January i996
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
Connections
Transferring knowledge
Atlanta yields lessons in fitting urban poverty
A broad-based anti-poverty pro
gram in Atlanta is ready to share
its experience in promoting
grassroots leadership and creat
ing effective corporate partner
ships.
By Merrill Wolf
Atlanta
The Atlanta Project, a program to
empower the city’s urban poor that
many consider a model of pubhc-pri-
vate partnership, has spawned a new
initiative, called The America Project,
to help other cities mount similar
efforts.
Leaders of the new program,
which was launched in January 1995,
say requests for guidance started
pouring in soon after former
President Jimmy Carter announced
the creation of the Atlanta Project in
October 1991. Four years later, they
say, the grassroots project in
Atlanta’s poorest nei^borhoods is
still evolving but has much to offer
other communities.
“We originally thought the Atlanta
Project would be a model project in
the sense of being replicated,” says
Elise Eplan, program administrator
for the America Project. “But we real
ized it’s not what we can do best
[because] ... the dynamic in each
community is so different.
“Instead, we say, ‘Here are some
of the lessons we’ve learned. You
need to develop something that works
for your community.’”
' Under the leadership of Dan
Sweat - a former foundation official
who was the original director of the
Atlanta Project - the America Project
makes these lessons accessible to
other communities through publica
tions and consultations, and by invit
ing delegations from other cities to
view the Atlanta Project first-hand.
Already, more than 100 communi
ties in the U.S. and abroad - including
Charlotte and Greensboro in North
Carolina - have tapped this resource,
Eplan says, finding both its successes
and challenges instructive.
UPS AND DOWNS
One of the Atlanta Project’s most
notable contributions to anti-poverty
work is its practical experience with
community empowerment, a plulo-
sophical linchpin of the project that,
Eplan says, has taken some time to
yield results.
The Atlanta Project operates in 20
“clusters” - defined as the neighbor
hoods served by pubhc high schools -
with a combined population of about
half-a-million.
In each cluster, the project hires a
An Atlanta child has her blood pressure checked during the Atlanta
Project's 1993 city-wide immunization drive.
Photo courtesy of the America fVoject
full-time coordinator and assistant -
both cluster residents - who work
with their neighbors and corporate
partners to develop strategies for
identifying and responding to that
particular community’s needs.
Programs run the gamut of social-
change activities - from financial-
management training, to low-income
housing development and anti-vio
lence programs.
Organizers say the Atlanta
Project is a catalyst rather than a ser
vice-provider or funder, and that its
overriding goal is to help connect
cluster residents with resources that
typically are out of their reach. A cen
tral office provides support functions
- such as research, training and tech
nology - but most initiatives are clus
ter-driven.
This insistence on letting clusters
direct their own activities led to some
early charges that the high-profile
project was cutting out existing non
profits, which were eager to collabo
rate and in some cases felt threat
ened.
Eplan says it wasn’t that the non
profits were being excluded but that
it took some clusters considerable
time to define strategies. In the begin
ning, she says, “There was nothing to
include [existing service-providers]
in.”
She advises teams from other
cities to avoid fanfare in a project’s
eai’ly stages: “Build your house a fit-
tie bit before you invite everyone
over.”
But now, as the Atlanta Project
nears the end of its first five-year
phase, community organizers are
coming into their own, Eplan says.
Emerging plans for Phase Two, which
begins in August 1996, reflect a clear
mandate from the clusters to focus on
children and youth, rather than on
the seven issues originally identified
by the project’s central staff, and a
readiness to work more closely with
other nonprofits.
It also appears likely that central
resources v® be shifted into the com
munities and that some geographical
boundaries will be eliminated. Now
that individual clusters have devel-
Look for ATLANTA, page 7
Managed care
Hospice groups form network
A new health-care alliance will
contract with managed-care
providers to offer hospice cover
age to their customers.
By Todd Cohen
The 10 largest hospices in North
Carolina have created a network to
help more terminally ill patients
secure hospice services through a
managed-care system.
