Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s spent her last week in office touting two major initiatives and handing out awards before passing the baton to Mayor-elect Andre Dickens on Monday afternoon.
Guaranteed income pilot program
Bottoms said the City of Atlanta has formally partnered with the Urban League of Greater Atlanta to launch I.M.P.A.C.T. (Income Mobility Program for Atlanta Community Transformation) – the city’s first citywide guaranteed income pilot program open to low-income Atlantans.
The pilot will serve 300 Atlanta residents who are at least 18 years old and live below 200% of the federal poverty line ($53,000 for a household of four). Participants in the I.M.P.A.C.T. program will receive $500 per month in guaranteed income during the 12-month pilot period.
“We are seizing this moment to realize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision for addressing economic security and pervasive poverty,” Bottoms said. “Dr. King said, ‘The curse of poverty has no justification in our age.’ In the spirit of Dr. King’s vision for the beloved community, the launch of the I.M.P.A.C.T. program takes us another step closer to creating One Atlanta — an affordable, resilient and equitable Atlanta. Thank you to the Urban League of Greater Atlanta and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income for leading and joining us in this impactful work.”
The city has donated $2 million to local nonprofit organization Urban League of Greater Atlanta to launch the pilot program. National partner Mayors for a Guaranteed Income will also donate $500,000 to the Urban League of Greater Atlanta to fund the administration of the day-to-day operations of the program.
Parks and recreation master plan
The City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) released Activate ATL: Recreation and Parks for All – a new master plan set to begin implementation this year. plan. The plan can be viewed online here.
“Our parks and recreation services play a key role in improving the overall health and quality of life for Atlantans,” Bottoms said. “Thank you to our Parks and Recreation team for their commitment to equitable access to quality greenspaces and programming for all Atlanta communities.”
The new master plan addresses inequities and geographic disparities within the parks and recreation system to ensure that future investments will be prioritized to improve historically underserved parks.
A new “data equity tool” – a result of a two-year partnership between DPR and Bloomberg Associates – was developed and will use data-driven mapping to accurately identify disparities within the parks and recreation system and help pinpoint specific strategies to eliminate those disparities.
Phoenix Awards
Bottoms also presented Phoenix Awards, the city’s highest honor, to 16 “unsung heroes.”
“As one of my last official duties as Mayor, I am honored to recognize a distinguished group of people who have made an indelible impression upon our city and our administration,” Bottoms said. “They represent the unsung heroes found throughout our city, who have made Atlanta the shining city upon a hill.”
The recipients range from a host of industries, including media, medicine, civil and human rights, and politics.
The recipients are:
- Juanita Abernathy (posthumously)
- Silas “Si Man Baby” Alexander
- Carolyn Long Banks
- Bloomberg Philanthropies
- Chris “Ludacris” Bridges
- Helen Butler
- Myrtle Davis
- Larry Dingle
- Sanjay Gupta
- Ingrid Saunders Jones
- Jovita Moore (posthumously)
- Brenda Muhammad
- Rita Samuels (posthumously)
- Georganna Sinkfield
- Beverly Evans Smith
- Calvin Smyre
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