Joyce Mayberry Leads In New Role As Vice President of Family Formation

Joyce Mayberry Leads In New Role As Vice President of Family Formation

by | Jan 14, 2020

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 primary pillars of the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) team – opportunity for high-quality education, meaningful work, and healthy families. Family formation is an important foundation for ensuring we can maximize the chances of someone charting a path out of poverty.

Joyce has served the GCO community for the past two decades, becoming a  well-respected leader on family relationship resources. . Organizationally, she brings a powerful passion to better assist and train individuals on healthy relationships. 

 “I am excited about my new role as Vice President of Family Formation,” stated Joyce about this new alignment.” There is power in numbers and together we can help enhance and empower the well-being of family members.” 

Through collaboration with recent new partners, Joyce will work to streamline our family education efforts and continue to champion our invaluable partners.

This change will help GCO successfully set up pathways for those stuck in the cycles of poverty. It is through this renewed vision that we hope to bring new opportunities and break down barriers in 2020.

Forming A Family – The importance of exploring paid family leave

Forming A Family – The importance of exploring paid family leave

by | Jan 10, 2020

Forming A Family – The importance of exploring paid family leave

Family formation is a cornerstone step in the success sequence. It also is a difficult topic to address. We know family is important to upward mobility and opportunity, but how do we foster it? One initiative being discussed, even at a national level, is paid family leave.

 

 

Why Time Together Matters

family on vacation in the oceanRecently I took the family on a vacation.  We slept in a hotel room with beds mere feet from each other, shared street-vendor meals, crammed into a small vehicle and drove hours together, and walked miles side-by-side for seven straight days.

When we came home, we were tired, smelly and done being with each other. Each child (and adult) immediately found their own room and spent some much needed alone time. Since then, however, we have spent more time hanging out and talking. Less time on our phones and more time just being together. But why?

Because even for an introvert like myself, connection with each other and the bonds of a family are strengthened by proximity.

 

 

Time Together Establishes Healthy Relational Bonds

These bonds are even more important at a young age. Time with our children, especially in their infancy, is important to establishing lifelong healthy attachments. These healthy relationships will be the basis for family formation in a child’s life.

That is why we are taking the lead on the discussion of paid family leave. Creating an open dialogue that outlines, not just the importance, but the manner in which we institute such a system is vital to the support of stronger families. The U.S. is one of the only first-world nations that has not addressed this issue at a policy level. 

The issue is particularly impactful to the stability and formation for families in lower income areas. It is why Georgians and the Georgia Center for Opportunity must take the lead on guiding conversations on this.

 

 

Join us for our discussion on this important subject
next week at GA Tech!

Breakthrough 2019 – Caring For Foster Families

Breakthrough 2019 – Caring For Foster Families

by | Oct 31, 2019

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 system without a stable connection to a family end up landing in chronic poverty. How can we best help these children?

For practical ideas, we heard from Andy Cook of Promise 686, Bob Bruder-Mattson of FaithBridge Foster Care, Pam Parish of Connections Homes, and Chelsea Sabo of Foster Care Alliance.

As Andy shared, “The greatest nonprofit in the world is the family.”

Join GCO In Sharing Your Inspirational Family Photos

Join GCO In Sharing Your Inspirational Family Photos

by | Jun 10, 2019

The kids are on summer break and the parents are looking to make the most of the time together.
What do you do? Family road trip? Go to the park for a barbecue? Head out to the local ballpark and catch a game?

Family Activities Equals Family Values

Whatever you do this summer, do it with the purpose of connecting (or reconnecting) with family.  Join GCO’s Healthy Family Initiative as we promote and foster family-promotion.

While many understate the importance of family, we know that a strong family can lead to the support necessary for opportunity.  This is especially true to those that are stuck in poverty.

Share and Inspire

Because of this we are asking everyone to share and tag their family fun on social media with the hashtag #HFISummerFun.  This lets your followers and all that use the tag view and be inspired by the value of a strong family.

Even if you don’t have pictures of your own to share, simply liking or commenting can go a long way to get out the message of the importance of family.

Happy National Marriage Week!

