by Kimberly Sawatka | Sep 12, 2014
Meeting people “where they are” is foundational to Georgia Center for Opportunity’s (GCO) mission to serve the community and remove barriers to opportunity. As part of this mission, GCO team members recently participated in a unique weekend retreat at City of Refuge (COR), one of Atlanta’s largest homeless shelters for women and children. While this experience was an excellent platform for team bonding, the team also gained life-changing lessons from the residents of COR.
DAY 1
Linda Newton holds new friend at City of Refuge. Courtesy, @GAOpportunity
While many programs provide meals and clothing to the homeless, very few provide the opportunity to connect deeply with those being served. GCO’s retreat was graciously hosted by one such organization, Restoration ATL (RATL), a non-profit dedicated to creating urban ministry environments that foster healing. RATL’s director and weekend guide, Pastor Jim Ellison, emphasized with great passion that volunteers were there to simply “be with” the ladies and children to get to know them better.
Assimilating into life at the shelter was eased immediately by the children. Delivery Manager, Linda Newton, reflects on her initial moments at COR:
My first experience that weekend was with a 3-year old girl. She blind-sided me, running up to me from behind and immediately holding her arms up to me as if we were long-lost friends. I picked her up and she wrapped her arms and legs around me tight. She was absolutely a love, and we became fast friends.
As the children ushered in the team, dinner time provided opportunities to learn about the women of COR and the circumstances that led them to the shelter. While some women were more open than others, the stories and fellowship that flowed across the dinner table further broke the ice between volunteers and residents.
I had the pleasure of eating dinner with a woman named Liz. She shared with me that a house fire displaced her months earlier. This is a situation that could impact anyone! Throughout our encounter, Liz expressed great determination to rebuild her life and provide a future for her one month old son, who had actually been born during her time at City of Refuge. As I held Liz’s son and listened to her, I realized how much like a family member she was. This meaningful meal brought me a new perspective on what homelessness means in Atlanta.
Holding Liz’s son at dinner. Courtesy, @GAOpportunity
Stories of misfortune were common-place amongst the women, with job loss, mental illness, and domestic violence being just a few of the tragedies impacting their lives. Facing tough paths back to self-sufficiency, events such as the ice cream social–which followed dinner– served as small moments of enjoyment for the women and children alike.
Vice President of Operations, Chris Elder shares his thoughts on the ice cream social:
At the Friday night ice cream social, I had a difficult time discerning who was a resident and who was a volunteer. The women and the kids staying at City of Refuge looked just like the women and kids I see around Norcross. Some of the moms and older kids were even on their phones texting, checking Facebook, and playing games, a scene not unfamiliar in my house. The younger kids played hard and laughed like they were anywhere else but in a homeless shelter. I was left with a restored hope in the pure resiliency of children.
DAY 2
Saturday brought deeper connections with acquaintances made just the day before, as well as enlightenment about the spiritual and emotional needs of those restoring their lives. The women’s morning group incorporated lively discussions about God’s love and building community.
Events Specialist, Katherine Greene writes:
I realized that all of us need community no matter where we live. These women did not choose to be homeless but even in their homelessness there is a strong need for community. Words like love, hope, forgiveness, and togetherness came up as we described a healthy community. It was great discovering things that we had in common. This helped us to learn more about each other and to find a connection to help us bond even more.
Katherine Greene enjoys women’s morning group. Courtesy, Restoration ATL
Planting vegetables in the community garden later in the afternoon further drove home the importance of community and the harvest that can come from working together. Through expressing feelings and getting hands dirty, personal barriers dissolved into understanding and warm smiles.
GCO team members also participated in a morning full of activities such as kick-ball and arts-and-crafts with the children of the shelter. While fun in nature, free time also revealed some of the hard effects of living in a shelter and family breakdown.
Breakthrough Fellow Michael Schulte writes:
Interacting with the kids reinforced several important lessons for me: Children are eager for attention and affection, they are incredibly adaptable to their surroundings, and they are significantly shaped by those who raise them. While playing with the children brought me a lot of joy, it also carried the sober reminder that a number of these kids come from abusive backgrounds. I saw this in a 12-year-old boy who verbally threatened and intimidated his peers every time they made him angry. I am hopeful that City of Refuge will foster healing for a number of these kids and rebuild trust within relationships they have.
Michael Schulte leads recreational activities at City of Refuge. Courtesy Restoration ATL
Experiencing both highs and lows at City of Refuge, it was clear by the end of the second day that no one was quite the same as when they arrived. There was an overwhelming sense of honor for having shared time in the lives of so many dynamic, insightful, inspiring, and tough individuals. Team members also found themselves humbled.
Elder writes:
It certainly put the trivialities of my life that I consider problems into perspective, and clearly illustrated how slippery the social mobility ladder can be for any of us.
