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The annual Neighbors Together event celebrates NeighborWorks Week -  a national celebration among 250 affiliated members of the nation's largest community development network, NeighborWorks. During the first week of June each year, NeighborWorks organizations, including ANDP, mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers, businesspeople, neighbors, friends, and local and national elected and civic leaders in a week of neighborhood change and awareness.

 

Now in its fifth year, ANDP's Neighbors Together has offered training on leadership and other topics of importance to neighborhood leaders - foreclosure prevention, stabilizing neighborhoods, public safety, code enforcement, working with neighborhood schools, and more.

 

This year, ANDP  and its Community Leadership Institute (CLI) Team partnered with Georgia State University and State Farm Learning, Income, and Family Transformation (LIFT) Program, to focus on youth participation and bridging the gap between younger and older community leaders.

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The day consisted of several breakout sessions for young adults under age 25 and those over age 25. Attendees learned about examining their roles as leaders in their communities. The topics of the workshops included, “Developing Your Inner Leader” and "Building Strong Communities for People of All Ages."

One of the highlights of the event was the Fishbowl discussion, led by facilitators Ronnie Galvin and Bekah Terlouw. In this session, the older leaders and youth explored the challenges and opportunities that come with leadership between different generations.

 

What started out as a normal back-and-forth conversation turned into a deeper conversation about fears and ways young adults and older leaders can work together. The question “What is it that you fear?” shifted the conversation into a raw discussion about the different struggles youth are currently facing that the older generations have not.

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Fatima Seye, a GSU student participating in the LIFT program, said: “The fishbowl was really inspiring and it gave us a chance to really open up about fears, aspirations, things to do and how to reach out.”

 

“I felt that the fishbowl discussion really opened up the floor for a lot of people to speak about their fears and the things that worry them within the communities. That was probably the best thing I got out of today, ” said 

GSU student Cassandra Johnson.

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The event held in South DeKalb County in conjunction with ANDP's Home South DeKalb Initiative, a special 3-year program launched in 2018 to lift homeownership rates, restore family wealth, increase neighborhood stability, and improve resident health and wellness outcomes in slow recovering neighborhoods of South DeKalb County.​

 

Our thanks to NeighborWorks America, Publix Super Market Charities, and State Farm for their support of our 2019 Neighbors Together leadership training event.

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LEARN MORE

 

About Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership

ANDP is a private, non-profit organization created in 1991 to promote, create and preserve affordable housing through direct development, lending, policy research and advocacy that result in the equitable distribution of affordable housing throughout the metropolitan Atlanta region. ANDP is a chartered member of NeighborWorks.

 

About Georgia State LIFT

Georgia State University and State Farm have introduced a first-of-its kind public-private partnership focused on taking students in South DeKalb county from high school to college. The “Learning, Income, and Family Transformation (LIFT) was created to continue improving these outcomes by combining data-dreven academic advisement with scholarships, employment opportunities, leadership training, and more to help students stay on track for graduation.

 

About NeighborWorks Week

Neighbors Together 2019 is part of NeighborWorks Week.  Each June, NeighborWorks America and its network of local organizations, including ANDP, mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers, businesspeople, neighbors, friends, and local and national elected and civic leaders in a week of neighborhood change and awareness. 

 

About NeighborWorks America
For 40 years, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp., a national, nonpartisan nonprofit known as NeighborWorks America, has strived to make every community a place of opportunity. Our network of excellence includes more than 240 members in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. NeighborWorks America offers grant funding, peer-exchange, technical assistance, evaluation tools and access to training, as the nation’s leading trainer of housing and community development professionals. NeighborWorks network organizations provide residents in their communities with affordable homes, owned and rented; financial counseling and coaching; community building through resident engagement; and collaboration in the areas of health, employment and education. In the last five years, our organizations have generated more than $34 billion in investment across the country.  More online at www.neighborworks.org. 

 

 

Thanks to our event sponsors!