It’s summer! This was one of my favorite seasons growing up. I spent it outside – running around my neighborhood, swimming at the local pool with friends, grabbing a snack at the ice cream shop, and enjoying a town-run summer camp.
As the COVID-19 vaccine has been made available, we consider the racial inequities and historical mistreatment of Black and Brown communities in research and within the health care system. Suffice it to say, that relationship has been somewhat tenuous over the years. In this special episode of This Is Community Danny Shoy, President and CEO of the East Lake Foundation, facilitates a Facebook live conversation about the COVID-19 vaccine with Dr. Jayne Morgan, Clinical Director of the Covid Taskforce for Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. Thanks for tuning in as Dr. Morgan answers some of the most pressing questions and concerns about the vaccine. It is our hope this conversation about the COVID-19 vaccine helps create awareness intentionally through a racial equity and social justice lens. Listen
Building racial, social and health equity in communities of concentrated poverty is not an unrealistic dream - it's happening in real-time across the Purpose Built Communities network. A group of thoughtful leaders from diverse backgrounds in different cities have moved from talking to leading with equity.
Michelle Matthews, Senior Vice President at Purpose Built Communities, moderated a discussion in Orlando in 2018 with the first cohort of Equity Ambassadors - Kia Baker of the Southeast Raleigh Promise, Kirk Wester of Growing Together in Tulsa, Danny Shoy of the East Lake Foundation in Atlanta, and Sally Mackin of Woodlawn United in Birmingham. Listen
The Villages of East Lake in Atlanta is one of six community development projects from around the country that are included as exemplars of “health-promoting housing.”
Every child deserves to get a quality education that prepares them for the future. But every child comes from different circumstances. A public charter school in Atlanta has matched the neighborhood’s unique needs and built a pipeline from the cradle to college that sets students up to thrive. Listen
From East Lake–the first neighborhood in the Purpose Built Communities Network–to one of the newest, Grove Park, it is clear that with each victory comes new challenges. How do we stay focused on our mission…
This tenet of our work was brought into sharp focus in a recent article in The New York Times, “Detailed New National Maps Show How Neighborhoods Shape Children for Life,” by Emily Badger and Quoctrung…
Drew Charter School in Atlanta’s East Lake neighborhood has pioneered the “cradle to college” education philosophy of Purpose Built Communities. Rachel Kaney and Michelle Stinson are part of a team of counselors and tutors who…
By Douglas Jutte, M.D., Executive Director, Build Healthy Places Network, and Carol R. Naughton, President, Purpose Built Communities We recently had a chance to spend the morning with Dr. Jerome Adams, the 20th Surgeon General…
Crime has declined dramatically over the last two decades, and Patrick Sharkey, professor of sociology at New York University, argues that this drop can be attributed in part to the increase in the number of…
For more than 25 years, GiGail Petty and her sister helped friends and family plan reunions and baby showers, graduation parties and tailgates. As more and more people came to them for their ideas and…
On Saturday, May 20, Charles R. Drew Charter School in the East Lake neighborhood of Atlanta graduated its first class of high school seniors. Since opening as Atlanta’s first charter school in 2000, Drew has become one of the best examples of how to build a cradle-to-college education pipeline, one of the pillars of the Purpose Built Communities Model. Leaders from across the country have walked the halls to see this unique learning environment, and now its students will be traveling to colleges and universities far and wide to continue their education.
We are excited to reveal our new brand identity! Our new brand is the next chapter in a story about increasing economic mobility, better health outcomes, and racial equity by harnessing neighborhoods as powerful engines of change.
In our new logo, you see the blocks of a city grid or an interwoven tapestry of bold and vivid colors. It symbolizes both where we work and how we work. Purpose Built supports over 70 neighborhoods—including more than 25 Network Members—creating an interconnected collective of leaders strengthening neighborhoods so everyone can thrive.
This new brand identity is more than a logo. It is a framework for telling the Purpose Built Communities story and an invitation to join our mission of creating pathways to prosperity for residents in the places they call home.