Q&A with North Georgia Works

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Nov 17, 2022

Q&A with North Georgia Works

Key Points

North Georgia Works is a vocational, residential, transitional work program for currently homeless men or men who were recently incarcerated.
Guys who are homeless are homeless for mainly three major reasons: They have a pretty intensive criminal history that prevented them from getting a job, they have mental health disabilities, or they have addiction issues.
How to handle relationships and how to handle family, how to build relationships, and how to identify good people to have relationships with are skills which will determine success for program graduates.

Recently, the Georgia Center for Opportunity’s family team partnered with North Georgia Works to offer our relationship training curriculum. In this interview, we sat down with Michael Giddens, executive director of North Georgia Works, to hear more about his organization, the good work being done in the community, and how GCO is helping to advance their mission.

Q: Please introduce us to North Georgia Works. What’s your mission, history, and focus?

North Georgia Works is a vocational, residential, transitional work program for currently homeless men or men who were recently incarcerated. We were modeled after an organization in downtown Atlanta called Georgia Works.

North Georgia Works is a social enterprise. We have created a system that allows us to run a nonprofit staffing agency. So that allows us to approach companies in the area about getting our guys work and working with them for a year while they’re living in our buildings, getting life skills and other financial help and other issues taken care of.

Our guys are working the whole time, earning a little bit of money while they’re in the building. Then, when they graduate from the program, they already have been in the company for years, they’ve been able to save a lot of money. Plus, we’re able to help them get an apartment and a home.

Q: Please give us a rundown of who your typical client is.

Guys who are homeless are homeless for mainly three major reasons: They have a pretty intensive criminal history that prevented them from getting a job, they have mental health disabilities, or they have addiction issues.

So, everybody who comes into our building has one of those three. Or they are guys that have gotten into some trouble — they’ve been chronically arrested. We work with judges and other law enforcement agencies to serve the guys that are leaving jail. They’ll be court-ordered, most of the time, into our programs and be released to us. So they come to us from jail or they’re just about to get released from jail. Then they have to come to our program.

“I’m hoping to do with you guys is really help them start rebuilding those relationships, giving them the tools as they especially walk the 12 steps and they’re ready to start making amends. We can re-enter them into those relationships again and see if we can start rebuilding that and let them leave on a better foot.”

Q: What does your partnership with GCO look like?

Anybody who’s in a situation that will require a program like ours has enormous barriers. One of the biggest barriers they have is they have burned all bridges with their family. Most of the time, they have kids that they can’t see or they have spouses who have divorced them or parents who have finally given up on them.

Earlier this year, we noticed that a lot of our graduates were still having problems. It was all based on the fact that we had not taught them how to handle relationships and how to handle family, how to build those relationships, how to identify good people to have relationships with. It seems like a complete backdoor problem that our program wasn’t answering that was causing it to undermine everything that we did.

We decided we had to focus heavily on relationships. We started doing that. But that really wasn’t our expertise. Our expertise is jobs, vocational training, and addiction and recovery. We needed help.

When I met Joyce Mayberry, vice president of family at GCO, she told me about everything your organization does. I immediately knew there was a great opportunity to have your team come in and teach these elements on relationships. Your programming, your curriculum, your expertise has all been amazing.

Q: What was the first class like?

It was a resounding success. We’ve had multiple guys in our program that have re-evaluated current relationships they’re in based on that class. That’s one side of it. The other is that we want to restore their family relationships, relationships with kids, relationships with parents and brothers and sisters, and all those bridges that have all been burned.

Q: Can you share some of your outcomes?

There are two paths. The first path is we want to help our guys from getting into bad relationships. It’s like the GCO program “How to Avoid Dating a Jerk or Jerkette” — when I saw the name of that book, I knew that was the right avenue.

The second step is that every guy who comes into our building has had a kid that is not in their life. If they don’t have one it’s probably a blessing. So they have a kid out in the wild, that is being raised without a father. They themselves have the guilt and the issues of not being a father. They have baby mamas or ex-wives or whatever that they have kind of ruined, for obvious reasons, have kind of blocked out of their lives. They also have parents and brothers and siblings. They’re also kind of taking advantage of through the years.

So phase two, what I’m hoping to do with you guys is really help them start rebuilding those relationships, giving them the tools as they especially walk the 12 steps and they’re ready to start making amends. We can re-enter them into those relationships again and see if we can start rebuilding that and let them leave on a better foot.

The midterm election is over (sort of). What’s next?

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Nov 14, 2022

The midterm election is over (sort of). What’s next?

