An Opportunity Roadmap For Poverty Relief | The Georgia Virtue

by Corey Burres | Feb 8, 2022

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.

Rampant, inescapable poverty has been a staple of urban and rural areas in the South for generations. Government has long purported to be the solution to this problem, but after years of government programs and promises of a better tomorrow, our fellow man continues to be stuck in the cyclical nature of poverty. The status quo and government solutions have failed…

It’s time to change focus and realize that while our safety net programs are well intentioned, they often act as snare nets trapping people in poverty with no means to escape. Safety net programs should catch people when they fall and put them back on their feet. The Pelican Institute for Public Policy has joined together with the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) and Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) to forge a new path forward to bring poverty relief to our friends and neighbors, beginning now.

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Media blasted for ignoring study on harmful government lockdowns | Carolina Journal

by Corey Burres | Feb 7, 2022

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 public health effects” while imposing “enormous economic and social costs” and should be “rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”

Meanwhile, another faculty member at Johns Hopkins is blasting his own university and the media broadly for ignoring or downplaying the study…

The working paper comes on the heels of other research questioning the effectiveness of lockdowns in saving lives compared to the social and economic toll. A working paper from the Georgia Center for Opportunity found no correlations between the severity of government-imposed shutdowns and reported rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations or deaths. But states that imposed more stringent lockdowns — such as New York and California — continue to experience negative economic effects compared to less severe states, such as Utah.

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The Importance of Building and Measuring Resilience in Our Community | SAPORTA REPORT

by Corey Burres | Jan 11, 2022

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 already hurting, and their trauma has been made worse during the pandemic.

“I’ve got a full team of people here working on my behalf. All I have to do is hold up my end of the bargain too.” Darrell B., Families First Client…

We work closely with community partners to achieve success within our Navigator Care Model. Community partners have access to our FFRNS to measure the resiliency of their clients and work with us to put together comprehensive care plans and community connections. One example of the importance of community collaborations is the ReCast Grant in Lawrenceville. Families First is part of a coalition of community partners including the City of Lawrenceville, Impact46 and Georgia Center for Opportunity. With the five-year, $5-million federal grant from the Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma (ReCast) program administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), this group is working together to increase access to mental health services and reduce trauma among high-risk youth and their families; increase access to social services; strengthen community relations; and increase diverse voices in city government. The five-year grant provides an opportunity to have exponential impact in the city and improve the quality of life for nearly all of Lawrenceville’s more than 30,000 residents.

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Can Cash Payments Help Atlanta’s Poor? | AJC

by Corey Burres | Nov 22, 2021

Can Cash Payments Help Atlanta’s Poor? | AJC

Almost three years ago, a simple yet radical experiment was begun in Stockton, Calif., based on an idea floated by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. more than half a century ago.

With no strings attached, 125 low-income residents were given $500 a month for two years.

They spent their money on food, clothes, home goods, auto costs and utilities or saved it as a cushion for emergencies. Many were spurred to find better jobs. Most reported feeling a greater sense of well-being and less anxiety and depression, organizers said…

Buzz Brockway, a former Republican state legislator now at the right-leaning think tank Georgia Center for Opportunity, said he’s open to programs that provide a flexible hand-up for low-income families. But he said such initiatives should be focused on people who are working, actively seeking a job or in a training program.

“We think that what’s important is that people begin to earn their way to self-sufficiency,” he said.

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School choice should be an easy choice | Gainesville Times

by Corey Burres | Nov 12, 2021

School choice should be an easy choice | Gainesville Times

Schools are not one size fits all and school choice is a freedom that all should have. According to the Georgia Center for Opportunity, the goal of school choice is to ensure that all families have options when it comes to quality education for their child whether that be public, private, homeschool, or even online and hybrid options.

Unfortunately, in most cases, the opportunity for school choice is weighed heavily on where a family lives. It is unfair and unreasonable to expect that a family move to or live out of their means in an affluent neighborhood, requiring them to pay hefty mortgages in order to send their child to the school of their choice in that area…

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Georgia jobless rate lowest in decades, but workers quitting clouds good news | GEORGIA RECORDER

by Corey Burres | Oct 29, 2021

Georgia jobless rate lowest in decades, but workers quitting clouds good news | GEORGIA RECORDER

Fewer Georgians filed initial unemployment insurance claims last month than in the weeks leading up to the pandemic last year, and the state’s unemployment rate hit 3.2%, a 20-year low.

Those are two welcome signs of economic recovery after record-breaking layoffs sent workers home across the state, but celebrations of those numbers should be tempered by the large number of Georgians quitting their jobs and not seeking new employment…

That difference equals more than 88,000 people no longer on the job since the start of the pandemic, said Georgia Center for Opportunity director of research Erik Randolph.

“But even this does not describe the full extent of the problem,” Randolph said. “Georgia’s economy was humming before the pandemic, and accounting for Georgia’s employment growth prior to the recession, around 240,000 workers have disappeared from the labor force. This shows that we still have much work to do to reinvigorate our economy and help people find employment that allows them to support themselves and their families and better their communities.”

“We do have some decent data on why people were not going to work in between August and September. We saw a small uptick in the number of people who said that they don’t want to be employed, but much larger increases in the number of people who said that they weren’t working because they themselves were sick, or they were caring for someone with COVID-19 symptoms,” he said. “The number of people who were not working because they were worried about getting sick also doubled, and these are statistics specifically for Georgia.”

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