All the time in my case.

Well I hope you guys know we are currently
going to get it with our that we

believe we are all of these like
on days he sounded like he was

with the sound of revival I was like well

if the individuals will appreciate
the response of these Light Foundation

we buy life and
we hope that it gave Michael power.

I think they can all acknowledge
walk like walk the walk or

that they are leaving
with me here we are with

our sponsor to do for you.

We did it not for years that our media for
you if he were to

be a recording by five weeks I
would like a very good way there

with outward facing her while you're
at it the way we did hear it.

Vice President.

There are literally how you're sitting
over there with marketing manager for

what is and revolves and
the record we've been working

with Nike on is that what they're hearing
there that all those things are serve

you well working with whether they're
going to talk or have the Red Cross

going to work usually down there we were
going to work you can argue back we were

going to come out and you were.

Thank you.

I'm sure I just messed something up.

I'm sorry I didn't go to tech So
we're going to.

First of all thank you all for being here.

I know some of you have to be here.

So I appreciate you being here.

Anyway.
And

I'm going to do my best to keep you
entertained so you don't look down or

do this while you're texting.

I'm going to spend just a couple minutes
telling you what I'm going to tell you.

And here we go.

I'm going to talk a little bit about
the East like story and tell you what I'm

doing now and then at the end of
the that part of the presentation.

I'm going to tell you about my lessons
learned and the lessons that we've

learned at least like and what I
feel like I wanted to impart to you.

So I must admit that I did a little
research on you people between the ages of

eighteen and twenty five.

So I called nieces and
nephews in college and graduate school so

I have a hopeful that we'll get into this
that I will have relevant things to say to

you because they have prompted me
appropriately so the first thing we're

going to do is look at a video
that is about ten minutes long

that will give you a great introduction
and foundation for the rest of this.

So my technical assistant is going
to start the video for us and

I'll move out of the way.

We don't return to business
nation of the C.N.N.

this magazine for years the used
like housing project in Atlanta.

It was one of the worst places in America
crumbling crime ridden a monument to

the best intentions of big government gone
horribly wrong today use like has been

transformed by a businessman who brought
with him his passion his money and

his telemedicine reports his love for
the game of

golf robbery

prostitution killing the shooting the drug

fight right in front of so one people.

It was just like he was west

of moving Eva Davis moved into Atlanta's
East Lake Meadows housing project.

In one thousand nine hundred seventy one.

It wasn't long before murder in
Maine it became a way of life

just as body shot him and he failed it

right before my faith
the six hundred fifty unit

housing project was never great but when
drugs took over and gangs playing turf.

It went from bad to horrible.

You know her they would shoot and
kill each other.

That's what they live by one thousand
nine hundred five the crime rate was

eighteen times the national average.

I would never go into like Meadows alone.

Shirley Franklin now Atlanta's mayor
remembers the old East Lake well how

bad was it.

Well the statistics suggest
that it was just awful.

That it was completely
dysfunctional community and

then in the early ninety's seemingly from
out of nowhere him an unlikely savior.

Where do we stand on that and
Atlanta philanthropist named Tom Kloza.

A developer from the other side of
town with more than three hundred

million dollars.

Do you have any idea how much money
you have given away over your life and

though I don't keep track of but I bet
your company knows how many square feet.

You've built.

Yeah you know I know that.

Cousins is a soft spoken so for

facing Atlanta business legend who
skyscrapers dot the downtown skyline.

He brought pro basketball and
hockey to town and

he built the tallest building in the U.S.
outside New York and Chicago.

But the broken down housing project
in East Lake Meadows was like nothing

he'd ever encountered.

It's almost beyond
description trash everywhere.

One is broken out of the crime was rampant
no attempt had the drug dealing and

drug selling on the streets cousins
interest in Eastlake began when he.

In one nine hundred ninety three article
it described how seventy percent of

New York state prisoners came
from just eight neighborhoods

Atlanta's police chief told him there
were even fewer Georgia neighborhoods

mass producing criminals the worst
by far East Lake Meadows.

I drove out there could not believe it.

Hundreds of kids out on the streets
they had nothing to say

about where they were born they were
born there and I thought myself.

Had I been born there.

I'd probably one of those people
in jail if I get a call me.

The employment rate at the housing
project not the unemployment rate

was just fourteen percent.

The majority was on welfare only a tiny
fraction of families had fathers at home

and the average age of
a grandmother thirty two.

Can we believe this is in America and
this.

Cousins and his wife man decided
their family had to dive in.

He created the Eastlake foundation and

began to woo housing project residents
like Eva Davis the famously strong

willed head of the residents'
association that was kind of nervous.

He had this big rich man with his mother.

And he will if they come
over here messing with us.

