Kresge Foundation Visits the Standing with Our Neighbors Program
ASHLEIGH STARNES | AUGUST 29, 2019
On August 1st, leadership from The Kresge Foundation – one of our major grantors – visited one of our Standing with Our Neighbors schools.
In 2018, we were awarded a $400,000 grant from The Kresge Foundation through its Advancing Health Equity Through Housing initiative to support our work at the intersection of health and housing.
[Read more about AVLF at the intersection of Health and Housing in the Saporta Report.]
Health is a crucial part of our work at AVLF. Childhood asthma, for example, is one of major consequences of the unhealthy living conditions our clients face.
We’ve been working closely with healthcare providers, mold and allergen testing services, wellness organizations, and more to try to improve health outcomes through the lens of housing.
In the first three years of Standing with Our Neighbors, we saw 231 families – including 533 children – who had asthma-related housing issues, such as mold and environmental irritants.
We’ve been working closely with healthcare providers, mold and allergen testing services, wellness organizations, and more to try to improve health outcomes through the lens of housing.
During the site visit, representatives from the Kresge Foundation had an opportunity to do a brief pop-in at Thomasville Heights Elementary School – the first location of the Standing with Our Neighbors program.
[Check out SWON at Thomasville on CBS This Morning.]
After the brief tour, we gathered with several of AVLF’s partners at the intersection of health and housing for a round-table discussion about the program.
Our partners discussed the landscape of health and housing in the city, and the way that policy and systemic inequality impact our work.
We discussed some of the biggest successes – and the biggest challenges – our community faces when trying to address the issues around health and housing. Our partners discussed the landscape of health and housing in the city, and the way that policy and systemic inequality impact our work.
“I’m struck by the sheer number of partners and sister organizations that are concerned with this issue and see AVLF’s work as a powerful lever in this community,” said Ari Simon, Kresge’s vice president and chief program and strategy officer.
“[Your staff is] truly an incredible team of caring professionals,” said Stacey Barbas, Kresge Health senior program officer.
Over the first three years of the SWON program, we reduced student exit rates at Thomasville Heights Elementary by 51%.
We were so happy to welcome The Kresge Foundation into our city, and we look forward to continued collaboration as we come up with new ideas to bring health equity and housing stability to our neighborhoods.
About The Kresge Foundation:
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change. For more information visit kresge.org.
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Ashleigh Starnes
Communications Manager
As AVLF’s Communications Manager, Ashleigh works in website content development, social media outreach, and various other forms of communication with our clients, volunteers, and supporters.
Ashleigh is ever-eager to share the remarkable stories of our work, and the impact of AVLF’s staff and volunteers on our community.
Before joining AVLF, Ashleigh was a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey. She holds a BA in English and Linguistics from the University of Georgia. She is also a performance artist, and can occasionally be seen performing movement pieces, poetry, and combinations of the two around Atlanta and beyond.
