They have working relationships with academic institutions such as Emory, Morehouse's School of Medicine, and Clark-Atlanta University, whose campus abuts their neighborhood. Their residents are concerned enough about their community to be politically active. For the most part, their community is free of drug and gang activity. And their children are receiving health education on topics such as AIDS prevention and contraceptives. A more typical underserved community in America struggles with high incidences of violence, drug-related activities, and poor health.
Newspaper headlines report the problems daily.
The article, summarizing trends from the annual Kids Count Data Book, reported increases in the number of teenagers who die violently and the number of juveniles arrested for a violent crime while the percentage of youth who graduate from high school on time fell. The picture presented in the 1993 Georgia Kids Count Factbook reveals similar risks in communities throughout the state. Kids Count reported a increase in homicide deaths among African-Americans. The report also found increases in births to teenage mothers and in juveniles committed to state custody. Several conclusions threaded their way throughout these statistics.