I know but
they have been want to be bothered with.

Well I was like a lot of other people.

If I was crazy.

Shirley Franklin long before she was mayor
was part of Tom cousins East Lake team.

I thought he was overreaching.

But he was taking on something
that frankly the rest of us were

helpless to do.

I honestly didn't know whether
this would work and I did a new

try when a faltering golf club bordering
the housing project came up for

sale cousins and his family put up
twenty five million dollars and

use the club as the cornerstone of one of
the most audacious redevelopment plans

ever conceived the Urbanite mayor
that was the East Lake Meadows

housing project was literally just
a chip shot away from the fore.

Hole here at East like golf club.

Founded in one thousand all for
this historic very private club had itself

fallen into disrepair from the Galactic
and was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Incredibly then when a plan was developed
to transform the housing project

golf traditionally exclusive
traditionally white.

Became the driving force to help
turn around the neighborhood.

It was golf of all things
privileged pristine

genteel golf that helped save East like.

East Lake It wasn't just any
golf course down on its luck.

It was the home course of perhaps the
greatest golfer ever Bobby Jones the only

sportsman of Wall Street with rope to
tickertape parades with cousins and

his team came up with a unique strategy
to leverage the legendary golf club

only a hundred new corporate members would
be allowed to join the existing membership

each would fork over a suggested
two hundred thousand dollars

bringing in a total of
twenty million dollars

money that would literally go across
the street to help rebuild Eastlake

raising money was one thing winning
trust another cousins had to

persuade hundreds of residents to move out
of the housing project and have faith.

They'd be able to return.

How did you get their trust.

Just.

So we can get it very quickly.

I think they've been promised so
many things they did not believe that we

would do what we said we were going to
do so you are suspicious of him and

he is somehow fish is a tailor made so

that you better watch him say a sneaky on

the stand but what the refurbished
world class golf club did was kicks.

Stark the redevelopment of East like it
brought public attention commerce jobs.

This was East Lake ten years ago and
this is East Lake today

torn down rebuilt utterly transformed
clean safe family friendly.

This was a pretty hellish place.

And now.

Is have them in the new neighborhood
half of the five hundred forty two units

are reserved for
families on public assistance.

The rest for middle income working
families who pay market rates

really like there's a brand new Y.M.C.A.

the first charter school in Atlanta
opened in two thousand and one for K.

through eight twelve eight
in the Educational Progress

is nothing short of astonishing in one
thousand nine hundred five just five

percent of neighborhood fifth
graders mid-state math stands

today it's seventy eight percent of
the group charters group graduates

like Jeffrey Johnson are living proof that
Tom cousins vision has changed lives.

He's now at a prestigious private school
on an academic scholarship a world away

from the life he might have led
taking American literature and

now I take pre-calculus and
that's a really tough math class

on the piano playing the jazz ensemble
I just got into chorus the remade

neighborhood of East Lake villages is all
wrapped around a spectacular new public

golf course which became the setting for
one of cousin's dreams

a free mentoring program that teaches
golf lessons and life lessons.

One of the better things
to teach is integrity.

You know in and
say that other sports basketball football.

You break the rule.

And there's a penalty.

But there's no moral.

Issue there.

But in golf.

It's all in your personal
integrity you don't improve

the ball in the rough you
don't change the position.

Tom cousins hopes kids can learn
the cherished values of the game he loves

his ed classes at the school
are taught on the golf course and

the true charter school may be the only
inner city school in America with

a golf section in its library.

Less than a hope.

Brandon Bradley and
Shelton Davis were two of the first

to take part in cousins
golf mentoring program but.

Today they're freshman at Grambling
the first members of their families

to make it to college.

They're on golf scholarships.

One more example of how Tom cousins
reached out to a community and

turned it around violent crime down
ninety five percent welfare recipients

from fifty eight percent to five percent
and the employment rate for people on

public assistance up from fourteen
percent to seventy one percent now.

It was the most expensive most
costly deficit in the county and

now it is one of the brightest and
most profitable.

It wasn't cheap.

It took one hundred twenty eight million
dollars from government corporate donors

and foundation grants about a quarter
of the total from the cousins family.

It's a vision that was accomplished.

Despite the doubts of friends who thought
cousins was nuts and the rancorous battles

with people who thought he was sneaky
you'd be hard pressed to find two people

that would be sort of stranger bedfellows
than Eva Davis and Tom cousins.

I don't know the time it ever
known anyone quite like that but

the same was true in reverse and

once they understood that they really
wanted the same dreams for this community.

It was just a matter of time that they
would work together successfully.

He says to head to head to get to
know me and I had to get to know.

David Davis a tough cookie.

The toughest He says you're pretty tough.

As a family with the man and his family.

