A Groundbreaking Approach to Transformation

Since our founding in 2014, Westside Future Fund has worked with residents, community leaders, and public and private partners, to achieve progress through championing four impact strategies: community health and wellness, safety and security, cradle-to-career education, and mixed-income neighborhoods. With the threat of gentrification looming, legacy residents and community leaders outlined their vision in the Westside Land Use Framework Plan, which was unanimously passed by Atlanta City Council in 2016. A key component of the plan was ensuring that as revitalization took hold, our neighbors on the Westside would be able to live in the community they call home and participate in its prosperous future. Westside Future Fund’s Home on the Westside was created to honor this commitment.

Since its inception, Home on the Westside, our signature program, has served families through its three components – anti-displacement tax fund assistance for legacy homeowners and affordable housing, rental and homeownership, for those who have “live, work, and learn” connections to the Historic Westside. Westside Future Fund renovates properties and undertakes new construction to deliver high quality housing at deeply affordable rates. Homeownership support includes access to financial counseling and down-payment assistance. For legacy residents facing rising property taxes, the Anti-Displacement Tax Fund delivers financial relief so they can remain at home on the Westside.

We also partner with other neighborhood organizations to advocate for community health and wellness, safety and security, and efforts to holistically improve quality of life. To ensure collaboration, Westside Future Fund hosts the monthly Transform Westside Summit to bring together revitalization partners and residents in an ongoing conversation about the Westside’s future. Together, we can realize the beloved community Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be proud to call home.
Additional efforts to coordinate and accelerate initiatives contributing to the overall collective effort include:

• City of Atlanta winning the highly-competitive $30 million HUD Choice Neighborhood Grant to support the development of affordable housing options
• Reducing crime by 43% since the launch of the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Westside Security Plan, which also includes the opening of the AT-PROMISE Center, a community youth crime diversion program
• Training hundreds of residents in real-world, career-path jobs via Westside Works, which has resulted in more than $16.2 million in wages earned by program graduates to date
• Improving financial health and wellness for Westside families and small businesses as a result of the opening the “On the Rise” Financial Center
• Adding green space and environmental infrastructure with the groundbreaking of Cook Park
• Adding 21 new faculty members at Hollis Innovation Academy as a result of the Westside Future Funds’ partnership with Atlanta Public Schools
• The YMCA's recently announced new headquarters, the Leadership and Learning Center, which will contain six model Head Start classrooms serving 70+ neighborhood children
• Launching the Westside Volunteer Corps, which has already deployed thousands of volunteers across the four historic neighborhoods
• Completing the Atlanta Beltline’s Westside Trail, a $42 million, 14-foot-wide multi-use trail that opened September 2017 with 14 access points and more than 40 acres of greenway