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Atlanta Program Director Hired to Extend Velocity After School Program, Begin Neighborhood Walkthroughs

In 2013, Boy With a Ball's global offices moved to Atlanta, Georgia due to the city's international hub airport and status as an international business center. Atlanta has proven to be a perfect place to grow an international development non-profit organization with groups like Care International and Habitat for Humanity International calling the city home.

Yet beyond the availability of direct flights across the world and the presence of global corporations who are able and willing to invest in Boy With a Ball's work, Atlanta was also chosen because of the situation of young people in the city. Parenting.com recently named Atlanta the seventh worst city in the U.S to raise a family. Fulton County which includes downtown Atlanta is among the worst counties in the U.S. in helping poor children up the income ladder. It ranks 142nd out of 2,478 counties, better than only about 6 percent of counties (www.nytimes.com).

Boy With a Ball believes that our work to reach into the world's most difficult neighborhoods to reach at-risk young people and equip them to not only reach their dreams but to turn and impact their communities is perfectly suited for helping transform some of Atlanta's most challenging issues.

With that in mind, BWAB has set the central goal in 2016 of building Boy With a Ball Atlanta into a strong, clear example of the organization's unique capacity to help cities shift young people from being their central problem into becoming one of their greatest assets.

In January of 2016, Mambu Sherman was hired to direct BWAB's Atlanta programming which currently includes the Velocity After School Program at MLK Jr. Middle School in which high school students from nearby Maynard H. Jackson High School are developed to be mentors to the middle school students. In February of 2016, BWAB's community development program will be launched in which volunteers from local high schools and universities combine with BWAB team members to do neighborhood walk throughs in economically disadvantaged communities. If you are interested in more information regarding Boy With a Ball's work in Atlanta, please contact us at info@boywithaball.com.