The Southern Company Foundation awarded a $2.5 million grant to the Georgia Tech Center for Urban Research to support Mayor Andre Dickens’ effort to address socioeconomic inequities in Atlanta neighborhoods.

“This investment is a major step forward in Mayor Dickens’ effort to improve the quality of lives of all Atlantans,” said David Edwards, the founding executive director of the Center for Urban Research and the policy advisor for neighborhoods in the City of Atlanta Office of the Mayor.

“My goal is to ensure that the city of Atlanta is the best city in the country to raise a child,” said Mayor Andre Dickens. “And we’re going to achieve that by ensuring every child in the city lives in a healthy, thriving, and accessible neighborhood. This investment by the Southern Company Foundation will help us ensure that we track and evaluate our progress against that goal. I am very appreciative of their willingness to support this critical work.”

What: The Center for Urban Research, hosted in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy, is a collaboration between Georgia Tech and the mayor’s office. It brings together university, community, nonprofit, and municipal leaders to develop and evaluate solutions that address inequities in urban centers. Current projects include neighborhood improvement plans and climate-oriented engineering for housing and facilities on public land.

Why: The Center will use the $2.5 million from the Southern Company Foundation to evaluate and inform the mayor’s “Achieving Fairness of Place” initiative, which is investing in seven historically disinvested neighborhoods to improve outcomes in housing, education, health, and economic mobility.

How: The Center for Urban Research will develop an impact measurement strategy for the project and track the results of the investments. It will also lead the research, informing the work on the ground and conducting and supporting local and national work on issues related to place-based transformation and neighborhood health. The Center is collaborating with more than 40 researchers at colleges and universities across the region.

“With this funding, we hope to establish the Center as a leader in research, practice, and partnerships and use Atlanta as a blueprint of what can happen nationwide to address urban inequity,” said Ishita Chordia, the associate director of the Center.

“Policymakers in Atlanta and beyond desperately need research support,” added Center Co-Director Brian An, an assistant professor at the Carter School.

The Southern Company Foundation’s grant will allow the Center to create fellowships and build an interdisciplinary team of master’s and doctoral students from the Carter School, the School of City and Regional Planning, the College of Computing, and others to provide the research analytics that policymakers often don’t have the time or money to procure themselves, An said.

“We are pleased to support the mayor’s Fairness of Place initiative with the Center for Urban Research to conduct research and determine best practices in community transformation,” said Myra Bierria, president of the Southern Company Foundation.

“This initiative, taking shape in several economically disadvantaged communities to provide residents with access to quality housing, education, workforce development, and public spaces, aligns with our focus on elevating our communities for generations to come. This grant reflects our commitment to these efforts and supporting the Atlanta communities we are privileged to serve.”