Sandy Springs Together

Everyone Deserves a Voice

metro

Sandy Springs Students Speak

The future of Sandy Springs is in good hands thanks to the bright minds of our youth.

During the 2021-2022 school year, Sandy Springs Together partnered with North Springs High School and VOX Teen Communications to provide students with an additional outlet for them to express their ideas. This program was the first time VOX ATL has partnered with an organization outside of the Atlanta Public Schools. The result, VOX ATL, complemented the existing high school journalism program led by Mr. Adam Throne, language arts teacher and head of the school’s newspaper, The Oracle.   

VOX ATL is a teen-driven, nonprofit organization committed to uplifting the voices of youth from diverse backgrounds across metro Atlanta. Through this endeavor, VOX ATL seeks to create a stronger, more equitable community by fostering leadership and uncensored self-expression. 

VOX recognizes that young people in our community face many social pressures that often leave them struggling with social isolation, low self-esteem, and a feeling of having no control over decisions that directly impact their lives. The partner program created the opportunity for North Springs journalism students to express themselves through their own writing. Through this experience, students developed leadership skills and formed healthy, supportive relationships amongst their peers.

More than twenty students participated in several workshops and heard from professionals, including Rose Scott, the award-winning journalist and host of “A Closer Look.”  Scott spoke to students about careers in journalism, the best way to find reliable resources and her own experiences as a journalist. Students who participated in the workshops spoke positively of the experience, citing the opportunity to share their experiences and opinions with other Metro Atlanta area teens as a plus.

Students’ published work highlights topics that are important to them. The articles range from an exploration of a student’s Puerto Rican heritage to editorials on teen mental health. 

The North Springs Journalism Class  has a successful track record of their own. For example, Courtney Suber and Sarah Meiselman, two North Springs High School teens participating in the Sandy Springs Together sponsored program, earned first and second place from the Georgia Scholastic Press Association’s first amendment essay contest. 

Sandy Springs Together also sponsored a journalism club at Sandy Springs Charter Middle School. The club of more than 30 students met monthly and created a website where they published articles on sports, movie reviews and more. The hope is that the middle school students will be inspired  to participate in the high school journalism program when they enter ninth grade. 

At Sandy Springs Together, we are proud to support the development of our future leaders. We look forward to continuing both the VOX ATL program and Sandy Springs Charter Middle School journalism club in the fall. We look forward to sharing additional student work as we move forward.

Couchman Noble Foundation and Los Niños Primero Partner to Award Over $50,000 in Scholarship Funds

The “Next Step to Success” scholarship will aid five Sandy Springs students in their pursuit of a college degree this year.

The future of Sandy Springs is in our youth. As the next generation of leaders and decision makers in our community, our students must receive the support and encouragement they need to achieve academic success.

That’s why the Couchman Noble Foundation is proud to announce the “Next Step to Success” college scholarship program. This program, developed in collaboration with Los Niños Primero, will award five scholarships for the upcoming academic year to prior recipients of the Martha Barrios Mead Scholarship, sponsored by Los Niños Primero. Mead Scholarships assist students during their freshman year in college, and “Next Step to Success” scholarships provide financial support for these same students after their freshman year.

“These awards complement other giving that our foundation has been doing to support both elementary and secondary education in our city,” said David Couchman, co-founder and president of the Couchman Noble Foundation. “It felt like the right thing to do and allows Los Niños Primero to give more scholarships to the first-year college students.” The Couchman Noble Foundation said they hope to expand the Next Step program next year by partnering with other city nonprofits who offer scholarships. 

Established in 2019, the Martha Barrios Mead Scholarship was named in honor of Martha Barrios Mead, the Los Niños Primero program’s co-founder. Along with the program’s first executive director Maritza Morelli, Mead founded Los Niños Primero in 2001 as an educational summer camp for underserved Latino youth in the Sandy Springs area. 

Combined, the “Next Step to Success” scholarship program and the Martha Barrios Mead scholarship program will award more than $50,000 in scholarships this year. 

“We hope that the ‘Next Step to Success’ scholarship will assist students in achieving their goals by graduating from college without having to take on large amounts of student loan debt,” said Melanie Couchman, co-founder of the Couchman Noble Foundation. “Our diverse community is full of brilliant young minds who will become the future leaders of our community and beyond, and we’re proud to be able to support them.” 

This year’s scholarship recipients received their award letters in June and will be recognized at the annual gala at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center on October 1, 2022. 

Preserving Workforce Housing ULI

This report from the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing provides a broad-based overview of this rapidly evolving landscape. It profiles 16 leading efforts to preserve multifamily workforce and affordable housing, including below-market debt funds, private equity vehicles, and real estate investment trusts.

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Twin Cities, MN – NOAH Impact Fund

Naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) is essential to the economic vitality of Twin Cities communities and enables employees to live near work and school while supporting employers to retain a stable workforce.

The Opportunity

Nationwide, affordable rental housing is at risk. National investors are rapidly acquiring NOAH properties and aggressively raising rents by 10 to 15 percent in the first year, and continuing to increase rents in subsequent years. The Twin Cities region, like metropolitan regions across the U.S., is losing affordable h