NEWS & OPINIONS
Support GCO With Amazon Smiles This Holiday Season (and all year long)
Like you, we love family and giving during the holidays. Well, we have a new way you can support Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) and give during the season of giving: It’s called Amazon Smile, and it’s a chance to give back a small percentage of each purchase at...
Q&A: Kristin Barker on Hiring Well, Doing Good in Columbus
Georgia Center for Opportunity’s Hiring Well, Doing Good (HWDG) initiative is quickly gaining ground in Columbus, Georgia. Here’s a brief Q&A from the front lines with HWDG Program Manager Kristin Barker. Q: What's the goal of HWDG in Columbus? Kristin: The...
Breakthrough 2019 – Caring For Foster Families
We can’t address the crisis in our civil society without addressing children who lack a family to come home to. That was the driving theme behind Breakthrough 2019’s panel on foster care and adoption. A staggering 97 percent of kids who age out of the foster care...
Breakthrough 2019 – A Sustainable Vision For Helping The Poor
Is there a solution to poverty? That’s the question GCO president and CEO Randy Hicks discussed with AEI president Robert Doar as a keynote at Breakthrough 2019. One powerful step forward in the anti-poverty fight is the Success Sequence: Helping as many people as...
Introducing an Innovative New Way for Those in Poverty to Find Work
Government, particularly at the federal level, can only do so much to help those who are struggling in poverty to lead stable lives. We know instinctively that real change happens at the community level, when individuals, businesses, nonprofits, churches, and schools...
Breakthrough 2019 – Bettering Lives With Better Business
Is it possible to do good while making a profit? The resounding answer from our jobs panel at Breakthrough 2019 was “yes.” The big question, of course, is how to do it. We heard from mission-driven leaders in the business community dedicated to helping the...
Breakthrough 2019 – Criminal Justice Reforms That Restore & Empower
Georgia ranks 4th nationwide in incarceration rates. One out of every 18 people are in jail, on probation, or on parole. And about 40 percent of Georgians have a criminal record. These are just a few of the startling statistics on criminal justice in the Peach State....
Breakthrough 2019 – Bettering Lives With Better Business
Is it possible to do good while making a profit? The resounding answer from our jobs panel at Breakthrough 2019 was “yes.” The big question, of course, is how to do it. We heard from mission-driven leaders in the business community dedicated to helping the...
Breakthrough 2019 – Businesses Investing In Student Readiness
We know that a traditional four-year college pathway isn’t the right choice for many students in Georgia. The harder part is figuring out which alternative pathway is the best. Breaking ground in these areas are forward-thinking employers like Southwire, America’s...
From prisoner to influencer: Tony’s story
The day that Tony Kitchens was released from prison in 1985, he did an unusual thing: He got down on the ground and created a fake “snow angel” on the grass. “I was elated, but nervous. Free, but I didn’t know anything. The sun was very bright. Red was very red, green...
Breakthrough 2019 – Outcome-Focused Programs & Measuring Success
What works and what doesn’t? That’s a basic but important question for community nonprofits to address. But more times than not, we tend to launch off hunches. We think we know what works, but we don’t know, with quantifiable data points to back it up. At Breakthrough...
Breakthrough 2019 – What Makes Communities Thrive?
American civil society is broken. So many Americans live fragmented lives, disconnected from the institutions and associations that once characterized American life and brought people of all economic classes together—everything from churches and synagogues to rotary...
MEDIA MENTIONS
Georgia nonprofit joins coalition pushing to use federal aid to expand broadband access | CENTER SQUARE
A Georgia nonprofit is among a group of organizations calling on state lawmakers to prioritize improving internet access with federal relief money. The Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) joined a coalition of 13 other organizations across the country urging state...
Poll: Support for school choice increases after COVID shutdowns | KULR8
After states shut down schools and forced families into virtual learning, parents and families found new ways to provide K-12 education to their children. While doing so, support for school choice options soared, a new poll from Real Clear Opinion Research found....
Resilience and Equity | SAPORTA REPORT
The challenges of the last year have impacted all of us. From social injustices to racial inequality and COVID, our communities are suffering. We have also seen great acts of heroism with our front-line workers who have continued to serve our communities. A common...
Georgia Center for Opportunity to host drive-thru job fair in Gwinnett County Thursday | GWINNETT DAILY POST
The Georgia Center for Opportunity will host the Better Work Gwinnett Job Fair Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Infinite Energy Center parking deck in unincorporated Duluth. During this drive-through job fair, job seekers will have an opportunity to meet...
Big Drive-Through Job Fair In Gwinnett This Thurs April 1st | CBS Atlanta
The Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is proud to announce a collaborative effort known as the Better Work Gwinnett Job Fair occurring April 1, 2021, from 10am to 2pm at the Infinite Energy Center Parking Deck. During this drive-through job fair, job seekers will...
Need a job? Drive-thru job fair to offer hundreds of positions | AJC
More than 20 employers are looking to fill hundreds of jobs and are making the interview process as safe and easy as possible. Jobseekers will have the opportunity to meet employers from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday at the Infinite Energy Center Parking Deck during a...
Buzz Brockway is a Guest on the Erick Erickson Show | WSB 95.5
On March 4, 2021 Buzz Brockway, VP of Policy, was a featured guest on WSB 99.5's Erick Erickson Show to discuss legislation (HB 60) that would allow parents and students more education options. Unfortunately, HB 60 will not come to fruition this year, but we're not...
Georgia Senate approves special needs scholarship expansion | WASHINGTON EXAMINER
A bill that would expand the state's special needs scholarship program was approved Wednesday by the Georgia Senate. The Georgia Special Needs Scholarship program offers scholarships to students with individualized education plans to attend a private school or a...