How do you feel when you go over there and

you see a young eleven year old
twelve year old playing go.

Can't tell you.

What pleasure.

That gives me to see
the look on their faces

go Right now.

The difference that a difference
you know it's easy for

a rich guy to throw some money
at something and move on but

here cousins did so much more what was
motivating but it's not feigned he's

a very self-effacing man he doesn't
put his name on hospital buildings.

It's not fortune neither he nor
his company profited and

any way from East Lake or
in the building of it.

I think it really is a case of a Lion in
Winter a man who was deeply offended by

what he saw specifically that
the opportunities that America had

given to him it had not
given to the other people.

He put on the other folks shoes and he
felt that they didn't fit and is about as

a one time wonder I mean can this actually
be replicated Cousins doesn't think it's

a one time thing he says that he thinks
it can be done again in other cities and

probably cheaper because a template
has been established in fact he

told me if there are really dedicated
business leaders civic leaders who

want to come to Atlanta spend
time with him learn what he did.

He'll pay their expenses and
find their dollar thank you.

I hope you all enjoyed
that as you would imagine.

I mean we had lots of people calling
the foundation saying we want to come

visit in say so when it was a wonderful
thing when this ran in two thousand and

seven because folks were able
to see more of what we did.

At East Lake but I'm going to
tell you the issue for us was not

the physical infrastructure
that you guys saw a lot of

you saw these photos of these like before
and I know you can read that in the room.

So these are all some terrible
statistics which are not uncommon to

concentrated poverty and
ease like was one area that was attacked.

There are plenty of these in major
metropolitan cities all over the country.

And there was the wonderful idea.

Quite awhile ago that says let's
put all the poor people together.

Let's limit the services they have and
see what happens and

what happened at East Lake was
a dispersion of the poverty in adding

services we have a Publix
now in the east like area

that opened in two thousand and one I
believe that was the first time there was

a full service grocery store in
the neighborhood in forty years.

So think about what you have to do to get
a good meal to do what you need to do for

your family when you're doing it
from not even a quick trip from

a very small grocery store that
doesn't have fresh vegetables and

food this is these are the conditions
that people were living under so

we talked a little bit in the video
about the outcomes that we have and

today the thing that I'm going
to just point out to you.

That's pretty amazing.

Is this education.

You heard in there.

We had five percent of the students
meeting or exceeding math today and

not and we have eighty four
meeting in exceeding eighty four

percent of the kids it drew and
ninety four percent are meeting or

exceeding state standards now
the fundamental thing that we're

really talking about here is that
education is the great equalizer.

You guys are sitting in a wonderful
institution taking advantages of

all of the amazing thing.

It's like me that you have here and
you have access to

that's not something that has been that
has been available for people who were in

places like East Lake and
continue to be in concentrated poverty.

I truly believe that education
is the great equalizer.

And if you think about how
you gain access to a good

job to any of the things that
you might want it comes through

the education that you will have so
let me talk to you a little

bit about a holistic community
revitalization at East Lake that you saw

a lot about the physical infrastructure
tearing down what was a very.

Terrible physical infrastructure and
rebuilding.

That's just one portion of
what has happened there.

Drew charter school as part
two of what happened there.

How do you keep a mixed income or
middling community going you have to

have good education because you want
your kids to go to a good school.

So you move to neighborhoods that allow
your children to have a good school

that is part two and then Part three is
a budget that we call community wellness

which I'll talk about but all of these
together enhanced the family and

neighborhood sustainability where
there are jobs in the neighborhood

where people are getting a living wage
the public's the walkover the Suntrust

that are now in the neighborhood all
allow folks to have that living wage.

So these are three components to
neighborhood revitalization you

heard Mr Cousins talk about if
folks want to come we will host and

we probably have a thousand folks
a year come and tour East like so

what we are telling them is not just
look at how wonderful it is but

the work continues what you are you
have the physical infrastructure and

it continues around community wellness and
this cradle to college education.

You guys saw all the pictures about
mixed income I'm going to give you.

A little few more stats about what's going
on here we have five hundred forty two

units fifty percent our market rate.

So you guys could move in over there
at market rate and fifty percent.

Are affordable.

We have a wonderful partner in the a lot
at LAN a housing authority and

if you want to do research and ask.

The folks here to bring another speaker
in you need to have Renee Glover come

talk to you.

She is a visionary and dispersing poverty

this concentrated poverty and
Eastlake that deal was done with her

vision of houses affordable housing does
not have to be concentrated poverty.

She is an amazing amazing visionary but
you could be sitting next door to someone

who is affordable and
not know there on the affordable side.

So it allows folks who would not have
seen other working class people to

live near them and to understand what it
means to get up and go to work every day.

What it what it understands
to take your kids and

prioritize what they're doing for school.