Greene writes:
I reflected back on some of my life’s most difficult circumstances and realized that these women were all teachers without even realizing it. They were teaching me (the student) how to listen to people and how to be grateful in everything.
Restoration ATL’s mission scripture. Courtesy, @GAOpportunity
The experience at City of Refuge and participation in Restoration ATL’s weekend retreat is one that will not soon be forgotten by the GCO team.
Newton writes:
My last experience at City of Refuge was with a former resident who had come back to volunteer with RATL. She and I spoke quite a bit through the course of the weekend and I learned that she was a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, only about 3 years older than me. She had a great spirit and sense of humor and I really enjoyed talking with her. We have since communicated by text, and I hope to stay in touch with her. I fear that she will relapse, as she has many times in the past. I want to continue to encourage her and hope to be a positive influence in her life. I really want her to make it.
The residents of the shelter represent only a small group of Georgia’s 27,000 homeless men, women, and children. Taking the time to view Georgia’s homeless as the friends, loved ones, neighbors, employees, co-workers, and students that they are is vital to enacting meaningful interventions that will change lives.
For more information on City of Refuge, Restoration ATL, and Georgia Center for Opportunity‘s work, please follow the links.
by Kimberly Sawatka | Jun 17, 2014
While no English word truly captures the full meaning of the Greek word Arete, its simplest translation is excellence. It is the divine essence of the word, however, that Derek Monjure had in mind when he founded Arete Scholars Fund Inc. As a Student Scholarship Organization (SSO), Arete is dedicated to helping low-income families access quality education at private schools in Georgia. The Breakthrough Fellows and GCO team members recently had the opportunity to visit with Mr. Monjure and Arete’s Director of Communications Buck Alford to learn more about Georgia’s tax credit scholarship program and their role as SSO operators.
For those unfamiliar with Georgia’s tax credit scholarship, the program allows corporations to donate up to 75% of their state income liability to a state approved SSO. Additionally, families are able to contribute up to $2,500. In return, both corporate and individual contributors receive a tax credit for the same amount of their donation. SSOs then use the raised funds to grant scholarships of as much as $8,983 a school year. This money goes directly to families and is used towards placing their child in the partnering private school of their choice. On average, Arete awards scholarships of $4,ooo-$5,000 to the families they serve.
The tax credit scholarship program has been a great opportunity for the more than 15,000 students who have been fortunate enough to receive scholarships. However, many more opportunities exist to eliminate the barriers that bar even more of Georgia’s children from this same benefit. One such opportunity is to raise the overall tax credit program cap, or perhaps remove it all together. The 2014 contribution cap of $58 million was reached in just three weeks. In one regard, this signifies the popularity of the program and desire of Georgians to contribute to quality education. In a less positive regard, reaching the cap so quickly has already affected the SSOs, families, and students whose donors missed the cut off. For Arete, and many other SSOs,
Despite the challenges, the spirit and energy of Arete Scholars remains focused on providing the financial means necessary for students to pursue a level of academic excellence that they would otherwise be unable to access. The organization has even begun expanding its operations into other states, starting with Louisiana. Though Mr. Monjure is quick to say his work is simply transactional, it is clear from his passion that his mission is actually rooted in a higher calling.
by Kimberly Sawatka | May 23, 2014
Below is a guest blog by Mrs. Sheila Caldwell, Director for Complete College Georgia at the University of North Georgia. Mrs. Caldwell currently serves as a member of GCO’s College & Career Pathways working group.
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In a recent poll of high school seniors asking how many credit hours per semester they should take when they go to college; more than 50 percent indicated 12 hours as an ideal college course load. Though 12 hours is a full-time course load, it is impossible for a student to earn a bachelor’s degree within four years unless a student takes an additional six hours during the summer. The primary route to earning a bachelor’s degree within four years is to successfully complete 15 credit hours per semester, for a total of 30 credit hours annually.
To improve college graduation rates and encourage on-time completion, the state of Georgia has launched 15 to Finish, a proven advisement, retention, progression, and graduation initiative that encourages students to take 15 credits per semester, thereby spending less time and money to earn a degree. The goal of Complete College Georgia and 15 to Finish is to provide better information and educate all students on tuition and fees, graduation rates, and job opportunities to ensure successful college completion.
The 15 to Finish initiative is important because many students express a desire to graduate within four years. Colleges are referred to as either four-year or two-year institutions, but most students are taking longer to graduate. In fact, if 100 students entered college today in the state of Georgia, only 11 students would graduate on time at a four-year college and only five would graduate on time at a two-year college (Complete College America, 2011). Full time-students are taking an average of five years to earn a bachelor’s degree and four years to earn an associate degree (Complete College Georgia, 2011). Many students are unaware of the potential consequences that can result from taking fewer credit hours, including a higher likelihood of non-completion, lost wages, and increased college costs.
