GROVE PARK FOUNDATION INC
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Mission Statement
Grove Park Foundation (GPF) launched in 2017 with a mission to revitalize the Grove Park neighborhood and improve the quality of life by working with local partners, leaders and residents to create a healthy, equitable and vibrant community. We work with the neighborhood to create a cradle-to-college quality education pipeline, secure and increase affordable housing, and improve community wellness (physical, financial, cultural, and environmental). Every aspect of GPF’s work is driven by the priorities of creating equitable access to opportunity for all residents of Grove Park, supporting a healthy and flourishing community, and empowering a racially and economically inclusive neighborhood.
About This Cause
To stabilize the families of Grove Park, GPF has committed to providing supportive services that ensure the current residents are empowered and equipped to participate in and benefit from our strategic capital investments and partnerships. Economic Mobility: To create economic opportunity for community residents to move towards a stable living wage, GPF launched the Neighborhood Opportunities for Wealth (N.O.W.), Financial Capability Partnership in 2020. This program empowers Grove Park residents to repair and build credit, qualify for affordable rental and home ownership opportunities, access job training and placement, and create or expand small businesses to build pathways and opportunities to increase household incomes. With GPF managing community outreach, intake, and follow-up, the N.O.W. uses expert partnerships to provide financial literacy education with 1-1 financial counseling, job training/job placement programming, support for small business development and financing, and assistance with common barriers to success including records expungement, obtaining Driver’s License/ID, and GED completion. The program enrolled 200 participants in 2020 and seeks to serve an additional 500 in 2021. Affordable Housing: In partnership with Columbia Residential, GPF began construction of a $23 M LIHTC project of 110 units of a multi-family affordable housing in 2020 that will be completed in late 2021. This development includes funding partnership with the state 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits and City of Atlanta Funding through its development arm, Invest Atlanta. We have also begun acquiring additional property for the next phase of 100 small multi-family and single rental and home ownership units on infill parcels. The goal is to preserve long-term affordability by utilizing development subsidies and a land trust model in a community where property prices have doubled and tripled in the past 24 months. Home ownership is a critical component of building generational wealth -- a key to stabilizing families and breaking the cycle of generational poverty. GPF provides home preservation supportive services through emergency and critical home repairs, homeowner education (homestead exemptions, conservation, property tax appeals), and heirs property support for tax liens and wills. Special tracks in the N.O.W. program focus on renters’ and first-time homebuyers’ education. Community Wellness: GPF defines community wellness in a holistic way that includes not only physical health, but also economic and cultural health for the community. We are making strategic investments in each of these areas. After conducting a health needs assessment, convening a Health Advisory Task Force and issuing an RFQ, GPF selected Whitefoord, Inc. in 2020 as the healthcare provider for the school-based health center. They will provide comprehensive medical, dental and mental health care to students and families on the Woodson Park Academy campus in 2021. Reviving a vibrant main street economy is essential to a thriving neighborhood, and GPF has acquired and developed plans for renovating the historic Grove Theater as a neighborhood arts, events, and business center as an anchor to a revitalized neighborhood main street. Upon completion of Phase 1 in late 2021 or early 2022, the renovated Grove Theater will host wellness, arts, and cultural community services. Two minority women-owned businesses have been secured as the first tenants of the renovated theater. AREA provides classes in performing arts and community-focused student arts education. Urban Perform provides affordable wellness classes and education. The theater will also become home to GPF’s ongoing oral history project, based on the 63 oral histories already recorded. Education: GPF completed the construction of the new Woodson Park Academy school campus with a school-based health center and an early childhood development center built and operated by the YMCA. The campus is ready to open with face-to-face instruction in 2021 to ultimately serve 900 children ages 6 weeks to grade 8 and their families. The K-8 neighborhood school is a partnership between KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools and Atlanta Public Schools to improve educational outcomes for students. GPF raised $19.1 M to match $18.5 M in Education SPLOST funding for this project to complete a public and private partnership.