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Partners for a Prosperous Athens
After a Year’s Worth of Work, the Anti-Poverty Task Force
Wants You to Come Find Out What It’s Been Up To
L ocal anti-poverty initiative Partners for a
Prosperous Athens (PPA) will publicly pres
ent its recommendations at the Classic
Center on Monday, Mar. 19 at 7 p.m. For over a
year, the group has involved local leaders and
members of the public to research causes and
cures for Athens' persistently high rate of pov
erty and its effects. PPA's 30-member steering
committee has been sifting through 20 pages of
recommendations produced by 19 PPA commit
tees and subcommittees ranging from economic
development to dependent care, and from trans
portation to health. Few of the suggestions ap
peared dead on arrival (uniform dress in public
schools was one), but many specifics (like asking
UGA to pay all employees at least $11.55 an
hour, or support for Athens/ Atlanta commuter
rail) seemed to disappear into more generalized
language at a Mar. 5 meeting as the steering
committee worked toward presenting recommen
dations at the Mar. 19 town hall.
But press liaison Larry Dendy tells Flagpole
that all 155 committee recommendations will go
forward as PPA's "action plan" to its "co-conve
ners:" UGA, the Clarke County School District, the
local government, and the Athens Area Chamber
of Commerce. What happens then depends on
what PPA's "co-conveners" (or, presumably, any
one who takes the initiative) do next. "PPA does
not have any authority cr money or resources to
implement anything," Dendy points out. "PPA
was simply supposed to study the problem and
come up with solutions, and that's what will
be presented on Monday." There are no specific
plans to disband the organization, but "PPA was
never intended to be an ongoing organization,"
he says, and a follow-up group might be formed
to carry out recommendations.
As sifted by the steering committee at a
meeting Mar. 5 and at a two-day retreat in
February, some of PPA's primary recommendations
will likely say:
• Economic development efforts to attract
new jobs need to be regional and involve
other nearby counties, not just Athens-Clarke
County. Although there is a multi-county
effort to attract biotech industry to the
Highway 316 corridor, the recommendations
say that "regional economic efforts are incon
sistent and lack an organizing theme."
• "The Athens workforce is not competitive
when it comes to hard and soft skills neces
sary for current and future job markets," and
needs "a comprehensive workforce strategy
that links our schools, universities, technical
colleges, non-profits, and employers."
• "The need for mentoring has emerged again
and again throughout PPA recommendations'
for both students and for families living in
poverty. The recommendations recognize
existing mentoring programs and encourage
their expansion.
• "Athens does a poor job of transitioning .
ex-offenders back into the community," and
programs like the Athens Justice Project and
PPA's own "Jobs for Life' program 'need com
munity support and need the resources for
expansion."
• Local bus service needs longer hours, more
frequent buses, "securing adequate and sus
tainable funding' and expansion to a regional
system.
An enthusiastic committee recommendation
for a "sustainable farming' initiative to encour
age local farming and gardening received only a
mixed reception from members of the steering
committee. "A local gardening and farming ini
tiative could incorporate and address most of the
components leading to persistent poverty," PPA's
economy committee said, including farmers' mar
kets that accept food stamps and where people
can learn how to make healthy meals.
And "despite great effort by teachers and
principals, many children, especially those who
live in poverty, are not achieving at acceptable
levels in our schools." Committee recommenda
tions included:
• Establishing a "K-8 Neighborhood School"
at Chase Street School, a charter Montessori
school, and perhaps a bilingual charter
school.
• Creating a age three-through-first grade
community school, and a boarding school for
students who are at risk of dropping out.
• Exploring school vouchers "as a means of
reallocating public education dollars' and
encouraging open enrollment policies at all
state universities.
• Aggressively confronting "negative/ de
structive icons, images and life-style choices'
that discourage perseverance, personal re
sponsibility, and respect for self and others.
• Surveying teachers about what they need in
order to do their jobs better.
• Dropping the $6-a-day fee for after-school
and summer programs "which prohibits many
struggling students from getting the extra
instructional time they need.'
• Developing reading intervention strategies
"that work."
