Organizations

An Atlanta First: The Atlanta police force was one of the first city government departments to be integrated in the 1960s by then-Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. Back then, however, integration didn’t mean black and white officers serving side by side,…

Mission-Driven: Officially chartered in 1875, the school that became Dor-chester Academy owes its existence to an organization known as the American Missionary Association (AMA). The group began as an abolitionist movement before the Civil War and opened schools for freedmen…

Going Global: Leadership Georgia made its first international excursion this summer, taking almost every member of the class of 2009 to Costa Rica. It wasn’t for fun in the sun, either, says the organization’s president, Horace Johnson, Jr. “Costa Rica…

Marking Milestones: It’s been six years since Kate Atwood, who lost her mother at age 12, founded Kate’s Club, an organization that aims to empower kids who’ve lost a parent or sibling. From an initial group of just six children,…

Marking Milestones: When the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Regional Leadership Institute convenes at the end of this month in St. Simons, it will mark the 20th such gathering to address issues of import to the Metro Atlanta area, says ARC’s Tony…

Silver Lining: As it enters its 40th year of service to the northeast Georgia community this fall, Gainesville-based Rehabilitation Industries of Northeast Georgia (RING) is finding something of a silver lining to the current economic situation. Its services are being…

Making Sense Of It All: The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) has its roots in a movement launched earlier this decade to establish a network of nonpartisan state fiscal analysis institutes. The mission of this five-year-old organization, says Executive…

History Repeating: A.B. Short knows a thing or two about working with surplus items – he got his start in nonprofits with the Atlanta Community Food Bank and moved on to found Café 458, feeding the homeless in downtown Atlanta.…

Local Origins: Executive Director Grace Fricks, a self-described civic entrepreneur, founded Appalachian Community Enterprises (ACE) in her Clarkesville home 10 years ago. She was spurred by a call from current ACE board member Kim Foster, then an official at North…

Municipal Mission: Way back in 1941, when the city of Atlanta was just beginning to flex its muscles as a state and regional powerhouse, a group of concerned downtown businessmen met to determine issues of collective interest that they could…