Choice Atlanta Leverages HUD Choice Neighborhood Grant to award microgrants enhancing the University Choice Neighborhood

Left to Right - Boys and Girls Club Joh Harland Center member Jemiah Fields-Jones, HUD SE Region Administrator Denise Cleveland-Leggett and Boys and Girls Club members Hadiyah Green and Isaac Simpson at the Atlanta Housing Microgrant Announcement.

Left to right - Brandon Riddick-Seals, Interim Atlanta Housing President and CEO; Ernestine Garey, Atlanta Housing; Atlanta Housing Guest, Atlanta Housing Guest; HUD SE Regional Administrator Denise Cleveland-Leggett; Stephanie Blank, Trustee Chair Boys Girls Club Metro Atlanta (BGCMA); Margaret Riser; Susan Wood, Chairwoman BGCMA; Missy Dugan BGCMA, Jim Clark BGCA; Dr Eloisa Klementich, CEO & President Invest Atlanta and Dale Royal, Invest Atlanta.

The very fabric of the Atlanta University Community Neighborhood (UCN) is being strengthened as Choice Atlanta announced the award of $50,800 in microgrants to support programs that will improve the social, physical and economic outcomes of the community. HUD Southeast Regional Administrator Denise Cleveland -Leggett joined in the recent celebration at the grand opening of the John H. Harland Boys and Girls Club emphasizing that progress is being made in the community, leveraging the HUD Choice Neighborhood funding while also recognizing that there remains more work to be done.

Choice Atlanta in an official release announced that 14 organizations received a total of $50,800 to support programs that advance the former University Homes and including Ashview Heights, Vine City and the Atlanta University Center Neighborhood, collectively known as the University Choice Neighborhood (UCN).

The microgrants support the UCN and its residents in seven areas: 1) youth empowerment; 2) healthy living; 3) arts and place-making; 4) public safety; 5) capacity building; 6) history/heritage; and 7) food ecosystems.

The UCN Microgrant program was originally launched in 2012 using Atlanta Housing's Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant, funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Since the program's inception, grants totaling more than $180,000 have been awarded to 53 recipients.

"With the first round of microgrants, we saw the impact that organizations could have on the community and its residents using small grants of $500 to $3,000. In subsequent years, we've continued to focus on our mission and have used the microgrant program to help worthwhile organizations have an even greater impact on physical, social and economic outcomes in the area," said Susan Evans, director of Choice Neighborhoods.

"This year, we are excited to have had such competitive applicants and to have awarded microgrants to community-based businesses, non-profits and civic groups with initiatives that promise to have such a positive impact."

The 14 recipients of UCN Microgrant 5.0 awards and brief descriptions of their projects follow:

• ADLT 101 - Facilitate workshops for Booker T. Washington High School graduating seniors focused on a smooth transition to postsecondary life.
• Atlanta Small Business Training Consortium - The Herndon Choice Pre-Apprenticeship Barber Mentor Program, a project of The Dokter's Office Barber Shop, is designed to teach business and financial literacy, mechanics of barber tools and hair cutting techniques, establish individual checking accounts and provide mentorship during after-school hours for 10 youth ages 12-16.
• Atlanta School of Modern Etiquette - Develop the "Food Finder" app to locate local farmers' markets.
• Black Child Development Institute - Conduct two-hours, Get Ready to Read! screening workshops for educators, staff and parents of those early childhood learning centers within the UCN boundaries demonstrating how to use the tool to assess and increase the literacy levels of children ages 3-6.
• Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta - Increase club memberships by recruiting from UCN-supported schools (40 youth) for Harland Boys & Girls Club. Programs to focus on visual, performing, and culinary arts.
• Doc B. C.A.R.E.S. - PEACE LIVES HERE campaign - in pursuit of peace, non-violence conflict resolutions, and anti-bullying strategies.
• MLK-Ashby Merchants Association - Implement a public safety program - MLK W.A.T.C.H - along the ML King, Jr. Drive commercial corridor.
• Morehouse Community Revitalization Initiative - 4th and 5th graders at M. Agnes Jones will work with a genealogist to learn about genealogy, ancestry and DNA testing.
• Parent Avengers - Capacity building for an organization that aims to break the cycle of poverty by connecting parents to resources while on their path to self-sufficiency.
• Preserve Black Atlanta - Expose and celebrate the history of Atlanta University's lauded founders and faculty.
• Think Green, Inc. - Install two beehives at local urban gardens to yield years of pollination and honey.
• Trellis Horticultural Therapy - Develop a therapeutic and educational gardening program curriculum and a separate culinary arts program that focuses on engaging youth in the production and preparation of organically grown food.
• West End Urban Garden - Provide a series of workshops that will pair seniors and youth to work together and learn how to plant, grow and prepare healthy and nutritious foods from different cultures.
• Young Adult Publishing - Increase the levels of self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship and financial literacy among lower-income students - ages 10-14 - through the experience of the book publishing process.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle recently reported that the John H. Harland Boys and Girls Club is a first-of-its-kind Boys & Girls Club opened March 4 in the West End community. The John H. Harland Boys & Girls Club: The Innovation and Expression Studio will seek to enrich the lives of its youth with a broad array of arts, cultural and creative opportunities. The $9 million club replaces the old Harland Club that was on the site at 434 Peeples St. S.W. for more than 50 years.

"There's not another one like this in the United States among Boys & Girls Clubs," said Susan Ward (https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/search/results?q=Susan Ward), chief accounting officer at United Parcel Service, who is in her second year as chair of the Metro Atlanta's Boys & Girls Clubs. "The kids really love it. There's a wow factor."

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in September 2015 announced during an event in Atlanta with over 150 partners and community leaders that Atlanta was awarded $30 million to redevelop severely distressed public housing and revitalize the University Choice Neighborhood which is also the former home of demolished University Homes public housing development.

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