• Developing a broader choice of leisure
activities for children (like chess, tennis, bee
keeping, woodworking, cooking, or shop).
• Giving away a car through a lottery open to
students who have had perfect attendance.
All publicly-funded local kindergarten pro
grams have waiting lists, and the early childhood
subcommittee recommends:
• Increasing availability and quality of local
child-care for poor children through support
from government, churches, and civic clubs
(and "HOPE scholarships for babies").
• Supporting programs that teach parenting
skills.
Over the past year, the public has participated
enthusiastically in the anti-poverty effort, the
group's facilitator, Joe Whorton, tells Flagpole.
Some 1000 people attended one public meeting,
and hundreds have participated in committee
meetings. The recommendations list includes
two pages of so-called 'big ideas," like asking
churches and religious groups to 'prayerfully sup
port our community" and 'serve as conveners for
important community discussions and support
developing new neighborhood initiatives."
The final recommendations may say that local
social service providers should continue meeting
together as they have been through PPA. The
committee of local service providers suggested:
• Raising money cooperatively, not competi
tively as at present, which has created "a cul
ture of competitiveness, duplication, ineffi
ciency, donor fatigue and political wrangling."
• Organizing private and public organizations
and agencies to use a common intake form
for clients, list themselves in a special 'pink
pages' section of the phone book, coordinate
volunteers, and provide the public with a
single location for information. One agen
cy—the county's Department of Human and
Economic Development—has become largely
an administrator of federal grant money, said
steering committee members, and needs to
get back to its 'original mission' of working
directly with citizens. And local health care
programs for uninsured people need to be
more comprehensive and emphasize preven
tion, the recommendations say, "rather than
the current practice of fragmented, high-cost,
services and expensive late-stage care."
A volunteer fair held at a PPA meeting in August at Clarke Central High School was just one example of a relatively small task
the initiative’s leaders says they’ve been glad to accomplish so far. Now, PPA plans to bring its citizen-generated recommen
dations to the public at large for a response as the effort moves forward.
To provide for more affordable housing, a sub
committee recommended:
• "Enticing" developers to build affordable
homes and rentals through density bonuses
and "inclusionary zoning" (which would re
quire some low-rent units to be included in
new developments).
• Limiting future construction of "high-end"
apartments to prevent existing apartments
from falling into disrepair.
• Allowing "granny flat" apartments in homes
and re-examining the county's "definition of
family" ordinance that bars more than two
unrelated people from living together.
• Protecting elderly homeowners in gentrify-
ing areas by limiting property tax increases.
• "Residents of Athens-Clarke County must
make the commitment to accept their neigh
bors" and "bankers and lenders must make a
commitment to support the underserved."
Other committee recommendations include:
• Encourage ACC citizens to support the local
economy by "buying local."
• Establish a barter system to help provide
home repair, lawn care or meal preparation for
dependent adults.
• Increase and publicize training programs
for "low-income Athenians who do not know
that they could become entrepreneurs," and
other support programs for business start-ups.
'Many potential entrepreneurs are not able to
be successful—due to a lack of time, capital,
belief-in-self, English language skills, com
puter training, or literacy," the entrepreneur-
ship subcommittee said.
• Teach entrepreneurship "and build hope" at
all school grade levels and develop a 'youth
leadership program" to help implement the
various anti-poverty recommendations long
term.
• The Chamber of Commerce should ask its
members to notify Partners for a Prosperous
Athens when "respectable jobs at the blue-
collar level' are available that "Jobs for
Life"—often with ex-felons screened and
trained through the program—might fill Also,
the Chamber should "educate its membership,
large and small businesses, on the advantages
of respectful wages and benefits' both to the
community and to the business itself.
• Establishing a program to find and train
low-income individuals as certified nurse as
sistants to help meet local needs.
The full list of all 155 recommendations—and
a wealth of other material from the year-long
effort—can be viewed online at www.prosperou-
sathens.org.
John Huie jphuie@athens.net
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WHAT: Partners for a Prosperous Athens
WHERE: Classic Center Athena Ballroom
WHEN: Monday, Mar. 19,7-9 p.m.
HOW MUCH: FREE!
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