Cities Of Hope: Carter’s Atlanta Project Seeks New Face For Poor Neighborhoods
This article is the second in a series of three that explores innovative approaches employed by the philanthropic community to assist urban Atlanta. The front cover of a brochure for the Atlanta Project showcases a captivating photograph. The background showcases the city’s impressive skyline, a modern representation of a prosperous metropolis in the late 20th century.
In stark contrast, the foreground portrays a series of makeshift shelters located underneath an elevated highway, surrounded by weeds and litter. The image appears to encapsulate a metaphor that former President Jimmy Carter has utilized to explain the mission of the Atlanta Project. This large-scale initiative, led by the private sector, aims to enhance the quality of life in the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods. Mr. Carter expressed, during a meeting with local business leaders last year, that "Atlanta is, in many ways, a wealthy city. However, the disparity between the rich and the poor is so substantial that, effectively, we have two separate cities here."
Since leaving public office in 1981, Mr. Carter has become renowned for his humanitarian efforts across the globe and within the United States. However, in the fall of 1991, he redirected his focus towards addressing the issue of chronic poverty in the capital of his home state, Atlanta. His conversations with James Laney, the president of Emory University, played a pivotal role in the creation of the Atlanta Project. Additionally, Mr. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were deeply moved during a visit to Atlanta’s Grady Hospital. There, they encountered a premature baby girl, born to a crack-addicted teenage mother who was unaware of her pregnancy. The child, weighing a little over a pound, faced numerous disabilities, including vision and hearing impairments, and currently resides in foster care. This young girl’s story highlights the extremely challenging circumstances in which people live. Furthermore, it emphasizes the urgent need for the Atlanta Project to address issues such as limited access to prenatal care, which could have prevented the significant expenses that accompanied this child’s care.
The Atlanta Project’s genesis, observers note, contrasts significantly with another nationally monitored urban initiative: Rebuild L.A. Unlike the latter, which emerged in response to a major crisis, such as the Los Angeles riots, the Atlanta Project was established to address a multitude of less visible crises. For instance, Atlanta ranks ninth among cities with populations exceeding 100,000 in terms of residents living below the federal poverty level, according to the Census Bureau. Furthermore, the number of drug-related cases heard in Fulton County’s juvenile court, encompassing Atlanta, has increased seventeen-fold over the past five years. Data compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation reveals that Georgia ranks at the bottom among the fifty states in terms of infant mortality rates, high school dropout rates, the percentage of low-birthweight babies, and the number of single teenage parents. Patricia Willis, the director of corporate and education affairs at the BellSouth Corporation, a supporter of the Atlanta Project, remarks, "It’s not the type of crisis that knocks you over with a strong gust of wind. However, it’s disquieting to realize that all of this is occurring, and you’re not even aware of it." This sense of disquiet is intensified for many Atlantans due to the upcoming 1996 Olympic Games, which the city will host. Civic leaders are acutely aware that Atlanta, with both its allure and shortcomings, will be in the global spotlight.
As the Olympics approach, Dan Sweat, the coordinator of the Atlanta Project, highlights that local leaders made a firm commitment not only to relocate homeless individuals from under the viaducts and conceal them elsewhere, but to raise awareness about the issue and showcase the efforts being made by social service organizations. One of the initial aims of the Atlanta Project was to garner support from the private sector.
For instance, in May of the previous year, Mr. Carter organized a tour for corporate and foundation representatives to visit the encampments of some of the city’s homeless population. Subsequently, they visited various social service organizations to witness firsthand the assistance provided to those in need.
Not ‘Santa Claus’
The Atlanta Project team emphasizes that their initiative is not intended to function as a direct resource distribution program like "Santa Claus." Instead, they aim to bring together and support neighborhood structures that empower residents to develop solutions for community issues.
Initially, the project focused on 20 "clusters" or neighborhoods that have a high number of single-parent families and school-age mothers. These 20 clusters encompass a region with a population of 500,000 individuals across three counties in the metropolitan area: Fulton, Clayton, and DeKalb. Each cluster was identified based on the neighborhoods served by one public high school and its associated middle and elementary "feeder" schools. The Atlanta Project employs a full-time coordinator for each cluster, who is paid by the project. These coordinators, all of whom must have lived in their respective clusters for at least five years, collaborate with a volunteer steering committee of community leaders to identify problems and create local action plans.
No Single Answer
During an interview at Alonzo Crim High School, Mary D. Brown, the coordinator for the Crim cluster, acknowledged that there was some initial confusion about the purpose of the Atlanta Project. Some social-service providers believed that the project aimed to replace them. Brown stated that people in the area are protective of their territories. To address this, Brown and her steering committee have worked to communicate that they are not newcomers trying to take over everything. Instead, they have made it clear that the project’s purpose is to serve as a catalyst to bring people and resources together.
The focus on empowering each neighborhood to find their own solutions means that there is no overarching reform agenda for all 20 clusters, particularly in education. The project does not aim to reform the entire school system, but rather each community must develop its own plan within the cluster. The project staff can offer resources and technical assistance. For example, in the Crim High School cluster, the 11-member steering committee hopes to establish after-school programs, recruit volunteers, apply for grants, and provide SAT preparation programs for the schools.
Lining Up Partners
Each cluster is partnered with a corporate entity, such as the Marriott Corporation for Crim. Additionally, individual schools within the cluster also secure their own business partners. Some corporations choose to work on specific issues that affect multiple clusters. For instance, BellSouth has prioritized adult literacy and has contributed funding and staff members to the project. Employees from the Atlanta-based corporation also volunteer their time. The Atlanta Project’s headquarters staff focus on helping the cluster coordinators and steering committees access existing resources. A project manager is overseeing a grant from the Carnegie Corporation aimed at identifying successful practices. The manager is creating an electronic database of information on "best practices" in service provision, avoiding the need to reinvent the wheel.
A Call to Service
Aside from securing funds from corporations and philanthropies, the Atlanta Project has conducted a large-scale volunteer recruitment effort to support citywide and cluster-level projects. For example, volunteers played a crucial role in a child-immunization campaign where 12,000 Atlantans canvassed the city in eight days. The result was the immunization or update of vaccination records for 17,000 preschool-age children out of the 54,000 residing in the cluster areas. This volunteer effort has garnered praise for its significant manpower contribution to Atlanta, as noted by the Southeastern Council of Foundations’ President Robert H. Hull.
Questions and Forward Motion
However, there have been critics of the Atlanta Project. In the initial stages, some leaders from the black community expressed their criticism, stating that the approach taken was too "top-down" and did not incorporate enough input from the grassroots level in decision-making. Additionally, there was a challenge in the first year to demonstrate tangible progress without rushing through the planning process. Many residents questioned the project’s outcomes, wondering what had been accomplished after a year. To address these concerns, the recent immunization drive was seen as a significant step forward. It served as a visible symbol of what the project can achieve and helped maintain the project’s momentum and boost morale.
Alicia Phillips, the executive director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Community Foundation and an advisor to one of the project clusters, identified one obstacle as premature announcements without the necessary capacity to deliver on them. She described the situation as having "a lot of carts before the horse" and emphasized the need for the project to catch up and align with the influx of volunteers it received. Looking ahead, Phillips hopes for the development of a robust network that connects the Atlanta Project with other urban-renewal initiatives. This network would enable shared learning from both successes and failures. Phillips stressed the importance of effective communication and convening among these initiatives, considering it critical for future progress.
In the following week, the Baltimore-based Enterprise Foundation joins forces with the city government and residents to revitalize a specific neighborhood.
