to be hand-carried to the reach to provide treatment of those in need Immediately began to collaborate with many of our existing partners that are providing emergency aid in Turkey and Syria Initiated the process of carefully selecting quality medical supplies to match the established needs list generated by our partner organizations such as the Turkish Embassy, the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations (UOSSM), Islamic Relief USA, Islamic Relief Canada, Syrian American Medical Society MedShare is also partnering with longstanding healthcare partner, Northwell Health, to transport 22 pallets of critical medical supplies to the region to treat the millions of people that have been impacted during this disaster. “We are all part of one global family,” Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health said in a statement.  “And when there’s one part of the family in severe distress, we as a healthcare organization have to be concerned about people in other parts of the world.” If you would like to learn more about our relief efforts, please visit www.medshare.org or donate here.

Westside Future Fund (WFF) is excited to be supporting thought leadership in the SaportaReport on Atlanta’s Historic Westside. At the October 15 Transform Westside Summit we announced the Westside Future Fund (WFF) PRI Program!  A program-related investment (PRI) is low-cost capital that not-for-profit organizations can use to spur community development. Thanks to charitable support from Truist and PNC banks, WFF will provide low-cost loans to small, minority-owned businesses based in or serving the Historic Westside.  This program builds on a pilot initially funded by AT&T and the Beloved Benefit.  Our goal is to mobilize people with current, historical, or aspirational ties to the community to organically support the Westside’s economic development.  The October 15 Transform Westside Summit highlighted the importance of economic empowerment of African American entrepreneurs with three special guest panelists – Courtney Smith from PNC Bank, Paul Wilson, Jr. from the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE), and Keitra Bates of Marddy’s Shared Kitchen and Marketplace.  A common theme from the panelists was the need for equity in access to capital for Black business owners.  Keitra Bates noted that white startups have access to $100,000 from family, on average, while for black startups, it’s only $11,000. In June 2020, PNC Bank announced its bold $1 billion commitment to playing a role in combatting racism and discrimination.  During the Summit, Courtney elaborated on PNC’s commitment to the Westside by helping end systemic racism by donating to WFF for program-related investments.  Keitra Bates is a recipient of a WFF PRI that she used to renovate and expand her shared kitchen.  Marddy’s focus is on economic inclusion, business development, and growth opportunities for local food entrepreneurs with their primary service groups of people of color, women, and other marginalized populations. With the help of RICE, the PRI recipients will have access to resources to innovate, grow, create jobs, and build wealth. Part business generator, innovation lab, and museum, RICE invests in African American entrepreneurs, strengthens businesses, and creates community. We have many miles to eliminate the wealth gap between white and black startups.  Thanks to our panelists and the organization they represent, we are making progress and hopefully serving as models for others!  Check out our newsletter to learn more about the October 15 Summit. This is sponsored content.

By Katrina Julien, program officer, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and 2022 The Funders Network PLACES Fellow For The Funder’s Network, PLACES stands for Professionals Learning about Community, Equity and Sustainability. I’m sure that like me, most decide to apply for PLACES to strengthen their leadership role and progress in their philanthropic careers. But what those who’ve gone through the program know is that this is more than a bullet on your resume; it’s an opportunity to connect what you do with who you are as a person. It’s also a chance to see opportunities in difficult situations and envision a world where philanthropy as a tool does more good than harm. PLACES is both a professional and personal journey.  Our first meeting was virtual but dynamic. We learned a little about each other and broke out into groups to begin to connect with our peers and prepare to head to our first site visit destination, Burlington, Vermont. There, the PLACES team wasted no time getting us talking about ourselves, our work, and how overwhelming it can be to work in a sector that upholds white supremacy culture while trying to dismantle it from the inside. We heard from foundations at different stages of embedding equity into their work. I got to hear what I must have sounded like when I started at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta—speaking about equity but knowing it hadn’t yet been operationalized within my own organization. That was hard to watch but incredibly informative. I realized that in order to achieve the goals we strive for, philanthropy needs to listen and learn from the examples community and nonprofit partners present.  