United Way of Greater Atlanta works to address specific needs in communities through integrated services to help individuals sustain progress over time in education, income, health, and ending homelessness. By taking a collective impact approach, they are able to achieve real change beyond any single program. They make policy recommendations to state lawmakers on issues like education, workforce, health, homelessness, and meeting basic needs to further support their mission.

2. OUR COLLECTIVE IMPACT IS
GREATER THAN THE SUM OF
OUR INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS.
At United Way of Greater Atlanta, we create change by
integrating services to address the specific needs among
the individuals, children, families and communities we
serve so they can sustain progress in education, income,
health and ending homelessness over time.
Through collective impact, we achieve real change far
beyond the capacity of any single service or program.

3. • Helping parents give a healthy start to every baby
• Giving every young child the opportunity to start school
ready to learn
• Supporting our youth in achieving their college and
career potential
• Preventing or managing chronic health conditions
among children and adults
• Empowering adults to navigate a career pathway
leading to a sustainable income
• Helping families master their finances and build assets
• Ending chronic homelessness through supportive housing
BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION
AND JOIN UNITED WAY IN:

4. DID YOU KNOW?
Georgia has made progress in reducing its rate of premature births, but more remains to be
done. Babies born before thirty-seven weeks gestation face the prospect of lifelong health
challenges that affect learning and work. Contributing factors include a lack of prenatal
care, obesity, tobacco and alcohol use among women of childbearing age.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Too many babies are literally starved for words. Language is nutrition for the brain and without
it, young children cannot enter school ready to learn. By three years of age, children from
low-income households hear 30 million fewer words than their counterparts in higher income
households. In Georgia, more than half of children under age six live in low-income households.
- The Georgia Department of Public Health; National Center for Children in Poverty
A post-secondary credential is required for employment in most of Georgia’s high demand
careers, but half of Georgians aged 18-24 either did not complete high school or hold only a
high school diploma or GED.
- Governor’s High Demand Career Initiative; American Community Survey
More than two in five Georgia families do not have enough income to get by.
- American Community Survey; The Economic Policy Institute
Out-of-pocket health care costs keep one in five adult Georgians from a needed medical visit.
Deaths that could have been prevented with treatment are 25 percent higher in Georgia than
the national average.
- The Commonwealth Fund State Health System Ranking
At least one in five children at some point suffers from a serious mental disorder and more
than four percent of adults have a serious mental illness in a given year. Left untreated,
these increase the odds of academic failure and delinquency among youth and incarceration
or homelessness among adults. While Georgia has made significant improvements in
promoting access to care, more can be done. In 2010, the state’s per capita expenditures to
prevent and treat mental illness were less than 40 percent of the national average.
- National Institute of Mental Health; Kaiser State Health Facts
More than one in 13 adult Georgians has a criminal record and faces steep barriers to
rehabilitation because that record precludes most opportunities for jobs, housing, education
and public benefits.
- The Pew Center for the States; American Bar Association National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction

5. Georgia’s competitiveness in a global economy depends upon academic achievement.
We know more about the factors critical to student success: engaged parents, safe
and supportive communities, early childhood development, great teachers and
administrators, personalized learning strategies, quality educational resources and
responsive governance systems. United Way is committed to helping every child
develop into a productive adult through community collaborations such as Ready by
21 and the StriveTogether Cradle-to-Career Network. We urge the governor and state
lawmakers to:
• Expand access to quality home visitation, early learning and Georgia Pre-K
to increase school readiness and grade-level reading, to detect and treat
developmental and health problems and to support parents in caring for infants
and young children.
• Develop and implement a new K-12 funding formula that promotes academic
achievement in every community.
• Ensure that Georgia’s elected and appointed governance structures for K-12
education support high academic achievement.
• Utilize federal funding authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
to re-engage disconnected youth – including those involved in the justice system,
aging out of foster care or homeless – in educational programs that incorporate a
career pathway.
• Align goals and resources with those of community collaborations in support of
educational achievement to build collective impact.
• Make more need-based financial assistance available to Georgians to complete
college or a post-secondary career credential.
• Promote the highest of the voluntary and nationally competitive state academic
standards in K-12 education to support college and career readiness.
EDUCATION

6. Enactment of the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) grants
Georgia flexibility in helping youth and adults start or move up in a career pathway
for which there is demand among local industries. The law promotes cross-system
and cross-sector interventions to meet the social, educational and economic needs
of adults and youth in greatest need, mirroring the approach taken by United Way.
However, states must exercise options to maximize the impact of these in state WIOA
plans. We urge the governor and state lawmakers to:
• Promote a no-wrong-door approach to service by incorporating other workforce
programs into the state and regional WIOA plans as authorized by federal law.
• Take advantage of the authority granted by WIOA to develop incumbent and on-
the-job worker programs like Atlanta CareerRise to provide the skills needed by
in-demand industries and to create entry-level positions as incumbents move up
the career ladder.
•Integrate public benefits and case management as authorized under WIOA to help
program participants succeed.
• Provide training and transitional jobs, along with support services for vulnerable
veterans, the long-term unemployed, the homeless, ex-offenders reentering
the community and youth aging out of foster care to facilitate their economic
independence.
• Utilize a two-generation approach to improve prospects by helping parents attain
employment and ensuring their children receive high-quality early education and
out-of-school time services.
• Use pay-for-performance contracts, also known as Social Impact Bonds, to the
fullest extent authorized by WIOA to engage the know-how of the private and
nonprofit sectors in delivering results.
• Incorporate a refundable low or earned income tax credit in any legislation to move
Georgia’s revenue base toward consumption taxes in lieu of income taxes.
INCOME

