NEWS & OPINIONS
Let’s make Georgia the best state to be a foster child
We can’t create flourishing communities without flourishing families—and foster care and adoption are crucial parts of achieving that goal. An alarming 97 percent of kids who age out of the foster care system without a stable connection to a family end up in chronic...
Paid Family Leave Discussion – Establishing Healthy Lifelong Attachments
We know that healthy relationships and successful family formation are crucial to walking the steps of the Success Sequence. Strong families help individuals and children flourish. And we know that time with children, especially in their early years, is crucial to...
Three ways that Georgia lawmakers can immediately help the impoverished
Georgia lawmakers are back in town, kicking off the 40-day 2020 session on Monday. While the General Assembly is set to consider a range of issues—tax cuts, OK’ing the state’s budget, healthcare, and more—here are some immediate ways that lawmakers can help those in...
Joyce Mayberry Leads In New Role As Vice President of Family Formation
Joyce Mayberry will be moving into a new role as the Vice President of Family Formation. In this position, Joyce will continue to develop new ways to strengthen families in the communities we serve through our many partners. This move in position reinforces three...
Forming A Family – The importance of exploring paid family leave
Paid family leave is one way that we can further help in supporting strong family formation. This is another vital step in supporting the success sequence.
Creating healthy relationships, one man at a time
Strengthening the role men have in creating healthy relationships is what No Longer Bound is all about. We are proud to partner to support these efforts.
The Little Things: Keeping Perspective On Thanksgiving
Like many of you, this Thanksgiving our family will sit around a large table filled with decorations, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, that odd jello that your distant aunt insists on bringing, and those that we love. At some point, someone will clang a glass to...
A Vision For Poverty Transformation In Columbus Through Hiring Well Doing Good
Q&A: Norman Hardman on Hiring Well, Doing Good in Columbus Norman Hardman is a lifelong resident of Columbus, Georgia. After starting his career in the world of finance, he’s now taken his passion and skillset and applied them to one purpose: helping the...
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...
MEDIA MENTIONS
Media blasted for ignoring study on harmful government lockdowns | The Johnston County Report
A new meta-analysis from Johns Hopkins University shows that government-mandated lockdowns in America and Europe during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic only reduced the death rate by 0.2%, on average. Researchers concluded that lockdowns “have had little to no...
An Opportunity Roadmap For Poverty Relief | The Georgia Virtue
The South is the fastest growing region in the country. The pull of our warm winters, friendly people, and low cost of living has drawn millions over the last few years. However, an old foe that we have attempted to fight for decades continues to afflict our people....
Media blasted for ignoring study on harmful government lockdowns | Carolina Journal
A new meta-analysis from Johns Hopkins University shows that government-mandated lockdowns in America and Europe during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic only reduced the death rate by 0.2%, on average. Researchers concluded that lockdowns “have had little to no...
Perspective: The surprisingly simple ways to incentivize marriage
Some parents don’t wed because they fear losing government benefits. Governors in states like Utah and Virginia could solve this problem Originally posted on Deseret News “I chose not to marry,” Tiana said. “For one, I get a lot of assistance. I have a disabled child....
GCO honored to be listed on Atlas Network’s top 10 to watch in 2022
The Georgia Center for Opportunity team is honored to be named as one of the Atlas Network’s top 10 nonprofit partners to watch in 2022. Atlas acknowledges GCO as an organization working “to make the world a better place for countless everyday people.” Atlas’...
Basic Income is the Wrong Solution for Atlanta’s Poor
To make a real difference in seeking innovative solutions to providing poverty relief, we must focus on giving those in need opportunity, not simply pity.
The Importance of Building and Measuring Resilience in Our Community | SAPORTA REPORT
As we look back on the last two years, everyone has experienced challenges. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the negative mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will continue their impact through 2029. Families First knows the families we serve were...
A lighter government touch would have saved more Minnesota jobs during pandemic | Center Square
Less economic interference from Minnesota state government could have saved jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, new research from the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) suggests. The GCO measured the impact of each state’s actions on its respective economy in a...