When I returned to work, I grappled with these questions: What is the role of philanthropy in dismantling broken systems? Do we work in institutions that are really ready to do that? What is my responsibility to ensure equity in my work? The great thing about PLACES is that you work through all of your uncertainties with your peers. By the second site visit in Oklahoma City, fellows were ready to dig deeper into some of those uncertainties. The Oklahoma City site visit challenged me. We heard the city’s history as told by a person whose life’s work was to record the history of the state, but whose unconscious biases were apparent in every historical fact discussed. We also heard from a PLACES alum who was doing amazing work in philanthropy, yet introduced the idea of strategic complicity: choosing which battles are worth fighting and which to concede in order to do the greatest amount of good. As a person who was born to challenge everything all the time, this concept was and is the hardest for me to accept. Yes, I understood it, but I didn’t like it. The good thing is that the PLACES team knew when to push and when to offer respite. And, we spent just as much time learning about and acknowledging each other as we did learning about the issues and challenges of the City. We also made sure to see and interact with each city and its history, from the somber reflections at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum to the richness of Burlington’s Intervale Center. Fresno, our last site visit, solidified the idea that no matter the place or issue (housing, food insecurity, etc.) the real work is dismantling the power structures that oppress communities. Oppression may look one way in Burlington and another way in Fresno but the underlying issue and ultimate goal are the same: a gross imbalance of power and privilege heavily steeped in racial inequities and the necessity of returning that power and autonomy to the people and communities that have been disenfranchised to make decisions for their lives. I don’t think I’ve found the answers to all of my questions. Yet, I am so lucky to have my fellowship family to share it with, to commiserate with, to uplift and cheer on. The best leadership advice I received in this program was, ‘Find your people, the ones that have your back in this challenging work’. PLACES helps leaders in philanthropy connect with and identify who their people are and then challenges us all to get to work.   This is sponsored content.

The Mellon Foundation has awarded Emory University a multi-year, $526,000 grant to develop a new center to advance civic engagement and democratic participation through interdisciplinary humanistic research, experiential education and partnerships between Emory and Georgia-based organizations in and around Atlanta.  The Imagining Democracy Lab will be led by historian Carol Anderson, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and an internationally recognized expert and public scholar on voting and civil rights, and Bernard L. Fraga, associate professor of Political Science and specialist in race, elections, and voter behavior.  Central to the project is building empowerment and civic engagement by asking citizens to imagine what a viable, functioning democracy could mean for enhancing the quality of their lives and, then, providing the information and pathways to make that kind of democracy real. “This outstanding award will support innovative models for collaborative research and teaching and will forge enduring relationships between Emory and our surrounding communities. I am grateful to the Mellon Foundation for its recognition and support for this vital initiative that will greatly expand our work around civic engagement and social justice, and actively advance our democratic future,” says Carla Freeman, interim Dean of Emory College of Arts & Sciences. The Imagining Democracy Lab builds upon Anderson’s award-winning scholarship on the history of racial inequality and voter suppression in the U.S. and the work of Fraga, whose award-winning book The Turnout Gap documents the causes and consequences of racial/ethnic disparities in who turns out to vote.  Other faculty in political science, African American studies, law and history will be involved as well. The lab also will use additional institutional strengths with the resources of Emory’s James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference and Emory Law’s Center for Civil Rights and Social Justice. “The grant from the Mellon Foundation is a recognition of how important an engaged citizenry is to a healthy, vibrant democracy. We are honored to have the Imagining Democracy Lab be a contributor to that vision,” says Anderson. Leveraging Emory’s location in Atlanta as an historic and contemporary center for civil rights, the lab will engage students and faculty in the humanities and social sciences, as well as local, state and national organizations to develop multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research strategies that can foster civic participation in Georgia and beyond.  Representatives from community organizations will join the lab as fellows and full partners in research, scholarship, teaching, and action. A major goal of the research lab is to connect academic and real-world understandings of barriers to democratic enfranchisement and responsiveness, and gain access to information that helps participants take action, from local to national levels. The Imagining Democracy Lab also plans to launch an open access digital “Democracy Hub” to widely disseminate its scholarship and educational resources to individuals and community organizations. Content for the Democracy Hub, including platforms for participatory exchange with citizens, will include the work and research results of the students, faculty, and community organizations involved in the lab. The Democracy Hub will be designed and supported by experts within the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship who are trained to optimize digital scholarly resources.   This is sponsored content.

