In 2011, Willie Barney and Michael Maroney, two Omaha business and civic leaders who were helping to address economic disadvantage in the northern part of the city, traveled to Atlanta to learn what was happening in that city’s East Lake neighborhood. Accompanying them was Kristin Williams of Omaha’s Sherwood Foundation. The trio had heard about the East Lake Foundation’s work to overcome intergenerational poverty in Atlanta and wanted to learn more.