Key Points

The full results of the midterms are still to be decided.
One thing hasn’t changed — the need to expand opportunity.
We also see opportunities to impact our neighbors for good in a few key policy areas – education, work, and family.

Election day has come and gone, and we still have many unanswered questions about the leadership of our country. The full results of the midterms are still to be decided. What’s clear is that Georgia will once again play a key role in the results, with a runoff in the U.S. Senate campaign scheduled for Dec. 6. Once more, our state will have to endure a barrage of political ads as the nation watches to see what the results will be.

While questions are sure to persist in the days and weeks to come as we resolve political leadership, one thing hasn’t changed — the need to expand opportunity. While who holds the reins of power in Washington and Atlanta does matter, ultimately it’s in local communities where the true change happens that leads to human flourishing.

As for us at the Georgia Center for Opportunity, we are ready to take on big challenges as we close out the year and move into the next. Our community-based work of connecting people to work, education, and family training resources is still at the heart of what we do. But we also see opportunities to impact our neighbors for good in a few key policy areas. We’re focused on:

Education: With a better understanding of who will be leading in our state, we see a great opportunity to expand educational freedom in Georgia in 2023. This battle has lasted a long time but the nearly 500,000 kids in failing Georgia schools need us to step in and demand change.
Work: We also see opportunities to radically change the policies that trap people in generational cycles of government dependency. Our goal is to help thousands more of our neighbors move into work and the joy of accomplishment and pride that comes with it.
Family: We hope to seize the opportunity to address the penalties that are discouraging marriage in low-income communities, creating a system that destabilizes families and the support they bring to us all.

“While who holds the reins of power in Washington and Atlanta does matter, ultimately it’s in local communities where the true change happens that leads to human flourishing.”

Policy does matter, but real change happens in our neighborhoods and communities where real life happens. It’s in communities where we first learn to love, trust, and experience sacrifice on behalf of something beyond ourselves. And it’s in communities where we find the answers to our most pressing problems. Regardless of who leads our state and federal government, that truth will never change.

Nearly half a million Georgians have given up on work

by David Bass | Nov 8, 2022

Nearly half a million Georgians have given up on work

Key Points

Around 454,100 Georgians are missing from the labor force.
The labor force participation rate is a better barometer of the labor market than the unemployment rate because it includes workers who have simply given up looking for work and are sitting on the sidelines of the labor market altogether.
We need to answer, how to reintegrate these prime-age, work-capable workers back into the labor force?

A new analysis from the Georgia Center for Opportunity shows that around 454,100 Georgians are missing from the labor force. This figure comes even as pundits celebrate a statewide and national unemployment rate that remains at historic lows.

The startling statistic shows a hidden story behind the unemployment rate that reveals deeper cracks in the labor market that will cause problems for years to come, both in the economy and in individuals’ lives. The reason why this matters is not strictly an economic one — we know that these individuals’ giving up on work has profound social, psychological, and relational impacts that extend well beyond the pocketbook.

When individuals are separated from work, they lose more than just monetary compensation or the food, shelter, clothing, and other basics that money can buy. They also face a loss of social connection, meaningful activity, self-respect, and overall purpose.

The numbers

Here’s a quick deep dive into the numbers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Nov. 4 that the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, which is a tick higher than the previous low of 3.5% but still at historic lows. Georgia’s unemployment rate stands at 2.7%, 14th best in the nation.

The troubling trend is in the labor force participation rate, however. This rate is a better barometer of the labor market than the unemployment rate because it includes workers who have simply given up looking for work and are sitting on the sidelines of the labor market altogether. The U.S. labor force participation rate was at 62.2% in October, down from a pre-pandemic rate of 63.4% in February 2020.

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Those detached from work

It’s important to note that the 454,100 figure developed by the GCO team does not include those unable to work, those who were retired, those in school or college full-time, and full-time caregivers for minor children in the home. In other words, that nearly half-million figure is people who are able to work but have simply decided to detach from the labor force altogether, for some other reason.

As for reasons why workers have quit, they are widespread and complex. The better question is how to reintegrate these prime-age, work-capable workers back into the labor force. That is a primary goal of the Georgia Center for Opportunity’s BETTER WORK initiative, currently operating in Gwinnett County and the Columbus areas of Georgia but soon to expand into many additional regions across the state.

We see success stories like that of Eddie, who spent nearly five years on the street, homeless and working odd jobs, before getting connected with BETTER WORK Columbus and partner organizations to find stable housing, food security, and a long-term job. The goal of such programs is to get people into stable, self-supporting work so they can escape poverty and dependency cycles.