I've talked a lot about this but

it's the chronic unemployment it's the
economic disinvestment people businesses

leave people leave when you do not have
the money to support the businesses.

So it's a terrible cycle that begins and
continues.

You want to diverse mix no matter where
you are whether you are living in or

Morningside or
the west side as you guys are seeing this

redevelopment in the west side you
see a lot of around you you see a lot

of the same economic development that
we want for the folks in East like.

This when we say best in class amenities
what we really mean is they've got a golf

course that's one rated in the top
ten of public courses in the country

it is an amazing place to play it's called
the Charlie eights golf course if any

of you are golfers and you have not golf
there you are missing something special.

It's a wonderful course that you
should come and people come from all

over to play at the gates course
because it's such a wonderful.

Course we are right now as you
know in a economic downturn.

And for apartments that means that it
is hard to get people to run apartments

people are moving home people
are not out in droves looking for

apartments what we've got of these like is
a higher occupancy rate than the average

occupancy rate in Atlanta.

What that means is we are offering
something here that people can't find

other places and we believe it's part of
the services in the education that we have

OK I've already totally talked about.

The amazing Renee Glover.

But we're not the only place that they did
this not far from here is a place called

Centennial place.

Do you guys know where that is there's
a why in a school that was the first

mixed income and
that was done just before the Olympics and

completed then that was
the first experiment.

Ours was the second experiment so
you can walk down there now and

see Centennial place elementary and

the wide that it's attached to it as
well as the housing that's there.

So community wellness.

I've talked a little bit about the
recreation that we have a Charley a golf

course you guys saw the junior golf
little clip and that we have at the at

East like the first tee of East like
the first tee of it is a national program.

It teaches life skills and golf skills and

the guy that you saw helping the kids
is sitting right over there and

I re Williams who's the director
of our first T.V. program.

He's still trying to teach me golf.

So it's a struggle for me.

We also have community services we
did this past summer a program with

the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency
where we had twenty three high schoolers

that worked in the community and they
were paid through the Atlanta Workforce

development that was about twenty five
thousand dollars of economic of dollars

that came back into the community to
help those kids and their families.

Again I've talked about already
the public Suntrust of Mako via

that are in the neighborhood.

My expectation would be if we had
not had this downturn in a way

there would be additional businesses
that would already be blooming and

blossoming in the neighborhood.

We're giving ourselves about eighteen
month horizon to really think about

the economic engines that we want
to bring to the community so

education which is kind of
my favorite topic here.

This is an incredible fact thirty
million fewer words from lower

income kids than children from high
income kids they don't have the words if

they are not in an environment
that allows them to learn

that is a gap that is almost You
cannot make that gap up later in life

over forty percent of public
housing clients are children.

So when you look at the numbers of who's
living in public housing a huge number.

Are these kids who are living
in the concentrated poverty.

More than seventy percent of black
children who are raised in the poorest

quarter of America neighborhoods will
continue to live in the poorest quarter of

America neighborhoods as adults.

That's what we're changing
that with education that

statistic could be a zero that equalizes

the playing field to allow people out
of the intergenerational poverty.

So at the at least like what
we've done is we've got

a early education provider sheltering
arms that does zero through five.

For people we provide scholarships for
people to attend at lower cost or

no cost for their children.

We also have started at Drew
the elementary school a three year old and

four year old program.

So we have eighty extra spots for
children in the neighborhood.

It's our belief that there can
never be enough good education on.

Slower and
where that word gap should never happen

and then the school as you know is K.

through eight The foundation
has a number of educational.

Partnerships from Georgia State to the
Westminster School a private school here

in Atlanta the speech school Emory
we've got some partnerships with and

I do believe we have some Georgia Tech
partnerships where we are doing things

with specific programs and
bringing your expertise to us.

We've got the Y.M.C.A. which is attached
where we also have programming for

all the children as well as families and
we have an afterschool and

summer program that helps
in a affordable way for

these kids to continue to
learn through the summer.

Not have that gap and be off the streets
after school when we know they

are doing things they should be doing and
then finally we have a program.

Called her teens program we let these kids
out of our little bubble in eighth grade

and they're going to as you saw from
Jeffrey Johnson they're going to

private schools they are going to A.P.S.
schools they're going to Decatur schools.

We have a few that have gone
to boarding schools but

what we want to do is make sure that as
we have eighty five kids that graduate

each year we want to make sure every one
of them has access to whatever support

they need to finish high school
because that's just the first step.

We also work with them to make sure that
they get into a college of their choice

and what that means is we are actually
working with them and their families.

The majority of these ninety five plus
percent are first generation college kids.

That means their families
need to also understand what

needs to happen in order for their child
and what is on the other side of that.

