For many of us, holiday memories harken back the sounds of tearing paper and giddy exclamations. We imagine scenes of pajama-clad families donning new clothes and tinkering with the latest gadgets in wrapping paper-strewn living rooms. The excitement of opening gifts is palpable. It’s hard to imagine homes with gifts still sitting under trees or tucked away in closets come January. And yet that’s exactly what’s happening all around Greater Atlanta.
Some of our greatest gifts remain unopened: the promise of more than half a million children, teens, and young adults.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
Imagine a metro where the potential packaged in each child is let loose through literacy. Where the minds of teens are unleashed to explore their dreams thanks to accessible college and career opportunities. Envision a Greater Atlanta where young families are no longer confined by finances, but finding economic stability and building generational wealth that lifts our entire region: A Greater Atlanta where every child has the chance to thrive regardless of their zip code. That is the more we are working for.
At United Way of Greater Atlanta, we unite governments, businesses and generous donors to tackle our most pressing challenges. Together, we’ve become laser focused on unbounding this untapped potential, encumbered by layers of disinvestment, systemic inequity and oppressive biases. The work is hard, but we are undeterred. Just as parents stand ready with scissors, batteries, and a multi-tool for when their kids confront Fort Knox-level packaging, we are gathering the aid needed to help unlock our community’s potential.
The last three years have only further strengthened that toolbox of support. Collectively, we’re tackling the growing and increasingly exposed barriers to opportunity.
We’re also learning to be a better partner in this unwrapping work. Every year, donations from corporate partners and individual donors help fund the missions of more than 200 grantee partners. Thousands of volunteer hours then support their work across 13 counties. Throughout the metro, our team is working to enhance the way we show up; listening more deeply to the local leaders who know best what’s buried behind the statistics. These are the leaders who witness daily the untapped talent kept under wraps for far too long and we are seeking their candid counsel. The data from Greater Atlanta’s Child Well Being Index is clear that racial disparities, historic disinvestment and systemic inequity have created additional obstacles for communities of color. As new Census data reasserts the birthplace of Civil Rights as the cradle of income inequality, we look to BIPOC leaders to guide our resource investments.
Since 2020, donors across Greater Atlanta have helped empower 19 organizations through more than $2 million in strategic support from the United for Racial Equity and Healing Fund. We recognize philanthropy is most successful when informed by the expertise and lived experience of grantee partners. Who better to lead the effort than those who most fully understand the power that lies at the heart of their community?
We also know that doing healing justice work can itself be exhausting and traumatic. We’re committed to supporting the health and well-being of local leaders through restorative practices and to providing more sustainable, multi-year, unrestricted funding to BIPOC-led organizations.
This is the season to seek out the hidden gifts in our presence. In 2023, United Way of Greater Atlanta will join the city of Atlanta’s mayor in celebrating the Year of the Youth as we unveil our updated Child Well-Being Index. This data-rich map will further highlight the treasure trove of potential that lies buried in neighborhoods that have been divided by redlining and highways and weighed down by poverty and disinvestment. In addition to revisiting key indicators around financial, educational, and health outcomes, the updated Index will Include new layers of information including broadband access and food deserts. These markers will help lead us to where opportunity lies.
It’s worth repeating that the gifts are here, they’re already in our midst. We don’t need to manufacture dreams or abilities. We need only to remove the wrappings that have endured far too long, and simply stand back to witness the amazing things that happen when we unlock the promise of more than half a million of our youngest neighbors.
There is no packaging that could keep us from ensuring our children enjoy the greatest gifts, and no energy source we wouldn’t seek out to make sure those gifts work to their full potential. In the same way, there is no barrier to the promises placed in our community that could deter our donors and volunteers from working to open and power the potential of our youth.
Let’s make sure no gifts sit unopened in our midst, and let’s create that joy-filled future for Greater Atlanta, the United Way.
Milton J. Little Jr. is president and CEO of United Way of Greater Atlanta.
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