The GCO team also works to educate policymakers on the perils of benefits cliffs that keep people trapped in cycles of dependency and prevent them from moving up the economic ladder. People like Frankie, a single mom who turned down a $70,000-a-year job because it would mean losing essential government benefits that she relied on to support her family. The goal here is for policymakers to make wise decisions about the safety net so that we don’t continue to pour funds into a failing system.

Key Policy Takeaways from 30 years of Child Poverty Decline

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Oct 25, 2022

Key Policy Takeaways from 30 years of Child Poverty Decline

Key Points

Childhood poverty leads to worse educational attainment, worse future labor market outcomes, worse mental and physical health and development, and increased risk of engaging in delinquent behavior.
A reduction in child poverty is tied to government programs which incentivize work.
The key takeaway from the Census data which shows child poverty rates are falling and the Child Trends report which studied the causes of the decline is that, despite massive social safety net expansions, work and self-sustainability still played a larger role in lifting children out of poverty than government spending did.

by Alexander Adams

In a world marred by clickbait media headlines portending disaster, it’s always a relief when some rosy news can sneak its way into a major publication: “Poverty, Plunging” was the title of a recent New York Times newsletter. Fortunately, there happens to be strong backing for such a direct headline: According to a recent report by the firm Child Trends, a nonpartisan research center, in 1991 27.9% of children lived at or below the Census’ Supplemental Poverty Measure. Today, that number has fallen to 11.4%.

This is undoubtedly fantastic news. The research is unequivocally clear: children living in poverty face worse lifetime outcomes on a whole host of measures. Childhood poverty leads to worse educational attainment, worse future labor market outcomes, worse mental and physical health and development, and increased risk of engaging in delinquent behavior. The reduction in child poverty makes the lives of millions of children better off and has positive externalities for everyone in the country.

The Child Trends report asked a few fundamental questions regarding this amazing decline in child poverty, the key one being: what exactly caused this massive decline in child poverty?

According to the media’s portrayal of the report, the reduction was due to expanded social safety net and increased social safety net spending. Another New York Times article on the Child Trends report was headlined: “Expanded Safety Net Drives Sharp Drop in Child Poverty.” Opinion writers at the Washington Post took it a step further, arguing that the decline in child poverty since the 1990s debunks “arguments that…government help must be accompanied with work requirements.”

But does it really?

According to the Child Trends report itself, many of the programs proven to be successful in reducing poverty—the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Child Tax Credit, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps)—have work requirements. The EITC is actually an earnings supplement which has been shown to incentivize work. The expansion of work requirements for welfare programs in the 1990s increased labor force participation, according to research, which translated into more income and less poverty.

In 1991 27.9% of children lived at or below the Census’ Supplemental Poverty Measure. Today, that number has fallen to 11.4%.

The increased post-tax income due to work incentives and requirements has not only reduced poverty and increased income, but has had nonfinancial impacts as well such as improved educational outcomes for children. The Georgia Center for Opportunity has previously published work on the deleterious nonfinancial impacts of nonwork. Figure 1.1 of the Child Trends report also shows that child poverty was stagnant from the beginning of the War on Poverty to the mid-1990s. The decline in child poverty occurred after we replaced our no strings attached welfare system with a system replete with pro-work incentives and requirements (though, work remains to be done).

Given all of this, it should be argued, based on the results of the report, that it was pro-work reforms and expansions to earnings supplement programs which directly promote work and self-sustainability that reduce child poverty — not unrestricted government spending.

Not only that, but according to the Child Trends report itself, the vast majority of the decline in child poverty is attributable to increases in earned income and not expanded social safety net programs. According to the report, child poverty fell 16.5 percentage points — from 27.9% to 11.4% — between 1993 and 2019. In 2019, they argue the child poverty rate would be 44% higher in the absence of social safety net expansions. This means, of that 16.5% drop, approximately 6% can be attributed to social safety net spending and over 10% is due to non-governmental factors.[1]

These other factors represent the effect of earned post-tax income not provided by aid. While the social safety net played a role in material child poverty reduction, we can see that private income played an even larger role in that decline.

At GCO, we promote self-sustainability and work precisely because we understand that work plays a larger role in lifting oneself up from poverty than government aid — and the Child Trends report supports that argument.

The key takeaway from the Census data which shows child poverty rates are falling and the Child Trends report which studied the causes of the decline is that, despite massive social safety net expansions, work and self-sustainability still played a larger role in lifting children out of poverty than government spending did. Further, among the programs which did measurably help the poor, it was policies oriented towards promoting work, not programs without work requirements, which usually had the largest impact.