So the sacrifice now allows them.

This greater opportunity to have
an economic benefit down the road.

And I talked about our first
two program which does have.

Golf skills and life skills one of
the interesting things about first tea is

their nine core values of first Tea those
nine core values are things like integrity

and responsibility all the things that
your parents said to you when they

want you to have that's what we're saying
to these kids every day both in our first

program as well as at the charter school
which is adopted a number of those same.

Core values as the core
values of the school.

So this school before it was Charles R.

Drew Trotter school was char Charles R.
Drew Elementary School.

It was the absolute
worst performing school

in the Atlanta Public School District
the absolute worst and

those kids that were there didn't have a
chance once they went to middle school and

beyond to perform well because their
base education was not good enough.

We've changed that since this is open.

So you can read.

I'm sure maybe you guys wouldn't read but
in the newspaper nobody reads newspapers

or more but in the paper they have
had a lot of stuff about the C R C T

testing which is the testing that the
schools do to say how they're doing and

how their kids are doing there appears
to have been compromised tests.

One of the things that we're proud of that
Drew is that we have received a clear

rating on our C.R.C.
team results that's not the same.

For a lot of schools in Georgia and
this is a symptom of

there is high pressure on administration
and teachers for the kids to perform well.

But if the teaching is not
going on the kids can perform.

And we're very proud of the fact
that our kids are learning and

we can see a steady growth on their
achievement both on their C R.C.T.

and the other national
standardized tests that we use.

So this was the lessons learned about

Eastlake we engage the community
in planning and pro.

Grahams the holistic approach is the peace
that we believe has made this work and

continues to work.

We have all these wonderful partners that
accelerate our progress and allow us not

to reinvent the wheel which I would say to
you is very important in anything that you

do you should feel free to plagiarize and
still liberally once you get out of school

because those folks who can help you
understand how things are done and do it.

Well that's how you learn
how to get things done.

You don't have to reinvent it and build
a nother mousetrap the same mousetrap use

their mousetrap to build a better
mousetrap learn from the people that

are already doing this and
understanding it.

One of the things that we've done in
the last couple years is apply what we

call results based accountability which
basically says we're spending a lot of

money on programming and we want to
make sure that we're having results and

that we're doing it from our First Tee
program to the crew teens program to

make sure that what we say we're doing is
actually what we're doing and that our

kids and adults are good at meeting
the measures that we think are important.

So as you guys heard.

Mr President said he didn't think this
was a one time wonder I think is the word

that they use in there so yesterday was
that yesterday we were in New Orleans got

back today and launched an initiative
called purpose but communities.

So after that this piece on C.
and B. C. Warren Buffett

actually wrote Tom cousins a note that
was literally two lines long so you on C.

and B. C. think what you're doing
is really making a difference.

Let me know if I can help and from
that spawned purpose built communities

were Warren Buffett Tom cousins and
a hedge fund.

Tiger funds you guys are too young to
probably remember that Julian Robertson

who had hedge funds long time ago
also very wealthy man have teamed

together to create an organization
that is working with cities and

communities across
the nation to not just not.

Replicate what's going on at East Lake but
to say here is a holistic approach and

this is the way the lessons that we
have learned and how you can use them.

So right now we're just in New Orleans for

they actually have a physical
infrastructure that they have built they

have people moving into
this new facility called.

Columbia Park thank you.

I can never remember that which is in
office a modern art if anybody knows

anything about New Orleans
this is right near city park.

Now I have not been to
New Orleans since Katrina but

I will tell you it was devastating
to be there five years later and

see the destruction that is
still very visible there.

I am very happy to know that
we had Governor Jindal and

their new Mayor Landrieu out come in and

talk about how this is a way that we can
economically revitalize not just one.

What was.

Public housing but
how they need to do it for

the entire city to bring
it back to its feet.

Again using national partners who
are going to bring in their expertise

to these communities and here's a listing
of those that were already working.

So where your talents and the needs of the
world Cross there in lies your purpose so

purpose to me has kind of driven my career
and as you heard in my introduction.

I've had a very good and.

Not traditional path on what I've done so

I'm going to give you the other
role philosopher that I love.

Who said luck favors the prepared
if you are an incredible fan

that was Edna Mode from The Incredibles
she said in the middle of it.

Luck favors the prepared and
I would say to you that being prepared is

the one of the most important
things that you can do and what.

Or you do that learning about and
understanding what you're working on and

doing that preparedness

gives you an edge up on anyone else that
you are working with or competing against.

I would talk to you guys had in fact paper
a couple weeks ago Dan Riordan I don't

know if any of you all were here for Dan
stand as a friend of mine so I asked him.

So what did you tell people he said
I talked to him about their personal

brand and I was like Target.