The new venture. Hospice
Provider Network Inc., will create a
one-stop hospice referral center for
the state, contracting with health
maintenance organizations and other
managed-care providers to offer hos
pice coverage to people enrolled in
their plans.
'The network also aims to work
with other hospice providers in the
Carofinas.
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HEALTH
Hospices provide health care,
counseling and other services for ter
minally ill people and their families.
While they generally contract individ
ually with managed-care organiza
tions, two members of the new net
work - Hospice of Wake County and
Triangle Hospice, which serves
Durham, Gran^^e and Orange coun
ties - recently formed a limited joint
venture that will contract with man-
aged-care providers.
Like the 'Triangle alliance, which
is known as the Central Carolina
Hospice Alliance, the statewide net
work will connect managed-care
providers with patients and will set
up uniform guidelines for admission
to hospice programs and for delivery
of hospice services.
'The statewide network, which is
governed by a board consisting of the
chief executives of the member hos
pices, will have no full-time staff. But
the network, through a bidding
process, will select one or more mem
ber hospices to act as a service
bureau for the network, handling the
Janet Fortner
intake of patients, their referral to
Individual hos
pices, and
bfiling. A mem
ber also will be
selected to
handle quality
control for the
aUiance.
“We hope
to make it eas
ier and conve
nient for man-
aged-care
organizations
to be able to
arrange for hospice services for their
members wherever they may be in
North and South Carolina,” says
Janet Fortner, president and chief
executive officer of Hospice at
Charlotte and chair of the network’s
board.
In addition to the hospices in
Charlotte, Wake and the 'lYian^e,
other members of the network are in
Alamance County, Asheville,
Asheboro, Greensboro, High Point,
Wilmington and Winston-
Salem/Fbrsyth County.
Caregivers at Hospice of Wake County discuss
how to help their clients.
Photo by Jim Strickland
At the helm
Children’s groups
have new leaders
'Two key advocacy groups for
North Carolina children have hired
new leaders with backgrounds in
nonprofit organizing.
David Walker, who for 13 years
headed Child Abuse Prevention
Services in Chicago, has been hired
as executive director of the North
Carolina Partnership for Children.
'The group oversees the state’s Smart
Start program for early childhood
development.
Jonathan Sher, a former chief
adviser to the Annenberg Rural
Challenge and visiting scholar at the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel HUl, has been hired as presi
dent of the North Carolina Child
Advocacy
Institute in
Ralei^.
Walker
succeeds
Walter
Shepherd,
who
resigned
from the
Smart Start
program
over the
summer
after dis
agreements
over a leg
islative compromise on state funding
for the initiative. He will have the task
of raising private money for Smart
Start programs to meet new matching
requirements adopted by state law
makers.
In Chicago, Walker helped Child
Abuse Prevention Services increase
its budget to $1.2 million from
$200,000. He says he plans to work
closely with the Smart Start board on
Jonathan Sher
David F. Walker
strategic
planning
and to hire
more staff |
to help
coordinate
local Smart
Start pro
jects.
Sher,
who has a
doctorate
from the
Harvard
Graduate
School of
Education,
helped found REAL Enterprises, a
national nonprofit based in Durham
that has been invited to be part of a
$50 million school reform initiative
launched by philanthropist Walter H.
Annenberg.
He was hired to replace John
Niblock, founder of the North
Carolina Child Advocacy Institute,
who was asked to resign after the
board elected new officers last sum
mer.
Sher says his first priority will be
starting a dialogue with the
Institute’s staff, board and key sup
porters to reexamine the organiza
tion’s priorities.
“What the institute needs to do is
figure out how it can best function as
an effective advocate for kids,” he
says. “Unlike 12 years ago, when
John Niblock founded it, there are
now a number of agencies and groups
that are focused on particular
aspects of the needs of children. 'The
institute needs to figure out where it
fits in the broader picture and to iden
tify the things it can do exceedingly
well that nobody else can do.”