SOUTH FULTON COLLABORATIVE
In 2014, began its engagement in the Tri-Cities community with quantitative data analysis of the Fulton and DeKalb region to identify the needs and assets specific to the community. In addition, a series of key informant interviews with community leaders and ARCHI members helped form a picture of the Tri-Cities landscape. From there, ARCHI leadership, staff, and partners worked with residents on a series of meetings to identify priority areas in which the community and ARCHI could come together to align resources and investments. Employment was identified the top community priority.
SOUTH FULTON INTEGRATED SERVICE DELIVERY MODEL
To build upon the work begun in 2014, which has included a number of community-based pilot projects and cross-sector alignments, ARCHI began to organize partners in the summer of 2018 to build a multiyear initiative to combine resources in an integrated service delivery model. These efforts were informed by the Two Generation Model, adopted from the Aspen Institute, that addresses systemic poverty and exclusion from economic opportunity. The emerging South Fulton Integrated Service Delivery Model is a supported path to quality employment that includes wraparound services that will help participants sustain employment and put them and their families on the path to physical, mental, and social well-being.
PARTNERS
The inaugural group of partners includes: Odyssey Family Counseling Center, CareSource, Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, and Sheltering Arms. These and other partners comprise a network that will provide wraparound services needed to support participants. The wraparound services include but aren’t limited to: childcare, health care, affordable housing, job training and placement, and transportation.
NEXT STEPS
The goal of the initiative is to support un- and under-employed residents of the South Fulton County with a supported pathway to employment that includes wraparound services that will help participants sustain employment and advance on the career pathway. The project partners will leverage their existing programs and relationships with service providers to build a model that meets immediate needs to remove the barriers to employment and to move to sustainability. Throughout the first year of the project, the partnership will adopt the continuous improvement model to identify any gaps and opportunities to improve the implementation of the broader South Fulton Integrated Service Delivery Model.