Happy National Marriage Week!

by | Feb 8, 2019

There’s no doubt about it: Marriage is in crisis today, both in Georgia and across the United States. But even as we grieve declining marriage rates among young people—many of whom choose to cohabit rather than tie the knot—and spiking divorce rates among Baby Boomers, we’re reminded that we have so much to celebrate. And we have plenty of reasons to be optimistic about what the future holds.

Why? Because we know that healthy marriages are a cornerstone of our society. And they’ll always be. We know that married people tend to be happier, healthier, wealthier, and enjoy more stability in their lives. Those benefits also extend to kids, who perform better in school and have a far slimmer chance of being in poverty.

In the spirit of celebrating all that’s great about marriage, we’re thrilled to recognize National Marriage Week (February 7-14) leading up to Valentine’s Day. National Marriage Week seeks to foster collaboration around the country to “strengthen individual marriages, reduce the divorce rate, and build a culture that fosters strong marriages.”

One of our core goals here at Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is to give couples the tools they need to not just survive, but thrive in their marriages. Empirical research clearly tells us that marriage is a crucial step toward achieving economic and relational stability. In fact, it’s one part of the three-part “success sequence”: Those who get a good education, work full-time, and marry before having children are nearly guaranteed a place in the middle class.

This National Marriage Week, if you’re looking for ways to strengthen your own relationship or help others strengthen theirs, here are several practical ways to get started:

  • Sign up for a “Build my Relationship” web conference: GCO’s Healthy Families Initiativeis now offering a new way to connect with licensed professionals via a series of live web conferences. You’ll have the opportunity to engage in conversation with our experts and gain insight into other resources and tools available to build your best relationship. Register Now.
  • Attend a “Prepping for Romance” workshop: A “best of the best” relationship training workshop. Prepping for Romance helps build communication skills and provides the tools to create a solid marriage foundation. Register Now.
  • Help a teen with our “How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk or Jerkette” workshop: Want to help your teens navigate the challenging waters of dating and relationships and build a strong foundation for marriage? This interactive workshop is designed specifically for high school students and teaches them how to effectively date with long-term, healthy relationships in mind. Register Now.
New Study on Black Men Shows Improvement in Achieving American Dream

New Study on Black Men Shows Improvement in Achieving American Dream

by | Jul 25, 2018

There’s an old saying that a rising tide lifts all boats. This seems to be true in today’s booming economy—with low unemployment rates at the state and national levels translating into historical lows in communities that often lag behind. For example, economic fortunes for African Americans are showing sustained signs of improvement, with the most recent June 2018 unemployment rate coming in at 6.5 percent, up slightly from May’s all-time low of 5.9 percent.

And while improving employment prospects are certainly encouraging signs for a community that continues to experience unacceptably disparities on most socioeconomic measures compared to other groups, a new study from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) offers even more evidence that African American men are making steady gains toward achieving the American Dream.

In Black Men Making It in America: The Engines of Economic Success for Black Men in America, well-known marriage and family researchers Brad Wilcox and Wendy Wang team up with fatherhood expert Ronald Mincy to examine the institutional engines that form the foundation for black male success.

Some key takeaways from this AEI report:

  • The economic standing of black men has improved dramatically, with 57% now in the middle class or higher as adults today—up from 38% in 1960. Even better, the share of black men who are poor has fallen from 41% in 1960 to 18% in 2016.
  • While higher education and full-time work are powerful engines of success for black men in America, so, too, is participation in institutions such as marriage, church, and the military.
  • Contact with the criminal justice system remains a significant obstacle to success for black men. By midlife, only 28% of black men who had contact with the criminal justice system when they were young have moved into the middle or upper class, compared to 52% of black men who had no contact with the criminal justice system at a younger age.

Here at Georgia Center for Opportunity, we believe in a simple concept called the “success sequence,” which says that a good education leads to a stable job—which in turn leads to a flourishing home life and personal success.

Clearly, this AEI report reinforces GCO programs like Hiring Well, Doing Good and our Prisoner Reentry Initiative, which aim to remove barriers to opportunity and put Georgians back on a rising tide—or sequence—of success that lifts individuals, then families, out of generational poverty into flourishing communities.