Leaning Into Learning with Atlanta Public Schools

BCM Georgia's two-generation strategy helps families get support when facing a crisis. Once a family's housing security is in jeopardy, the aftershocks riple through the whole household - parent, child, and community. Housing instability frequently brings rising absenteeism, lost after-school programs, disrupted teacher and friend connections, and food insecurity. While parents work to restabilize their finances, the first thing that often slips for children is school stability.  BCM works to serve these families and be a bridge that keeps children in school.

By approaching this challenge with family-centered solutions to support both parents and their children, BCM has been leaning into relationships with Atlanta Public Schools (APS) and Fulton County Schools through their teams of social workers. In this way, BCM can better reach and serve families before they face eviction from their homes.

With the start of the school year underway, BCM leaned into its relationship with APS. In August, APS families attended a program at North Atlanta High School to learn about available services. Eloise Bracey, BCM's Chief Program Officer, was in person to help answer questions and make families aware of the important programs we have to support a family in crisis.

Parents were in a building they trust, guided by social workers they know and nonprofits equipped to meet their challenges — rather than navigating a maze of applications after a long work day. In this setting, Bracey could explain, in plain language, how emergency rental assistance, wraparound services, and financial coaching fit together to help a family get back on stable ground.

That event is a small picture of a larger method of serving the community well. Two-generation models work because they focus on the needs of both adults and children, rather than separating needs into silos.

The results BCM tracks—households housed, debts reduced, and children remaining in their homes and schools—continue to hold, and we expect this work to keep growing. BCM Georgia will continue to be a resource for communities served by Atlanta Public Schools so that more families do not have to choose between a paycheck and a classroom.

Stable homes keep parents working.

Stable schools keep children learning.

The work is to hold both, together.

_{Pictured above: Eloise Bracey, Chief Program Officer, BCM, at North Atlanta High School}