[1] As the child poverty rate in 2019 was 11.4% in 2019, and it would be 44% higher without social safety net expansions, this means, without social safety net expansions, child poverty would be approximately 16.4% (11.4*1.44 = 16.4). 16.4 (no welfare) minus 11.4 (reality) = 6%. This means approximately 10.5 percentage points of the 16.5% decline in child poverty was due to increases in earned income, and only 6 percentage points due to social safety nets (16.5 – 10.5 = 6).

Eddie’s story: Moving from homelessness to a housing and a stable job

by David Bass | Oct 20, 2022

Eddie’s story: Moving from homelessness to a housing and a stable job

Key Points

Eddie was homeless and living on the streets.
With a home secured, Eddie’s next step was to find more permanent work
Eddie is excited and proud to have taken steps toward building the life he wants.

“I look forward to moving on up.”

That’s how Eddie Craig describes his current career aspirations. He has light in his eyes and hope in his heart, now that he has a steady job and a place to call home. But life wasn’t always so good for Eddie.

Eddie spent nearly five years on the street, homeless and working odd jobs. He earned money by raking and mowing yards, but it wasn’t enough to pay for a place to live. Every night, he slept in his car.

Then, he came to Home For Good, where he got in touch with an advocate named Ms. Terry. One morning, Ms. Terry located his car, where she woke him and introduced herself.

“I heard her tap on the car window one morning. To be honest with you, I thought it was the police, because they were white,” Eddie says. “But I stepped out of the car and found out her name was Ms. Terry. She got my name and everything.”

For about a month, Ms. Terry worked with Eddie to find affordable housing.

“The next thing I knew, she was calling me to tell me I had my own place,” he says. “We went over there and checked it out. I didn’t care what it looked like. She said, ‘You like it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I like it, no problem.’”

With his housing secure, Eddie’s next step was to find more permanent work. That’s where BETTER WORK Columbus stepped in. Eddie attended a job fair hosted by BETTER WORK. Eddie met Kristin, who went on to help him complete his hiring paperwork and get his questions answered.

“Between BETTER WORK and Home For Good, getting Eddie into housing and a steady job was a team effort,” Kristin says.

Unfortunately, once Eddie was hired at his first job through BETTER WORK, reliable transportation proved to be an obstacle. His employer changed his schedule to another shift, and he couldn’t get to work. Still, he was determined to find another job, so he reached back out to BETTER WORK for help any time he encountered a roadblock.

“He succeeded because he didn’t give up,” Kristin says.

Fortunately, Eddie was able to get connected at a new job with the Marriott Hotel, where he’s happily employed and thriving. Since Eddie doesn’t have a formal education, Kristin and Ms. Terry helped him complete and submit his application paperwork. Along the way, he also got help obtaining the identifying documentation he needed to get hired — items such as his birth certificate, ID, and Social Security card.

“I had to start from the bottom,” he says.

Eddie credits Kristin for the job and Ms. Terry for his escape from homelessness.

“Thank God for BETTER WORK,” says Eddie. “I’m a living witness this has helped me.”

“Thank God for BETTER WORK,” says Eddie. “I’m a living witness this has helped me.”

Eddie’s success story at BETTER WORK is largely attributed to the fact that he had a genuine desire to earn an honest living for himself. He knew others in the homeless community who didn’t share his drive, but he was determined to build a better future for himself.

“I consider myself physically healthy and mentally healthy,” he says. “As far as a paycheck, everybody loves a paycheck.”

For others like Eddie who are looking for a steady job, he offers reassurance that the team at BETTER WORK will take their interests and strengths into consideration during the job search process.

“BETTER WORK is going to help you find what you love to do,” he says. “It won’t just be digging ditches — unless you like digging ditches.”

Ultimately, Eddie is excited and proud to have taken steps toward building the life he wants. And BETTER WORK is proud to have played a part in his story.

“It’s just good to be in the workforce,” he says.

Despite the fanfare, inflation is not conquered

by Erik Randolph | Oct 17, 2022

Despite the fanfare, inflation is not conquered

Key Points

September CPI numbers show inflation is still on the rise.
Core inflation hit a 40 year high.
Local communities are the key to paving the way for economic success.

In September, President Joe Biden prematurely declared victory over inflation as he held a celebration event over the party-line passage of the Inflation Reduction Act that required the Vice President of the United States to cast the deciding vote in the Senate.

Perhaps they were fooled by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers for July and August. In July, the CPI dropped just a tiny bit to 295.271 from the seasonally-adjusted index of 295.328 for June, which rounds to an inflation rate of 0.0%. Although the unadjusted index slightly decreased again in August, the seasonal adjusted number rose by only 0.1% that calculates to 1.4% when annualized.

