A partnership between Atlanta's westside communities and institutions of higher education.
The Atlanta Housing Authority’s Housing Choice Voucher program waitlist will be open from March 15th – March 21st online at http://ahawaitlist.org/ or at the hotline: 1-855-242-7701.
The Westside Resource Center, located at 907 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, will host volunteers that week and expand their hours of operation to accommodate anyone wanting to sign up for the waitlist. 
Last month, 45 female students from Brown Middle School attended a STEM campus experience at Georgia Tech for the WCA’s annual OurGirls @ Tech event. Given Atlanta Public School’s new direction towards STEM and STEAM, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts aims to create opportunities for exposure to local colleges and universities. While Brown Middle School is only a 12 minute bus drive away, many students are unfamiliar with Georgia Tech and all of its offerings.
This year, the girls attended demonstrations led by an all-female crew of students and staff. They stopped by the Clough Undergraduate Learning Center (CULC) to see the Urban Honey Bee Project led by Dr. Jennifer Leavey. The Technology Group visited the retroTECH to play with vintage computers, video games, and more. The Women in Electrical and Computing Engineering (WECE) demonstrated how to build a wind turbine out of everyday objects. Across campus. The Mathematics group learned how to code their own music songs using rhythm and beats with EarSketch.
The photo scavenger hunt took them to the water slide in the recreation center, a dining hall, the bowling alley, and several popular student hang-out spots on campus.
Catered lunch took place overlooking Historic Grant Field at Bobby Dodd Stadium in the Student Success Center, while the Dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts spoke about the importance of their presence on campus. Jade Sims, from the Office of Admissions, used the GPA game to stress the importance of grades, extracurricular activities, and tailored admissions essays when applying to college. Current female student athletes talked about an appropriate study-life balances, camaraderie, and the diversity of scholarships at Tech.
The 2016 Westside_Snapshot was created by WCA Data Dashboard Project Manager using the Data Dashboard. It provides an overview of important demographics and statistics comparing the Westside (NPUs K, L, and T) to the City of Atlanta. The Westside Snapshot was released at the WCA’s Five Year Anniversary Community Development Symposium.
Through this document, we seek to continue to make data more accessible and understandable, by physically putting qualitative information into people’s hands.
All NPUs were invited to review and comment on the snapshot before we released the document. We will continue to collect data and update the document as new data sets are released or community suggestions are made.
On April 1st, 2016, at the Transform Westside Summit, the Westside Future Fund’s hired architecture group Thadani + Associates unveiled their first of six Land Use Action Plans for the westside. The previous Tuesday at Higher Ground Empowerment Center in Vine City, the group, led by Dhiru Thadani of Washington D.C. introduced their plans for the coming months and hosted the public engagement meeting for the Joseph E. Boone/Mims Park area.
Notes from the public engagement meeting can be found here: Boone/Mims Park Meeting: Westside Future Fund.
On Friday, only 59 hours after meeting with the community, Mr. Thadani presented the “draft” plan for this section of this community, noting that he finished some of the drawings mere hours before producing the slideshow. The length of the presentation prevented many people from asking questions but common areas of concern were the lack of community input into the plan (few ideas from the community seemingly made it into the suggestions), and lack of education/schools in the plan.
All official information from Westside Future Fund and Thadani + Associates can be found at: www.PlanWestside.com
Last week, WCA staff attended the launch of the Westside Innovation Lab at the Center for Civic Innovation. The application submission is now live! CCI is looking for people and organizations with innovative ideas to address social challenges in their own neighborhoods on the westside of Atlanta. Applications are due on April 25, 2016. Please consider applying or passing this on to someone, or an organization, you know that may be a good fit. Winning submissions will be chosen BY THE COMMUNITY. Those winning ideas (6-8) will receive seed funding and technical assistance in their entrepreneurial endeavors.
Submit your idea now! http://www.civicatlanta.org/westside-idea-submmision
If you are interested in volunteering time or skills: http://www.civicatlanta.org/westside-volunteer
CCI has hired two new program managers that will be focused on this initiative full-time: Raina Turner and Nathan Jones. Reach out to them at westside@civicatlanta.org