One of the major initiatives of The Carter Center, TAP assisted in preparing Atlanta's Empowerment Zone application by providing a writer, data and policy analysis, mapping services and space to the city. "Given TAP's commitment to self-determination, it was a natural partnership for us to work with the city," said TAP Economic Development Coordinator Fred DeMent, who was TAP's liaison to the city for the application process.
The Washington Cluster, Emory's partner cluster, along with the Carver, Grady and Southside clusters, will directly reap the benefits of the Empowerment Zone designation. The award will infuse $100 million in cash, $150 million in tax incentives, and approximately $750 million in private-sector investment into the Empowerment Zone, a 9.3-square-mile area with 50,000 residents, including those of the four clusters.
Once Atlanta was selected, TAP staff and steering committee members from the four clusters met with Empower-ment Zone Community Board members to identify common goals for program development and funding in the following areas: developing jobs and business; creating safe and livable communities; providing adequate housing; and lifting youth and families out of poverty.
"We are forging collaborations with service providers whose goals match our own strategic plans," said Pearlie Craft-Dove, coordinator for the Washington Cluster. "When the bidding begins, we will assist them in executing proposals to help them receive funding from the Empowerment Zone award."
As the Washington Cluster's academic partner, Emory is helping the cluster reach its goals. One example is the work of Jacqueline Irvine, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Urban Education, who has instituted a program called CULTURES (Center for Urban Learning/Teaching and Urban Research in Education and Schools). The center's work extends to many Atlanta schools, including the Washington Cluster's English Avenue and Jones elementary schools, teaching educators to interact effectively with culturally diverse students.
"We believe that well trained, reflective, culturally responsive teachers can make a significant difference in the lives of urban poor children," said Irvine. "CULTURES provides a supportive environment in which teachers can learn to transform their classrooms into learning communities for students of color." Irvine hopes to expand CULTURES into other TAP cluster schools in the near future.
Other Emory community members assisting the Washington Cluster include Mary Anne Lindskog, assistant university secretary, who has edited the cluster's quarterly newsletter, "On TAP," for more than two years.
According to Jane E. Smith '70G, who recently succeeded Dan Sweat as TAP's program director, the Washington Cluster is an example of TAP's emphasis on empowerment, community initiatives, volunteerism, collaboration, diversity, comprehensiveness and prevention work in the "real world."
As TAP moves toward the end of its first five-year phase, more than 500 initiatives in health, education, children and youth, economic development, housing and public safety have been undertaken.
"The key to TAP's future is to continue to adapt the project to fulfill its mission of empowering the residents of TAP's 20 clusters so they can transform their own lives," said Smith. "Our clusters are completing a third set of comprehensive strategic plans; the corporate partners are working actively in each cluster; and we've begun to nurture our academic partners to bring them to full potential. People ask me, `Jane, are we really making a difference?' TAP is nothing if not a venture into uncharted territory. We are attempting fundamental change in how our nation addresses its most complex social problems. But the answer to that question is an unequivocal yes, we are making a difference."
--Michelle Riley