7. While Georgia has improved on many measures, it slipped from number 35 to number
45 in the latest ranking of state health systems by The Commonwealth Fund.
The measures dragging Georgia’s ranking down are:
1) lifestyle factors, such as higher rates of smoking and obesity, and
2) resources, such as insurance and sources of regular care or medical homes.
Health status and infrastructure are important factors to economic development.
We urge the governor and state lawmakers to:
• Adopt a Health Home Medicaid Plan Amendment or
other waiver to promote services by community
health workers and others charged with stabilizing
Georgians with chronic health or behavioral health
conditions at home and preventing avoidable
hospitalizations.
• Leverage available federal funding to maximize
insurance coverage and access to care among
Georgians as well as to strengthen the
capacity of hospitals and health care
providers to serve every community.
• Make the continuum of crisis
mental health services
available to every county,
along with readily accessible
community services.
• Strengthen Georgia’s capacity
to promote public health, prevent
harmful health outcomes and
respond to emergency and disaster.
• Implement tax or regulatory
disincentives to the consumption of
tobacco products and alternative nicotine
products to reduce addiction, especially
among youth.
HEALTH

8. While numbers are trending downward across Georgia, homelessness remains a
challenge among three key groups: those seeking refuge from violence or abuse;
youth aging out of the foster care or juvenile justice systems; and those affected
by mental or addictive diseases who regularly cycle from the streets, shelters,
emergency rooms, jails and state hospitals. Supportive housing is a cost-effective
best practice that United Way has demonstrated and that is now being replicated in
Georgia. We urge the governor and state lawmakers to:
• Build upon reentry strategies for juvenile and adult offenders such
as the United Way Gwinnett Reentry Intervention Program (GRIP)
by leveraging federal funding under the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act, public benefits, housing, transportation and
related supports to decrease recidivism and chronic homelessness.
• Promote alternative models for the disclosure of criminal records
and for relief from civil liability among employers, housing
providers and post-secondary institutions seeking to
facilitate ex-offenders’ integration into family and
community.
• Replace one-time competitive grants with reliable
sources of funding to implement community-
based juvenile justice reform and local
accountability courts among adult offenders.
• Ensure that children placed into foster care
achieve permanency in a placement that
supports their healthy development into
adulthood.
• Fully fund supportive housing for people with
mental illness pursuant to Georgia’s agreement
with the U.S. Department of Justice.
• Double the number of family violence placements and
provide support services so that all seeking help can
be accommodated.
HOMELESSNESS

9. Across our state, families experiencing distress must often decide whether to pay
for rent, utilities or food. Seniors must often choose between paying for heat or
purchasing needed medications. Being able to meet basic needs like shelter, food
and medical care helps individuals and families avoid spiraling into deeper and
ongoing dependency. Last year, almost three-quarters of a million Georgians sought
help through United Way’s 2-1-1 Contact Center. We urge the governor and state
lawmakers to:
• Adopt appropriate policy and funding to expedite the enrollment or re-certification
of Georgians in need of public benefits.
• Strengthen resources to detect and prevent elder abuse and provide more options to
enable the aged and disabled to live at home.
• Partner with United Way’s 2-1-1 Contact Center whenever possible to expedite
information and services among Georgians.
Today, charities and volunteers work across Georgia to promote the education of
children and youth, train the workforce, deliver health care, end homelessness and
provide for the basic needs of their neighbors. With their community-focused and
solutions-oriented approach, charities and volunteers are essential partners to
policymakers. We urge the governor and state lawmakers to:
• Meet state priorities by partnering with existing IRC 501 (c)(3) charities as facilitators.
• Utilize pay-for-performance contracts, also known as Social Impact Bonds, to leverage
private investment and nonprofit expertise in addressing complex challenges.
• Implement incentives such as tax credits to stimulate giving or volunteering to
meet priority objectives.
CHARITIES AND VOLUNTEERS
BASIC NEEDS

10. © 2015 United Way of Greater Atlanta | 011615 HW
To find or give help, dial 2-1-1.
Outside metro Atlanta, dial 404.614.1000.
United Way of Greater Atlanta
100 Edgewood Ave., N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30303
404.527.7200
unitedwayatlanta.org
BECAUSE POLICYMAKERS ARE CRITICAL PARTNERS
IN PROMOTING HEALTH, EDUCATION, WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN SERVICES, UNITED WAY
ACTIVELY ENGAGES IN PUBLIC POLICY.