A renewed reason to celebrate this Fourth of July
This year we celebrated our country and one of its biggest values...family. For many the Fourth of July is more than just a celebration of our country’s birth—it is an opportunity to gather with family. An opportunity to connect and celebrate together. It feels like...
GCO Testifies Before U.S. House On Benefits Cliffs
Examining the SNAP Benefit Cliff On July 12, 2021, Eric Randolph, GCO’s Director of Research, testified before the U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations about how welfare programs often hurt the very people they are...
Promote Purchasing Power—Not the Minimum Wage
How to help working families the most During a focus group session on working class families we recently conducted at the Georgia Center for Opportunity, Jazmine* made an observation more perceptive than most experts. Our focus group consisted of working-class...
Gov’t. check can’t beat work’s dignity | AJC
Jobs provide dignity and purpose to people’s lives and contribute to community flourishing in ways that can’t be measured by monthly employment reports.
Help From Where You Least Expect It
“I don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t find a better job; I might have to go back [to prison].” Two months out of prison, Ray (name changed for anonymity) was explaining to me that he had reached the end of his rope. He had been struggling to find work that...
Origins of the Georgia Center for Opportunity: Why we choose to focus on work
You’ve probably heard that if you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day—but if you teach him to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime. And while the Georgia Center for Opportunity’s (GCO) mission to alleviate poverty by removing barriers to human flourishing is grounded in...
BETTER WORK adds direct-to-business job applications
Working to more quickly connect our communities to work. In efforts to better address the needs of the unemployed in our communities, we have taken an evolving learning approach to how we support those in need. Not only are we looking to learn from those in need, but...
Connecting the Presence of an Honored Father
Kenneth Braswell of Father’s Incorporated was recently honored on OWN’s Spotlight Celebrating Black Fatherhood. It brought back a positive memory of the dad event (The Dad Factor: Presence) hosted by the Georgia Center for Opportunity, where fathers and father’s to be...
Putting Georgia’s employment numbers in perspective
Is there any reason not to cheer? Georgia’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.1 percent in May. Here are three reasons why this looks good for Georgia. First, the unemployment rate is declining, giving optimism that the economy is bouncing back from the pandemic....
Still celebrating my father!
A celebration of fathers. Since Father’s Day is upon us, I am sure many of you are thinking about the presence or lack thereof your father in your life. Hopefully some of you are thinking about the father that you are or want to become. No matter where you land, take...