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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. 

On Halloween  Day 2016 President G. P. “Bud” Peterson and a small team of GT employees made a special visit to Atlanta’s Westside. He visited the historic Paschal’s Restaurant for lunch as well as three sites where Georgia Tech is making an impact with its consistent presence. Approximately three years ago President Peterson presented an overview of Georgia Tech’s global, national, statewide, and local reach at a community meeting. During his presentation he amplified Dean Jacqueline Jones Royster’s Westside Communities Alliance (WCA) initiative as an emerging university-community partnership program. As the director for the WCA, I was pleased to have an opportunity to showcase our accomplishments and to introduce many of the partners we work with daily to make a difference.

During the brief luncheon President Peterson heard from community stakeholders, elected officials, philanthropists, and Tech employees about the investments we are making in westside communities and schools. Mackenzie Madden, WCA Associate Director, presented a timeline of events and a map of activities in each community served by the WCA and the many campus and community partners with whom we work.

Next, President Peterson and the Government and Community Relations team visited Michael R. Hollis Innovation Academy, where CEISMC partners with Atlanta Public Schools to provide onsite professional development and STEM teacher support year-round. Principal Diamond Jack welcomed the GT team and introduced us to her stellar students, active parents and dynamic STEM teachers. Tamara Pearson, CEISMC Associate Director, shared details about the ongoing professional development support provided onsite at Hollis and the teachers and administration were gracious for the support of the partnership. After hearing students praise their new school and describe their plans to be successful as adults, President Peterson encouraged all of them to consider Georgia Tech the place to pursue their academic dreams. He also assured parents and teachers of the many academic opportunities for students get involved and join educational programs at a young age.

From there, the team headed to the WCA’s Westside Resource Center where we have partnered with Sister Precious Muhammad of Hagar CTM to provide a community-based computer lab since December 2014.  Sister Precious expressed deep gratitude for Georgia Tech’s westside engagement and lauded Tech for doing “second chance hiring.” Unemployment continues to be a major issue for westside community residents who often take advantage of the computers to search and apply for jobs. President Peterson also learned of our partnership with Atlanta Community Food Bank, allowing us to expand hours and services such as public benefits screenings. He met with additional partners such as Operation HOPE, Spelman College, and Georgia Tech’s Human Resources division to hear about the various workshops and volunteer support we have been able to coordinate in the space.

Finally, he visited with children at the Bellwood Boys and Girls Club on Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy where we were greeted by Ben Ashby, President of YEP! (Youth Enrichment Project). YEP! is one of the few GT student organizations that have mentored/tutored youth for more than fourteen years on a regular basis. They currently run math and science experiments as well as sports and homework help on Friday afternoons during the academic year. President Peterson thanked the organization for their long-standing commitment to these westside communities.

In less than a few hours we were able to connect President Peterson with many community leaders, residents, youth, and partners to provide him with a snapshot of the impact Georgia Tech is having on Atlanta’s Westside. At the end of the day I think he could clearly see and wholeheartedly agree with our motto, “Together, we can do better!”

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.

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.

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

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

Are you a current college student (junior or senior) in Atlanta interested in helping local community organizations and non-profits with their digital presence? Then, check out Google’s Community Leaders Program!  At a high level, CLP is focused on creating a sustainable web ecosystem and increasing digital literacy by connecting communities, businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits with local student talent. We’d like to partner with Georgia Tech to select potential students for participation in the 2016 – 2017 CLP year. Below is an overview of the program, but I’d love to set up more time to discuss the opportunity further.

Program Overview

The WCA Data Dashboard serves as a one-stop shop for key data that is accessible to community stakeholders, researchers, local government agencies, and relevant foundations interested in sustainable Westside community development.

“We believe that this tool has the potential to encourage greater data-driven decision-making at the neighborhood and Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) level in addition to supporting research and policymaking that addresses significant challenges in areas of education, economic development, transit and mobility, and public safety,” said WCA Associate Director Mackenzie Madden.

In its current form, the dashboard offers resources in seven categories:  1) Community Profiles, 2) Economic Development, 3) Education, 4) Public Safety, 5) All Data, 6) Historical Data, and 7) Resource Library.

Presently, the dashboard displays information for NPU’s K, L, and T – the three NPUs connected to the WCA – as compared to the City of Atlanta.

The dashboard is a user-friendly tool that:  1) draws upon available quantitative and qualitative data, 2) stores data collected for current and future research initiatives, 3) provides metrics for assessing the success of diverse engagement and intervention models, and 4) develops comprehensive reports to identify the impact of “anchor institutions” such as Georgia Tech on neighboring communities to highlight knowledge gaps.

The Data Dashboard project began in 2011 as a static Westside neighborhoods asset map created in conjunction with faculty in the Georgia Tech College of Architecture. Under the leadership of Dean Royster and her WCA leadership team, the first virtual tool was created in Fall 2013 by a group of graduate students in Dr. John Stasko’s Data Visualization class. That iteration mapped transit and walkability in the city. The platform also provided a heat map of census data that has since been transformed into the Big Data tool available today. Graduate Research Assistants in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts continued building the dashboard into its present form.

Katie O’Connell, MCRP 2015, was hired as the Project Manager for the Data Dashboard in Summer 2014. She began by researching similar platforms across the country and collecting relevant data for the city of Atlanta. During an Online Tools session of the WCA’s 2014 Community Studio, O’Connell was able to determine the basic pros and cons of existing resources such as the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Neighborhood Nexus, the U.S. EPA’s Enviromapper, and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Several focus groups with Westside residents and stakeholders were held as various portals were designed to garner feedback on the usability of the dashboard.

The WCA staff has presented the dashboard at various conferences and symposia including The Center for Community Progress’ Vacant Properties Conference in 2015, Atlanta Studies Symposium, TEDx Atlanta, and the Georgia Tech Center for Urban Innovation.

The WCA Data Dashboard has been made possible through various stages of development in collaboration with entities at Georgia Tech including College of Architecture, College of Computing, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, the Center for Geographic Information Systems, and with funding from the Ford Foundation.

Please visit wcadatadashboard.iac.gatech.edu to explore the platform. Please use the hashtag #WCADataDashboard in social media settings, when referencing the tool.

Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of death and the most commonly diagnosed cancer among African-American women. The Westside Communities Alliance, of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech, in partnership with Susan G. Komen Greater Atlanta will sponsor a night out for 50 westside community residents and leaders for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. These women will be treated to a HEALing Dinner Party focused on breast health and FREE tickets to a play at the Ferst Center Theater.

This Friday, October 16^th, our westside residents will meet at the Neighborhood Union Health Clinic on Sunset Avenue, a newly-opened location of the HEALing Community Center. A bus will transport them to the Ferst Center at Georgia Tech where they will be treated to a special dinner catered by local favorite Urban Cannibals. Susan G. Komen Greater Atlanta and the HEALing Community Center will discuss the importance of breast health and affordable healthcare options available in the westside communities.  Participants will also have the opportunity to make appointments to receive mammogram referrals. Following dinner, attendees will enjoy the play Sister Outsider inspired by the writings and teaching of Audre Lorde, author of The Cancer Journals.

This event provides the unique opportunity to reach communities of color with textured narratives that speak to their experiences as women. Working with campus and community partners, and with generous support from Georgia Power, we seek to encourage more women of color to get breast health screenings, while also promoting general health and wellness in the areas we serve.