A cost analysis conducted by the University System of Georgia seeking to determine how much a student would pay for a degree based on the number of credit hours taken per semester revealed staggering results. For example, a student enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program at the University of North Georgia (UNG) would pay an average of $42,236 to earn a degree by completing only three credit hours per semester compared to $26,768 if completing 15 hours per semester– nearly $15,000 in savings for a UNG student who graduates on time. The study found the cost difference is even more drastic for students who wish to attend Georgia Tech or the University of Georgia (UGA). The chart below illustrates an additional expense of $74,000 for Georgia Tech and $90,000 for UGA for students taking only 3 hours per semester.
|
Credits/
Semester
|
GA Tech
|
UGA
|
|
3
|
$119,474.00
|
$134,357.00
|
|
6
|
$75,914.00
|
$73,317.00
|
|
9
|
$72,875.00
|
$70,205.00
|
|
12
|
$56,164.00
|
$54,587.00
|
|
15
|
$45,514.00
|
$44,325.00
|
Not only do students reap significant financial benefits when they enroll in 15 hours every semester until degree completion, they also experience quicker entry and higher wages when they transition into the workforce. Students graduating from UNG with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of $20,000 more annually than their high school counterparts. A college student who graduates within four years with a bachelor’s degree earns $40,000 more in income than a college student who takes six years to graduate. Additionally, associate degree holders who graduate within 2 years earns $19,000 more than associate degree holders who take four years to graduate (Education Pays, 2013). Many part-time students do not consider the enormous amount of money foregone in the workforce when they delay college completion by one or two years.
Part-time students pay more for their degree and incur lost wages because they lack a college credential. They also jeopardize their entire college career. According to “Time is the Enemy” (CCA, 2011), only 15% of part-time students will earn a bachelor’s degree within six years compared to 57% of full-time students. Only 7.8% of associate degree seekers will earn a degree within four years. The 15 to Finish initiative seeks to battle dismal college completion rates.
College completion not only enhances an individual’s economic well-being, it can improve overall quality of life in the following ways: longer life spans, better access to health care, more prestigious employment and greater job satisfaction, less dependency on government assistance, greater participation in leisure, civic, and artistic activities, and more self- confidence (Education Pays, 2013).
Serving as a member of the College and Career Pathways working group, the Complete College Georgia (CCG) 15 to Finish initiative is perfectly aligned with recent discussions among the panel. The primary goals of the working group are to develop and promote programs that encourage at-risk youth to graduate high school and attain college and career success. GCO and CCG collaborate to help all students better prepare, connect to, and navigate college. Our ultimate aim is to enable greater mobility and opportunity among Georgia citizens.
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Sheila Caldwell aims to help students successfully access and complete college at University of North Georgia. She is passionate about opportunity over charity and strives diligently to be a change agent for economically disadvantaged students across the state of Georgia.
by Kimberly Sawatka | May 23, 2014
Georgia Center for Opportunity’s mission to remove barriers to opportunity is greatly facilitated through partnerships with organizations engaged in dynamic work in the community. Over the month of May the Breakthrough Fellows and GCO team members have ventured out, meeting with non-profits that serve unique at-risk populations. On one such trip, we were fortunate to speak with Jenn McEwen about her work at Wellspring Living, an organization dedicated to sheltering and restoring victims of sex trafficking.
Tucked away just outside of Atlanta’s city limits, Wellspring’s secluded campus creates a warm environment for its residents. Close to one hundred minors and adult survivors participate in the Wellspring Living for Girls and Empowered Living for Women programs. Services through both programs range from intensive one-on-one therapy for Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) to job skills training. The women of Wellspring, who are almost all referred by the state-run organization Georgia Cares, generally stay up to eighteen months. However, additional time is provided where it is needed.
Our host, Ms. McEwen, noted that girls are often lured into the sex trade by pimps selling the fantasy of love, capitalizing on disruptive home lives, or through physical coercion. While many would still like to believe that sex trafficking is an issue confined to areas such as Southeast Asia, major American cities are now thriving hubs for illegal sex work and exploitation. Nationally, as many as 27 million people are victims of sexual exploitation, with a vast majority being children. In a town known for its glorified strip club culture, Atlanta’s underground sex industry generated more than $290 million in 2007. This figure is likely much higher now. More recent studies note that the average pimp in Atlanta makes over $30,000 a week.
In Georgia, much work remains to change policies that criminalize the victims of sex trafficking rather than the perpetrators who reinforce commercialized sex. Just last year, the city of Atlanta proposed to banish convicted prostitutes, pimps, and Johns, which would make it illegal for offenders to enter areas with high rates of prostitution. However, this city ordinance, referred to as Stay Out of Area-Prostitution (SOAP), was never successfully passed due concerns that such as measure would further disadvantage the exploited.