By GEEARS We know a lot of data wonks who sit down to a pile of numbers, graphs, charts, and maps, as giddy as a foodie embarking upon a six-course meal.  As for the rest of us, who can think of many things more fun than digging into all that fact- and number-crunching, there is an easier way. You can now find the data you need and make their disparate sources play nicely together.  The Readiness Radar, a decade-old GEEARS tool that we’ve rebooted through a collaboration with Get Georgia Reading, takes care of that problem. Truly a one-stop-shop, the new Readiness Radar pools early childhood data that once existed in several different places and layers them together in a single, easy-to-use online platform. The Readiness Radar houses a range of education, health, housing, economic, and demographic data across the neighborhood, county, and state levels, helping to answer questions related to family and child well-being in Georgia.  The tool can be used as a simple search engine. If you, say, want to know how many children under 5 live in a particular county, useful in projecting school enrollment numbers, you can find that. If you need to know what percentage of children in a particular geographic area have achieved reading proficiency by third grade—a figure that might be requested by a grant application or overseeing body—you can find that, too.  But the Readiness Radar can also add a wealth of detail and nuance to such data by layering various functions.  Let’s say you’re interested in what child care access looks like in areas with high concentrations of families living in poverty. The Readiness Radar can home in on a specific geographic area and show gaps in access relative to income level. Show is the operative word here. One of the most exciting features of Readiness Radar is its visual component. The Readiness Radar uses maps with different colors (and even different shades of those colors) to communicate demographic, health, education, housing, and other information at the neighborhood, county, and state level. Layered upon that map might be color-coded dots that depict points of service such as Quality Rated child care providers, elementary schools, and more.  “The beauty of a mapping tool is you can see data in a different way than you might on a spreadsheet,” notes GEEARS’ Director of Research and Policy, Hanah Goldberg. “The Readiness Radar allows users to see both the demographic landscape of an area and the locations of specific assets, such as early learning programs, in those same areas.”  The list of users who could benefit from such a versatile tool is almost as long as its functions. Goldberg can spontaneously rattle off a number of them. “School system leaders and non-profit leaders, including funders,” she says. “Policymakers at the local and state levels. Child care providers and prospective child care providers who are interested in opening in an area of need. Journalists who need data to tell their stories. Researchers and higher education leaders. The health community. Basically, anyone who’s trying to better understand and answer questions about a community and what resources exist or might be needed there.”  Such breadth is one of things that motivated Get Georgia Reading Director Arianne Weldon to partner with GEEARS to refashion the Readiness Radar.  “At Get Georgia Reading, we’ve set out to increase the number of Georgia children reading proficiently by third grade,” Weldon says. “Multiple factors like maternal level of education, preterm birth, and lack of access to quality early care and learning cut off a child’s path to literacy. It’s tremendously helpful to have a data tool that leads us to where all these complex factors intersect so that together we can pave the way to improved outcomes—starting before birth—for every child in Georgia throughout school and life.” It speaks to Readiness Radar’s range that its most popular features are its “Early Childhood Profiles” and an important feature called the ATL Access Map.  The profiles are simply straightforward. Each one contains key education, health, program enrollment, and other census-collected data for a specific county, city, or legislative district.  The other most-used feature, the ATL ACCESS Map focuses with laser precision on all the overlapping indicators that affect child care supply and demand in five metro Atlanta counties—Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett. The mapping feature makes it particularly easy to spot child care gaps and where within a community’s demographics they land. While the Readiness Radar is user-friendly to both deep-diving professionals and average Googlers, we do recommend that you learn your way around the tool with this video tutorial from Readiness Radar builder Neighborhood Nexus.  Then let us know how you’re using the Readiness Radar—and how much time it’s saving you!   This is sponsored content.