That's what I was going to do so

I had to come up with something
else to talk to you about.

But one of the things I realized as I was
going through this was about the education

piece and I'm going to tell you that
education is something that's very

important to me personally and
that you can see for

me being attracted to
what we're doing here.

It.
This is attracted me to giving

the same equal playing field to every one.

But it's part of the personal piece
that I love about what I'm doing today.

I worked in for profit for
twenty plus years.

I acquired all these wonderful skills and
things and

I feel like I'm using all of them
today in the work that I am doing and

I actually do think as you know Mr
cousin said in that video that I am

making a difference every day I go over to
the school and I see these cute kids and

I'm revitalized with some of the crap
you might have to put up with

people come revitalized when you realize
these kids have an opportunity that they

wouldn't have but for
the work that you are doing for them so

I just urge you to think about
what are the things that you feel

purpose about what are the things
that make you happy and

you can spend twenty years making
money and that's wonderful but

you should also even if it is in the work
that you are doing as your avocation.

Be really thoughtful about
how you spend your time.

How you spend your energy because
making a difference does make

a difference for you personally.

You can get up every morning in.

Be happy about what you
know you are achieving.

When I talk to my nieces and nephews
who are in college and grad school.

They told me that I should have
an answer to questions for you.

What would I have liked to know at twenty
that I didn't figure out till much later.

And I thought about that for
a really really really long time and

I thought I would sound like an old
fogy if I said this to you all but

I decided I was going to say it.

Every body that you encounter
has something of value

that they are giving you
in that experience and

I just ask you to be open to it might
be somebody who gets on your nerves.

It might be somebody who you don't really
like it might be someone that you would

door but every person every
person is giving you something

of value in the interaction that you have
with them and I just urge you to open

yourself to what that person is giving you
what that experience is giving you and

be open to it and understand what it
is whether it's painful or whether it's

wonderful that that is something that
you can take from you from that person.

That is very important.

I'm done.

Thanks.

I was told that I have to answer
questions to you is that right.

OK.

Well.

Right.
He's like Commons is actually across

Glenwood road from the golf course
it's not technically in our sphere.

We have had over time.

Very little interaction with the Commons I
know people who live over there they and.

I don't want to misspeak about
everything that goes on in the.

But they have a community garden
that they are very active with and

we have not had a lot of
interaction with them.

So I can't tell you about a program
that we're doing with them.

I can tell you that I would proposal
sitting on my desk about looking at doing

a community garden and

doing some partnering with
them on that community garden.

Sure.

OK

So that was like seventeen
questions let me try.

First question our partnership with
the Atlanta Housing Authority.

We actually manage the apartments
the five hundred forty two units

there four different areas we have
engaged with an organization called

Mercy Housing which is part of the Sisters
of Mercy based in Denver Colorado.

They have a philosophy that

the people that live there
need more than just a nice

place to live that there are additional
services that are offered to them.

So we have programs that are offered
through our resident services to all not

just the affordable housing folks my.

I'm going to ask.

I have some of my staff here some to ask
people to chime in who've been doing this

longer my response to you on what do
the people who are market rate get that

the get out of this they're
living in a very nice

golf course community that
the amenities that are there are and

the level of construction and
what they have is literally comparable

to what you see in a post property or
a Gables those kind so it is consistent.

If they're big golfers that's wonderful
but if you are also a family whether your

market rate looking at a good
school is also very important.

So if you look at where the schools are in
the Atlanta public school district and

you have elementary school.

The majority of the schools
that are scoring well and

the students are doing well
on the north side of town.

We're just much more the market rate is
much higher than it would be where we

are so we do think that that is
a nice differentiator for us.

I have not looked at this
week's housing statistics so

I'm going to look at Brian to tell me our
occupancy rate on the affordable side

is about one hundred percent.

There's a literally hundreds long
list of folks that come from A.J.

in that are prepared for
that site and we're ninety.

Ninety four ninety five percent on
the market right side the general

market we understand is going this way and
is in the eighty's right now.

So we are ahead of that.

And Clarkson is that the one in Clarkson.

Well it's still getting
managed I would say to you.

We are work in progress that look.

Sounds like we're pretty far along
we do have programs for adults and

interestingly crew jeans the program that
works with kids from nine through college.

We actually have kids parents who have
seen them do this coming back to us

to help them get into college and
help them finish with their GED So

we're adapting a little bit on that
as we get more of that demand to help

the parents on the education side in Mercy
Housing that I was talking about a little

bit earlier does provide residents of
the villages and the wider neighborhood.

We have an idea a program which
helps people move to homeownership.

We have Sun Trust that does a lot of.

