Georgia Tech Westside Task Force (home, neighborhood, public schools)

[Nanosolar]

Good article on Tech's effort to improve the neighborhood.

Mere blocks away from one of the most prestigious schools in the country, home to world-changing technological advancements, how had English Avenue faltered?...

“We can pick up as much trash, do community cleanups, have job fairs … you know, change can happen from within,” said Demarcus Peters, director of the English Avenue Neighborhood Association, who works with the alliance. “But when the community is that far gone, there needs to be some structural support. … What Georgia Tech has let me know [is] there are people thinking the same way I’m thinking, that something should be done.”

Royster and Alan Balfour, dean of the College of Architecture, united Tech’s leaders, faculty and students with interest in the Westside communities to form the Georgia Tech Westside Task Force. Its goal is to connect efforts acrossTech, so that by partnering and sharing resources, the groups can accomplish more.

The second effort is the Westside Communities Alliance, which seeks to build or strengthen partnerships with external organizations such as businesses, nonprofits, neighborhood associations, public schools, police and fire departments, other universities and residents. Their mission is to share Tech’s expertise and culture of service with its neighbors.

http://gtalumnimag.com/2012/11/west-side-story

Westside Community Alliance

[residinghere2007]

This is a great article. I have met some of the Tech students at Bellwood who volunteer and the kids love the attention from them. My son goes to Bellwood in the summer. It is a great club to have in our neighborhood and it was surprising for me the first year he went because he told me the kids there were "less ghetto and annoying" than the ones at Harland Boys and Girls Club in the West End lol. He goes there during the school year because Bellwood doesn't pick up kids at his charter school. I wish they did as they are probably the only gem in our neighborhood.

We are looking to start a baseball team there soon and I am thinking of starting a First Lego League team there next year and hope to get some Tech students to help out with that.

[bryantm3]

i'm about to go to GSU, but i'd love to get involved in this. wonder if there's any way to do that.