But, alas, inflation rates typically fluctuate from month to month, and what’s important is the longer-term trend.

When the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the CPI numbers for September, it became all too clear that we must continue to suffer through rising prices — because inflation has not yet been tamed.

The overall monthly inflation rate rose 0.4% when seasonally adjusted, that is 4.7% when annualized. Yet again, the inflation reading came in hotter than expected, with consensus estimates being around 0.3% for the September reading. The year-over-year inflation rate stands at 8.3%.

Worse, inflation has become ingrained in our economy with no indication that it’s going away anytime soon. Here are a few reasons why we still need to be worried.

1.The core inflation rate hit a 40 year high

The reason economists look at the core inflation rate is to gauge how widely inflation has spread throughout the economy. They get the rate by subtracting the cost of energy and food from the index, but not because energy and food prices are unimportant. But because of their volatility.

The core inflation rate was 6.7% in September over the previous year – the highest it’s been in forty years. It increased 0.6% in September, which calculates to an annual rate of 7.1%. This alarming trend demonstrates just how ingrained inflation has become in our economy.

“But policy is only one piece of the puzzle. The other even more important piece is the community-level response.”

2. Energy prices are down — sort of — but food prices up

One piece of good news is that energy prices went down in September. However, this is of little consolation because the prices are still 19.9% higher than last year and 49.7% higher than two years ago.

There is no good news for food prices. You can’t go to the grocery store anymore without noticing the impact of inflation, and the CPI numbers bear this out. Food prices in general are up 11.2% over last year, or 16.3% higher than two years ago. As anyone can tell you, this is just the general price increase. Consumers can experience higher prices depending on what foods they buy. Cereals and bakery goods are up 16.2% from last year, and dairy products are up 15.9%

Although economists like focusing on core inflation, energy and food prices are necessities that impact most people, especially lower income families and seniors living on fixed incomes.

3. Inflation isn’t going away anytime soon

When reading the tea leaves, there aren’t many indications to expect inflation will abate any time soon. The recent droughts and man-made obstacles to food production, such as Russia’s war on the Ukraine and the irresponsible farm policy changes in the Netherlands, will impact food supply, which, of course, will have a direct impact on food prices and its availability.

As winter approaches the northern hemisphere, the demand for energy will increase. Here again, the war in Ukraine is culpable for disrupting energy supply to Europe. Moreover, not only did the Biden Administration fail to convince OPEC to increase production, but OPEC, which by the way includes Russia, is doing the exact opposite. They are cutting back on oil production.

In the meantime, current U.S. energy policy is more concerned about climate change than energy independence — that we were just two short years ago. The Administration’s release of petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve did help ease prices, but now the reserve is at the lowest level since 1984. How much lower will the Administration allow it to go?

Because it impacts economic behavior, core inflation is even harder to solve. People – whether acting on behalf of their businesses or as an employee or as a consumer – incorporate their expectations of higher prices into their personal actions. This only fuels inflation more. Consider this fact: Although many businesses are experiencing higher revenue, their costs are also up. Importantly, and unfortunately, for many of them, their profits are down. All these factors exacerbate inflation while slowing economic growth, which harms everyone.

The way forward is through local communities

Our nation’s inflationary environment is bad. Everyone knows that. The big question is what to do about it. On the policy front, we need a paradigm shift in Washington, D.C., to focus on enacting policies that encourage private investment, savings, and free trade while cutting back on deficit spending.

But policy is only one piece of the puzzle. The other even more important piece is the community-level response.

Here at the Georgia Center for Opportunity, our focus is primarily on these bottom-up solutions. Our neighbors — particularly those on the economic margins — are suffering from high inflation and need help. That’s where programs like BETTER WORK come in. They help the poor and impoverished get the skills and training needed to find a job and pursue a career, while ensuring they also find safe and affordable housing, reliable transportation, childcare services, and any other essential that’s needed.

We also know that economic prosperity is challenging when your home life is in shambles. That’s why GCO prioritizes healthy family relationships through our Elevate workshops throughout the community and our Strengthen Families Program in local schools. On that note, prosperity is impossible without a good education, so we prioritize policies that will bring the broadest range of educational options to the most people, regardless of their background, income level, or zip code.

The way back from our high inflationary environment is going to be a long trip. But with the right policies in place and with an attitude that prioritizes on-the-ground help for our neighbors, we can lighten the burden for our neighbors during the journey.