And consumer credit
counseling that come in and

do a lot of work with the residents in
the villages of the Slike So there is

adult programming I'm going to brag just a
little bit this year I guess in November.

So we started a program
that we kind of call.

Leadership Eastlake which we have
hired an outside contractor was

coming in every Saturday we've got
about twelve members of twelve

residents that are meeting once a Saturday
on a month learning about different things

that make them a better citizen
from here is politics and

this is why it's important that you vote
to bring in the folks from Sun Trust and

talk about what credit scores mean what
all those other things that you're talking

about so that program is kind of in
its infancy but my expectation is that

it will grow as both market rate and
affordable folks take advantage of it.

OK.

Well one of the things that is
distinctive about the villages is.

That it is Section nine housing So

Section eight housing section one
housing requires that if you're living

there that you were at work in a training
program or that you were retired

prior to that section eight housing
does not have that work requirement.

So I'm going to back up a little bit when
you looked at Mrs Davis who was really

the leader of the folks
who were living there.

She and

the team that worked on this planning
decided what would be the criteria for

people coming back and one of them
was they wanted people to be working.

They wanted folks not to have felony
records they had a list of criteria and

what that meant was when
they moved away and

they received vouchers to allow them
to move wherever they wanted to.

Some people chose to come back
some people chose not to come back

there's a group of people who
came back and I would say.

That might have been about thirty or

forty percent thirty percent of the folks
actually came back to the villages

the balance of the folks in it up in
different categories we had some folks who

had agreed to this list of requirements
but knew that if their son or

daughter who had a felony record came to
live with them they couldn't live there.

And so there were families that
chose to live in another place and

had agreed that we wanted the villages to
be better but they made a different they

made a choice not to come back because
they wanted to have that child with them.

Then we had another group of people
who when they got their vouchers

went somewhere else and got saddled and
were very happy in fact recently.

This is very interesting.

I have recently come in contact
with somebody who was actually

probably in their ten
to fifteen years old.

While they lived in the what
was then East like meadows and

I said talk to them awhile
about what his Experian.

It's a bin and
what happened with this family.

So his mom lived there and his aunt lived
there and his mom took her voucher and

they moved to the west side of Atlanta and
he said that she decided

that even though she thought it was
wonderful and had gone back to look at

decided that they were settled in school
and she did not want them to move schools.

Again that she thought it would
be too disruptive for them and so

their decision was to stay where they had
settled in a different part of the city.

So that's kind of the mix and I'm missing
another portion of that mix Britney.

OK.

All.

Right.

All

right.

Are they being dispersed.

That is a great question and let me

tell you what we have always said if we
had to do it again that we would do that

we would do a better job of tracking
the families who moved out and

where they are I will tell you today
that we probably can put our hands.

Hands on fifty percent of
the people who originally moved out

of those folks we know that
the majority of them are doing

better than they were when they
were in East like Meadows.

But we didn't do it one
hundred percent right.

And it's one of the lessons learned
that we are passing on to the folks that

are part of our purpose built
group when I was in New Orleans

this last couple days literally sat and
talked to the folks now they had

a whole different issue because
they were going through Katrina.

So literally people had
one day to get out.

The storm happened.

People could come back in for one day take
their stuff out and then they were gone.

It was total chaos.

They have been meticulous about trying to
track people people dispersed literally

all the way to Atlanta Chicago Los Angeles
in that group they have a very special

situation but they are doing their
best to track where folks went and

if they decide not to come back because
they have first priority as ours as our

residents to to come back there or
not we've looked at the over and

over to try to answer that question and I
don't think we have a good answer for it.

I mean to be honest with you.

I don't think we can track a nuptial of
the former residents to give an answer

about did we move a problem.

I think there's a perception
that it possibly happened but

I don't know that that's true.

As I anecdotally talk to people as I've
been doing this for a couple years now.

I don't know that that's true but
we don't have the research data to

disprove it or disprove that we
didn't just disperse the issue.

Now this is what I will tell you that for

the five hundred forty two units for
the two hundred and

however many units thirty units
that we have that are affordable.

When one person moves
out to homeownership.

There is a waiting list of
people that want to come in and

take advantage of the services
the work is not done.

And because the physical
infrastructure is done

there are still people that need
the additional services that go on.

I am sorry I don't have a good answer for
you.

I think it's a fabulous question but
we don't have it.

My hope will be that our learning and
what we didn't do quite right.

We'll be able to answer that
question as we look at some of

the other communities that do
this I will I do not know if A.J.

the land of Housing Authority here in
Atlanta has any data on that whatsoever.

I have no idea.

The

P.G.A. Tour is one of
our partners in crime.

Every year there is a tournaments and
being a golfer I've

learned all this of I misspeak someone
over here is going to correct me.

There's a big tournament called the torch
championship presented by Coca-Cola.

