Community Advocate Christal Reynolds’s parents would often take in strangers who needed a warm place to sleep and a hand up. Decades later, the example her parents set guides her work in Thomasville Heights. 

The foundation recognized AVLF for the preventative health work our programs accomplish. 

AVLF attended eight fall festivals in October, weaving tenants’ rights information into fun and games for the whole family.

This fall, Standing with Our Neighbors expanded from one school to seven. 

In its fourth year, AVLF at the Movies highlighted important, impactful issues affecting Atlanta’s communities. Over 300 people joined us to talk about the intersection between gentrification, affordable housing, and education. 

AVLF is one of those rare entities that not only sounds too good to be true, but truly is extraordinary in every way — from their incredible staff, to their altruistic mission, to the actual impact that they have on Atlanta’s most impoverished residents.

Funding from the CFGA Spark Opportunity Giving Circle allows us to deepen our impact, continue to build trust, and sustain our programs in the Thomasville Heights Community.

This past month AVLF received funding from a number of sources for our Standing With Our Neighbors program and Domestic Violence programs. We are deeply grateful for these organizations’ contributions and appreciate their commitment to AVLF’s mission.  

This time of year can be a moment of excitement and trepidation – of opportunity and real challenges. With two young daughters at home, heading into Pre-K and 1st Grade, I understand this dynamic well. It is my role as a father that weighs heavily on my mind as I head to work each day. I am all too aware of the intersection of our housing and work children’s ability to go back to school ready to learn. 

Producer Stephannie Stokes spent time learning about how AVLF is advocating for tenants in the Thomasville Heights neighborhood – advocating for both better housing and better education.

When AVLF launched the Standing with Our Neighbors program in September 2016, there were a lot of things we didn’t know, but one thing we did: families needed help. With enrollment turnover surging to 40% during the 2015-2016 school year, we knew families needed help to keep their kids in school. Here’s what we’ve accomplished so far, by the numbers.

These seemingly small actions – a call to a landlord, a demand letter sent – change the lives of the people we work to help. They are already facing huge obstacles in their day-to-day: they don’t have the income to meet their own daily needs and are not respected in many spaces.