As prostitutes are arrested at higher and disproportionate rates to pimps and Johns, more intentional policies are needed that target both the supply and demand sides of sex trafficking. In San Francisco, CA and Knoxville, TN, convicted Johns are mandated to participate in classes that expose the truth about what happens to the exploited after services are rendered. These “John Schools”, as they are called, often include restorative justice elements where former sex workers run the one-day classes and share their stories.
One thing is for sure: more havens such as Wellspring Living are needed across the state of Georgia. Ms. McEwen shed light on the gaps in service and the resulting opportunities, both in policy and program delivery, that impact her work. Inter-agency collaborations and community partnerships remain an integral component to increasing the support available to the victims of sex trafficking. As family breakdown and limited access to quality education open the door for exploitation, we at GCO hope to establish a strong working relationship with Wellspring, creating new possibilities and better outcomes for victims.
by Kimberly Sawatka | Apr 17, 2014
Below is a guest blog by Dr. Eric Wearne of Georgia Gwinnett College and formerly with the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. Dr. Wearne currently leads GCO’s College & Career Pathways working group.
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In its 2013 Report Card, Digital Learning Now, a project of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, argued:
State policy can remove barriers to innovative approaches or it can stifle them with restrictions, red tape, and reinforcement of traditional, unsustainable approaches. It can accelerate reform or it can further entrench the status quo. Without changing state policy, innovative tools and models will fail to scale.
According to the Report Card, however, the news is good:
“states are rising to the challenge of supporting next generation models of learning. In 2013, states debated more than 450 digital learning bills with 132 signed into law. This builds on a record year in 2012 when state lawmakers introduced nearly 700 bills and signed 152 into law.”
To explore these issues specifically, Georgia Center for Opportunity’s College and Career Readiness Working Group heard from Sam Rauschenberg, Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, who facilitated the Task Force, and Carla Youmans, Instructional Technology Specialist at South Forsyth High School in Forsyth County, who is coordinating a new hybrid program at that school.
The Governor’s Digital Task Force
In 2012, Governor Deal created a task force to look into online learning in Georgia. The Governor’s Digital Learning Task Force met over the course of 2012-13, and provided recommendations to Governor Deal in December of last year. The Task Force’s recommendations fall into three categories:
- Infrastructure
- Digital Content and Courses
- Blended and Competency-Based Learning
The state has already started to implement some of the Task Force’s recommendations on infrastructure. For example, the FY15 budget includes $3.9 million to connect school systems to the University System’s PeachNet. The AFY14 and FY15 budgets also include $14 million in bond funds to the Georgia Department of Education for district and school grants for equipment required to receive and use added bandwidth (edge devices, LAN, wireless, etc.), and $25 million in general funds to the One Georgia Authority for grants to support extension of high-speed internet access in schools.
Still, opportunities exist in the areas of digital content and courses, and experimenting with new models for blended and competency-based learning. For example the state, via the Georgia Department of Education, currently provides teachers with access to lesson and video content online. However, to maximize teachers’ use of the materials and the potentially transformative power of online learning, much more can be done. The working group discussed the concept of course choice, as has been adopted in Louisiana, and the idea of opening online schools developed in one school system to students from any other school system. Conceptually, the competition should make for improved products and services, all for the purpose of better serving Georgia children. The Governor’s Task Force report alludes to barriers that could make online learning easier and higher-quality. Enabling competition and other market-based approaches would help do that.
South Forsyth High School Hybrid
One school in Georgia that is experimenting within current structures is South Forsyth High School. South Forsyth is preparing to offer a hybrid schedule to a select group of students next year. Mondays are “synchronous”: students will sign on to their class websites when school starts, teachers will teach them online for a portion of the class period, and then students will work independently at home for the rest of the period. Then students will check in again when their next class starts. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, students come to campus and attend class as all other SFHS students do. Fridays are “asynchronous”: students receive their assignments online, but are free to complete them at their own speed. If a students’ grade drops below a certain level, however, that student is obligated to come in and meet individually (or in very small groups) with the teacher. The implications of this kind of system are many: struggling students can be identified and also given individual help more easily, and within the normal time constraints of a school week; students receive the kind of practice in self-regulation they will need in college; etc.
South Forsyth’s arrangement may not work for every school or every student, and digital learning overall is still in its infancy – we simply don’t yet know the best methods or all the possibilities involved with online learning. But as one task force member argued, we don’t necessarily need one 100 percent solution to improve student achievement and to increase opportunities; we could be successful with 100 one percent solutions. The Governor’s Task Force and South Forsyth High School’s hybrid program play important parts in state and local experimentation that can lead to better outcomes for Georgia students.
