NEWS & OPINIONS
Q&A: Kristin Barker on Hiring Well, Doing Good in Columbus
Georgia Center for Opportunity’s Hiring Well, Doing Good (HWDG) initiative is quickly gaining ground in Columbus, Georgia. Here’s a brief Q&A from the front lines with HWDG Program Manager Kristin Barker. Q: What's the goal of HWDG in Columbus? Kristin: The...
Breakthrough 2019 – Caring For Foster Families
We can’t address the crisis in our civil society without addressing children who lack a family to come home to. That was the driving theme behind Breakthrough 2019’s panel on foster care and adoption. A staggering 97 percent of kids who age out of the foster care...
Breakthrough 2019 – A Sustainable Vision For Helping The Poor
Is there a solution to poverty? That’s the question GCO president and CEO Randy Hicks discussed with AEI president Robert Doar as a keynote at Breakthrough 2019. One powerful step forward in the anti-poverty fight is the Success Sequence: Helping as many people as...
Introducing an Innovative New Way for Those in Poverty to Find Work
Government, particularly at the federal level, can only do so much to help those who are struggling in poverty to lead stable lives. We know instinctively that real change happens at the community level, when individuals, businesses, nonprofits, churches, and schools...
Breakthrough 2019 – Bettering Lives With Better Business
Is it possible to do good while making a profit? The resounding answer from our jobs panel at Breakthrough 2019 was “yes.” The big question, of course, is how to do it. We heard from mission-driven leaders in the business community dedicated to helping the...
Breakthrough 2019 – Criminal Justice Reforms That Restore & Empower
Georgia ranks 4th nationwide in incarceration rates. One out of every 18 people are in jail, on probation, or on parole. And about 40 percent of Georgians have a criminal record. These are just a few of the startling statistics on criminal justice in the Peach State....
Breakthrough 2019 – Bettering Lives With Better Business
Is it possible to do good while making a profit? The resounding answer from our jobs panel at Breakthrough 2019 was “yes.” The big question, of course, is how to do it. We heard from mission-driven leaders in the business community dedicated to helping the...
Breakthrough 2019 – Businesses Investing In Student Readiness
We know that a traditional four-year college pathway isn’t the right choice for many students in Georgia. The harder part is figuring out which alternative pathway is the best. Breaking ground in these areas are forward-thinking employers like Southwire, America’s...
From prisoner to influencer: Tony’s story
The day that Tony Kitchens was released from prison in 1985, he did an unusual thing: He got down on the ground and created a fake “snow angel” on the grass. “I was elated, but nervous. Free, but I didn’t know anything. The sun was very bright. Red was very red, green...
Breakthrough 2019 – Outcome-Focused Programs & Measuring Success
What works and what doesn’t? That’s a basic but important question for community nonprofits to address. But more times than not, we tend to launch off hunches. We think we know what works, but we don’t know, with quantifiable data points to back it up. At Breakthrough...
Breakthrough 2019 – What Makes Communities Thrive?
American civil society is broken. So many Americans live fragmented lives, disconnected from the institutions and associations that once characterized American life and brought people of all economic classes together—everything from churches and synagogues to rotary...
Breakthrough 2019 – Creating Conditions For Change
“The secret is in the soil.” That’s how Georgia Center for Opportunity President and CEO Randy Hicks opened Breakthrough 2019. Randy shared the story of how Moses Coleman discovered Vidalia onions purely by accident in 1931. These onions can only be grown in a...
MEDIA MENTIONS
2018 Georgia Legislator Scorecard on School Choice Now Available
When it comes to expanding educational choice for all students and families in Georgia, our state has a lot to celebrate this year. During the last legislative session, lawmakers took some crucial strides to help kids trapped in failing schools or stuck in classrooms...
GCO releases report card grading lawmakers on school choice support
33 state lawmakers recognized for outstanding support of school choice in 2018 PEACHTREE CORNERS – On Wednesday, the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) released their 2018 Legislator Report Card, a scorecard recognizing state lawmakers according to their voting...
GCO welcomes Bill Rodgers as VP of new Employment Division
PEACHTREE CORNERS – On Wednesday, the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) announced that Bill Rodgers, a seasoned C-level business executive with experience as a key leader of Fortune 500 companies like Johnson Controls and Waste Management, would oversee the...
Gwinnett Daily Post covers GCO event aimed at increasing college completion rates
Last week, the Georgia Center for Opportunity partnered with the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia to host “Staying the Course in College”—a half-day community conversation at Gwinnett Technical College on the importance of completing college. Check out more...
New Study on Black Men Shows Improvement in Achieving American Dream
There’s an old saying that a rising tide lifts all boats. This seems to be true in today’s booming economy—with low unemployment rates at the state and national levels translating into historical lows in communities that often lag behind. For example, economic...
Congress should end marriage penalties in the tax code and welfare system
By Erik Randolph, GCO Contributing Scholar Last December, President Trump signed into law changes to the federal income tax. One of the supposed achievements was the elimination of the marriage penalty. This is not entirely correct. I recently analyzed marriage...
Desperate for options, Jan turns to school choice
Imagine the challenge of raising two children with special needs. That’s the task that Jan—a small business owner in Georgia—faces in bringing up her two girls. Katie has ADHD, dyslexia, and autism spectrum disorder, and Jessica has an auditory processing disorder and...
Georgia Center for Opportunity CEO reacts to leaked audio of Lt. Governor
ATLANTA - During the 2018 legislative session, the Georgia Center for Opportunity stood with parents across the state and fervently advocated for the expansion of the tax credit tuition scholarship program. In response to a leaked audio recording involving Lt....