And it happens at Temperance of
the end of the golf season the tour

supports multiple charities when they have
a tournament in every city that they have

tournaments where one of the charities
that they support here in Atlanta their

support of the first tee of Atlanta and
the first tee of Eastlake and

the east like Foundation has kind of been
this cornerstone of the tour championship.

What I like to tell people which
is the truth is that the proceeds

what happens at the Tour Championship and
what we are given in charitable

contribution to the tool from the tour
championship to the east like Foundation

allows me to say to you is a donor to
the east like Foundation that every

dollar you give me goes toward
programming their contribution covers.

Primarily our administrative costs.

So for every dollar that
you're giving to us were used.

It in the programming that
we talked about here today.

Yes ma'am.

Columbia Park Yeah.

St Bernard.

It was the St Bernard Project.

OK.

So it's right on St Bernard and City Park.

OK.

Well they're interesting they have
a one third one third one third.

So they have one third.

Affordable one third.

Tax Credit and then one third market rate
so their mix is different from our mix.

So my under and they have they have people
that just moved in just before we were

there and they have a retail district that
they have already bill and are working on

people moving in and they've got
a school that they are working on at.

Apparently the school district was the
schools were shambles before Katrina and

have not gotten much better.

So people are very interested in seeing
what they can do with the schools there

and they are trying to partner with the Y.
as well to build a why they

are they partnered with an organization
called educator which is a nonprofit early

education national organization to bring
in the early learning in that site.

So they're doing it a little
bit differently than

we did I think everybody does
a little bit differently.

Yes ma'am.

I look at think you OK so

that's why these people that
I'm an acknowledged right here.

I have some of my staff with me here.

We love volunteers we love people
who come and work with us.

And if you want to come down and talk to
her Eric Eric de who's sitting right here.

He's actually.

Your coordinator that's from working in
the schools to doing other things for

us we would love to have you come down.

I also want to back up because this didn't
come out in my bio i would you do go

undergrad don't hold that against me
because I think you guys beat us once

this year and
then I only talk about basketball.

I will never talk about football and
I went to Wharton for graduate school.

So my M.B.A. was in marketing and so
I've kind of had this varied life but

I want you to know that you can actually
not go to Wall Street not going to brand

management not do all these traditional
things with the degrees that you're

getting now you can make you
can carve your own path or

there was somebody else who had a guy.

Zero zero zero

zero zero zero

zero zero

zero zero zero.

Right.
With need not right.

What.

That is a great question about

TWO OF MY they are what we do is call
place based funding which means we focus

on a geographic area there are two other
place based funders here in Atlanta.

One of them is the Zeist Foundation
which has a neighborhood.

Do you guys know where the Edward retail
district is often Moreland just behind

that is the Edgewood area that is called
the white furred area and Zeist Foundation

started years ago maybe fifteen
years ago now a school based clinic.

The gentleman who was the.

Catalyst behind that was the was a P.T.
It was a head of pediatrics at Emory they

started a school based clinic they started
with health and what they have done.

They now.

I just signed a deal with Columbia
residential to build one hundred units

in an area back there one
that is mixed income as well.

So that's one piece they have all kinds
of program and it's white for W. H. i T.

F. O. R. D. other place based funder
here in Atlanta is the Casey Foundation.

Annie Casey Foundation.

They have adopted N.P. U.V.

which is south of twenty and
Western seventy five eighty five.

It is just across from the brave stadium.

This is a neighborhood that is made up
of five or six different neighborhoods

Somerville mechanics post a lot of them
they have spent a probably about the last

seven or eight years pouring resources
very similar to what we're doing and

to that neighborhood which
has now been extremely struck

by the housing blight literally they
probably have a fifty percent abandoned

house houses in this area at this point
but Casey Foundation is actually.

The folks who started U.P.S.

their mother's name was Annie E.
Casey they created this foundation and

the Atlanta Civic site is working
on things on the twenty six.

They are actually having a grand
opening of their new early learning and

the remodel of the elementary
school in that area.

So those are two places
where the same kind of work.

Not exactly as we've done it but the same
kind of work has been is being done now.

What makes these interesting is
there are they are big foundations

behind the work that is getting
done that brings resources to bear.

I would suggest that the list of
folks that I talked to you about in

the different cities don't have
the big dollars behind them but

are still finding a way to bring everybody
to the table together we have a regular

meeting of this place based funders group
to talk about what are the other things

that we need to do and one of the places
and I can't remember the person who.

About the immigrant resettlement
we're looking at Clarkston as

another area that might be part of place
based of our purpose built communities.

So we're looking at
other places in Atlanta.

But we know there's finite resources to
do what needs to be done but that answer.

Thank you thank you thanks.