HEAD OF THE CLASS - The Atlanta Housing Authority

Summer 2016
Community, Governmental, & External Affairs
230 John Wesley Dobbs, Ave., N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30303-2421
Corporate Communications Division
aha board of
commissioners
Daniel Halpern- Chair
Building a Future Out of Passion
James Allen Jr. - Vice Chair
Dr. Christopher Edwards
W
Angela Ramsom
Brandon Riddick-Seals
Robert J. Rumley III
Joy W. Fitzgerald
President & CEO
HEAD OF THE CLASS
A-HA! wants to hear from you! If you have a story to share about an AHA participant, program, policy or event,
send an e-mail to: pia.forbes@atlantahousing.org.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
CONVERSAtiON
Yvette Cook
President and CEO
Yomoko Wiggins Turns Her Love of Food and People Into a Career
hen Yomoko Wiggins graduated from Treutlen High School in Soperton, Georgia, her next move was to Miami to
attend Lindsey Hopkins Technical College to study bookkeeping and shorthand. Later, she enrolled at Miami Dade
Community College, adding proficiency in math and English to her repertoire.
An entrepreneur at heart, Yomoko became a clothing retailer, a venture she was involved in from 1985 until 1994, when
she decided to return to Georgia – this time, Atlanta. Always industrious, Gene and Beatrice Wiggins’ youngest daughter
became certified through Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning as an at-home child care provider. For 12
years, she operated Bright From the Start, nurturing up to six children at a time.
Her return to Miami to work as a bookkeeper for the Miami Herald newspaper was unexpected, but Yomoko never
passes on a good opportunity. While there, she also worked
for the Miami Dade County Elections Department until Georgia
called her back home.
of Usher’s New Look Yomoko explains simply, “I was homesick.” So she returned to
Georgia and found work with the Salvation Army and a mailing
company.
Utility Tips
FACES AND PLACES
Changing Lives
around town
Yomoko has always been a great cook. She won the Treutlen
County Junior Auxiliary Club High School commendation for
outstanding food service while in high school, and in Miami, she
cooked at a sports bar. Though preparing food had always been Yomoko Wiggins shows off vegetables from her Cosby
Spear garden
something she did without much thought, she began to look at it
differently while spending more time in Soperton with her ailing
mother. Cooking became a way to serve and relieve stress in a difficult situation.
She recalls, “Cooking became my yoga, my tai chi, my meditation.”
head of the class
In 2012, Yomoko moved into Cosby Spear High-rise and became active in her new community. She is the resident
association secretary and earned a service award for her contributions. She is also a proud member of the Red Hat
Society. She is busy, but nothing seems to stop Yomoko from nurturing people with food. At Cosby Spear, she maintains a vegetable and herb garden
and shares the harvest with her neighbors.
Mayor Reed, AHA CEO & President Joy Fitzgerald and the UCN scholars at City Hall
On Monday, June 20, ten students from Atlanta’s Choice Neighborhoods communities convened at City Hall for a scholarship award ceremony
in their honor. Each student received a scholarship in the amount of $2,000, along with a fully loaded laptop and a gift card to help defray
school-related expenses. The awards were presented by Mayor Kasim Reed and AHA President and CEO Joy W. Fitzgerald.
“I always cook for the residents,” she says, her smile indicating the satisfaction she gets from feeding her neighbors and the feeling that spurred her
August 2015 enrollment at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts College. By September, she was a certified professional food manager.
All of the students, who are either graduates of Washington High School, residents of the former University Homes or residents within the
University Choice Neighborhood, will enter two- or four-year colleges or universities this fall.
On schedule to finish her classroom studies this month and to complete a three-month paid internship, Yomoko’s sights are set on the future. She
wants to establish a catering service and is beginning to look at the professional grade kitchen equipment she will need to run a business.
The awards were made possible by the $30 million Choice Neighborhoods grants awarded to the city by the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
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Whatever happens next, Yomoko is already a success because she loves what she does. “It’s a high for me to see people sit down and break bread
with food I prepared with love.”
