Friday, April 5, 2002
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Friday, April 5, 2002 |
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Program gets national accolades A successful nonprofit community-based program that puts wayward youth on the "straight and narrow" is winning national and local praise through the Fulton County Department of Environment and Community Development. Alternative Life Paths Program, Inc., which receives part of its funds from a Community Development Block Grant administered by the department's Community Development Division, received the 2001 Audrey Nelson Community Development Achievement Award in January. On Wednesday, Alternate Life Paths officials received a proclamation at the Fulton County Commission's meeting during National Community Development Week. The Atlanta-based program, which helps redirect youth who are homeless, runaway, dropouts, or in trouble with the law, will be recognized for outstanding service to citizens. Alternative Life Paths helps redirect "on the brink" youth by offering four levels of housing, counseling and other services: Emergency Housing Program, Girls Group-Home, Higher-Grounds Program, and Independent Living Skills Program. Participants come in by themselves, or are referred by the Fulton County Juvenile and Adult Courts, Department of Children and Youth Services, Department of Family and Children Services, Atlanta Public Schools, and Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. Audrey Nelson was the first deputy executive secretary of the National Community Development Association, a nonprofit organization of more than 550 local governments across the U.S. A Chicago native who grew up poor, Nelson helped low-income people until her death from cancer.
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