Changing the Odds (2019)

Summary

Since 2001, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has been working with Atlanta’s Southside communities to transform high-poverty city neighborhoods and help low-income families and children succeed. While some progress is being made, the gap between Atlanta’s haves and have-nots remains immense.

This report — which is a follow-up to Casey’s Changing the Odds: The Race for Results in Atlanta — focuses on promising policies and approaches that, if enacted on a larger scale, could help dismantle the systemic barriers that have kept too many Atlantans of color from reaching their full potential.

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Investing in Thriving Communities
• Preparing Chidlren for Educational Success
• Expanding Economic Opportunity
• Recommendations
• Conclusion
• Endnotes

Key Takeaway

Since the first report, published in 2015, the needle toward equity has moved (but not enough)

In Atlanta, forward-thinking organizations have been busy, forging pathways to education, housing, careers and wealth that can help build a brighter future for the city’s African-American residents. While these new pathways have spurred marginal gains, the push for equity is just beginning. And it’s a push that will require a larger legion of policymakers, public systems, business leaders, nonprofits and philanthropic institutions to band together and work together to help Atlantans of color move from merely surviving to thriving.