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Conversation
Utility Tips
During these hot summer months, it is important to stay
cool and hydrated. It is also important to conserve energy
and keep your utility bills as low as possible. Here are
some tips that may prove helpful:
1. Placing lamps or TV sets near your room air-conditioning thermostat can cause the air conditioner to run longer
than necessary. Set them apart and save energy.
Yvette Cook, President and CEO
Usher’s New Look
When Usher’s New Look (UNL) welcomed Yvette Cook as its new president and CEO in 2014, it was celebrating 15 years of serving more than 21,000
youths. Today, with more than 30,000 and the UNL Spark Lab well underway, Cook shares how the organization continues to change the lives of many,
including some right here in Atlanta.
2. Lighting makes up about 10 percent of home energy
costs. Save up to 75 percent of that energy by replacing
incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. They
also last longer, saving money on replacements.
Give us a mission snapshot of Usher’s New Look. The basic core of the mission is that we are on a
pathway to create that next generation of youth leaders. And we say global youth leaders, because in today’s
world they will be global youth leaders. They already are. You think about the Internet, connectivity between
social media, between the youth; it’s global leadership.
3. If you use air conditioning, a ceiling fan will allow you
to raise the thermostat setting about 4°F with no reduction in comfort. Just make sure to turn it off when you
leave the room. Fans cool people, not rooms.
4. Heating water can account for 14 to 25 percent of the
energy consumed in your home. Turn down the temperature of your water heater to the warm setting (120°F) and
save energy.
How are you empowering these future leaders? We have three basic programs: Powered By Service,
which serves seventh and eighth grade students; Leadership Academy for ninth through 12th grade students;
and Moguls in Training, which serves post-secondary students.
5. Leaving a computer on all day can cost about 21 cents
per day, or about $75 per year. Unplug electronics and
appliances when not in use – a task made easier by
using multiple-outlet strips, which can turn everything off
with the flip of a switch.
Powered By Service is your introductory program and the pathway into New Look. How does it work? We do those primarily in either
middle school or with the ninth grade class, because our academies are ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth. It’s a one-day intensive training. We go
into the school and do the training. In Atlanta, we’ve done Washington, Brown, and Carver high schools. In Cobb County, we work with Pebblebrook;
in Gwinnet County, we work with Meadowcreek. Pebblebrook has the lowest graduation rate in Cobb; Meadowcreek has the lowest graduation rate in
Gwinnett. So we work with the schools that are struggling and the students in need.
How does the Leadership Academy incorporate its four pillars into its curriculum? In ninth grade, we focus on Spark — helping the
student find their passion. What are you interested in? What excites you? Because we believe that if the student can find their passion, their “spark,”
earlier, now school makes sense to them. And they chart pathway. Sophomore year, it’s all about Education. So you want to be a NASCAR mechanic.
What kind of educational career pathway do I need to take? What does that look like? We spend a whole year on that and exploring education, as well
as talking about what is your pathway –– community college? Technical college? A four-year? The junior year, we focus on Careers. Based on your
interest, we are going to expose you to a plethora of careers that maybe you haven’t even heard of and never knew existed. During the senior year,
we focus on Service, helping others and giving back. Often, this takes place within their own communities.
Faces and Places
I N S I D E AT L A N TA H O U S I N G A U T H O R I T Y C O M M U N I T I E S
On Monday, June 13, 13 summer employees showed up at the
Atlanta Housing Authority for their first day at work. A combina-
Tell us about the Spark Lab? The Spark Lab is a space that represents the intersection of education, technology and culture. Students will come
to the Spark Lab to produce, create and innovate. Students will participate and collaborate with other students and have an opportunity use their
sparks while fine tuning their skills. Service within their communities is a big component of New Look. We anticipate students will gather together at
the Spark Lab to explore issues and develop innovative solutions.
tion of high school and college students, they were hired by AHA
following a request from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development to public housing authorities throughout the
country to support the White House 2016 Summer Opportunity
One hundred percent of your students graduate from high school and go on to college or career. What’s the key? All of our programs and all of our trainings are peer-to-peer taught, peer-to-peer led. Students who have matriculated through the program are the ones who train
the younger students. So instant connectivity. Instant relatability and, ‘Oh, by the way, I’ve been where you are a few years ago. So I get it!’
