The Atlanta Womens Foundation

This program includes Breaking Barriers, Building Women: Economic Empowerment Program is made possible through support from The Coca-Cola Foundation. This program focuses on higher education and asset building for low-income women in Clayton, Cobb, Dekalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties. An educated womans household is more likely to prosper due to a higher overall income. By participating in the labor market, an educated woman helps boost economic productivity, leading to greater wealth for her, her family, and the community. Empowering women by giving them access to higher education will increase their ability to obtain a career or create a job or business. Assets are essential to the economic security of all women. Assets include tangible and intangible resources such as cash savings, a college education, or a home. To date, over 6,000 women have had access to education and asset-building services, with a goal of an additional 2,000 women to gain access through this grant. Embracing Possibility Award: The Sue Wieland Embracing Possibility Award is given annually to a past or current AWF grantee organization and an individual woman or girl based on the organization with that individual, which has resulted in significant change in her life over the past few years. The 2022 Sue Wieland Award Embracing Possibilities Award Winner was Girls Inc., and their shining example was Jalisa Heard.

Two-Generation Initiative: The Atlanta Womens Foundations Two-Generation Initiative is made possible through support from The Liz Blake Giving Fund. The Atlanta Womens Foundation will be responsible for launching this pilot program in June 2023. Funding will support approximately four organizations focused on young moms ages 13-25 and their children. Most of these moms will have children between 0-3 years old. Two-Generation Initiative Objectives: Developing linkages between high-quality early childhood development and workforce development services; ensuring the families have access to economic and social supports to support upward mobility while also assuring healthy child development; developing programs that help parents gain the skills, knowledge, and resources to support their childs development; provide the added support and nurturing children with developmental delays need to reach milestones, gain confidence, and succeed in school and social settings; and develop a body of knowledge about the potential causes and solutions and make these findings available to policy-making entities.

Special programs includes AWFs ALL GIRLS FORWARD and Inspire Atlanta: Girls Empowerment Program aims to empower Atlanta's girls through education, socio-emotional development, and pregnancy prevention. All Girls Forward will support local nonprofit organizations in providing the critical combination of services needed to ensure Atlanta's girls experiencing poverty can be on a level playing field with their peers. This combination of services includes access to the following: mental & physical health services; supplemental educational opportunities, including STEM activities; college readiness support; mentoring; and financial literacy programming. Program objectives include empowering and educating a minimum of 5,000 girls at or below 200% of the federal poverty level; leveraging and expanding girl-focused programs in metro Atlanta with a priority on expanding services in Clayton County; creating new gender-based educational and health-related programs for girls; and developing a body of knowledge about the potential causes and solutions and making these findings available to policymaking entities.Inspire Atlanta is a community impact program designed to develop women personally, professionally, and philanthropically. Throughout the five-month initiative, Inspire Atlanta participants will attend required sessions to explore their core values, network with fellow community leaders, develop a broader understanding of the issues Atlantas women and girls face, and garner support for these issues through a fundraising campaign for AWF.