MUST Ministries
As unemployment surged during the Great Recession, Marietta-based MUST Ministries responded with nuts-and-bolts job training. MUST is the only nonprofit of its type to have alliances with OSHA and the National Safety Council for certification for specialized jobs like forklift operation.
Atlanta Shakespeare Company
Saying they are “saving the world through iambic pentameter,” the Atlanta Shakespeare Company heads to two high schools in the Atlanta Public Schools system each spring, offering intensive after-school performance residencies for eight weeks.
The Creatives Project
You don’t need to be a Rockefeller to fund the arts. Founded by photographer Neda Abghari in 2011, the Creatives Project underwrites emerging artists and provides children with arts enrichment missing from schools.
Culturally Relevant Computing Lab
Students who want to join Kinnis Gosha’s computing lab at Morehouse College can’t just work on their own projects; they must agree to be ambassadors for science and technology on campus and in the community.
Massive Open Online Courses
MOOCs (massive open online courses) are free classes offered by universities hoping to provide the general public with access to top professors.
Global Village Project
With girls under siege in many countries, it’s not surprising that some refugee girls come to America with gaps in learning—and limited literacy even in their own languages.
Parent Councils United
An undercurrent of distrust has long pervaded DeKalb County schools. Thanks to perceptions that the “other part” of the county was getting more resources, parents in north and south DeKalb were deeply suspicious of each other. It took a crisis to bring them together.
Mount Vernon Presbyterian School
Believing that kids learn best when they’re not stuck behind desks in boring classrooms, Mount Vernon Presbyterian School created $500,000 open-concept flex spaces in the lower school.
Science of Fun
Instead of dance or music, Science of Fun offers STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) afternoon programs and summer camps to kids as young as five.
Atlanta Science Festival
A smartphone, a tasty beer, and a drum concert by a musician with a prosthetic arm: All brought to you by . . . science.