What credentials do students earn once they finish the academy? Our curriculum is endorsed by Emory, so when you graduate from either
of the years –– and each of the 4 years has a different emphasis –– you get a certificate that says you’ve completed x amount of hours in this discipline; and it is stamped with Emory Goizueta Business School and us. It’s just something else to set you apart.
For more information about UNL and its programs, log onto www.ushersnewlook.org
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Project by hiring at least one summer intern. The project aimed to
provide summer employment to 1,000 or more youth, ages 16 to
21. The interns, who will work through July 31, were placed in deAHA Summer Interns with President and CEO
Joy Fitzgerald (far right) and COO Catherine Buell
partments throughout the agency and are working in capacities
that align with their academic interests and will teach them skills
they can use long-term.
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Change Agents
APD fosters positive change, one child at a time.
A
t the Atlanta Police Department, we invest in our
most valuable resources – the people we protect
and serve. The Community Oriented Policing Section
(COPS) connects with the citizens of Atlanta in an
effort to foster relationships through various community outreach programs and problem-solving initiatives. APD understands that the impression we make
on the people we come in contact with can impact
their lives forever.
Our goal is to be a force for positive change, and we
believe that takes more than patrolling a community in a patrol car; it’s about hitting the streets and
getting involved. The key to getting the community
involved is cultivating positive police-community
partnerships.
Programs such as the Police Athletic League (PAL) foster and encourage a spirit of trust, loyalty and value
among Atlanta’s youth. PAL has implemented a variety of quality, organized activities that allow police
officers, children, and volunteers to interact together.
These activities teach moral, civic, academic and
social principles to the participants, utilizing athletics
as a foundation for this interaction and teamwork.
In keeping with one of the department’s expanded
focuses on juvenile crime in an effort to break the
cycle of crime among youth repeat offenders, one of
the goals of PAL is to keep youth off the streets and
provide them with a safe, nurturing environment.
Using the art of boxing as a teaching method not
only helps keep kids out of trouble, but it also teaches discipline, patience, endurance and the value of
sportsmanship.
PAL Commander Lt. Kelley Collier and Evander Holyfield prepare for their bout in the ring
Annually, PAL hosts the Mayor’s Cup Amateur Boxing Championship:
Guns-N-Hoses Fundraiser to raise proceeds to fund sports activities and
after-school programs for Atlanta youth. PAL ambassador and board
member, five-time World Heavyweight Champion Evander Holyfield was
on hand for the December 2015 event, helping to catapult profits to a
record-setting total of more than $70,000.
PAL member Rondarrius Hunter, who grew up in Atlanta’s Bowen Homes
housing project, is just one example of how community involvement, a
pair of gloves and supportive APD officers can change the trajectory of
a child’s life. Hunter became a PAL member when he was 7 years old.
Throughout his childhood, he played multiple sports with PAL and has
made a name for himself in the USA boxing arena.
Training, discipline and support from APD PAL officers – including Officer
Michael Vail, who served as coach, trainer, mentor and caregiver – have
helped to advance Hunter, now 22, to qualify for the Olympic Trials in
Men’s Boxing in the light flyweight division. Rondarrius stepped into the
ring for his first professional bout on May 21, 2016, in Macon, GA.
APD is working with the Atlanta Police Foundation and the City of Atlanta
to create a Youth Intervention Center and expand our PAL program to
reach youth at an earlier age. We want to proactively work with youth
today to stop crime from happening tomorrow.
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