We're proud of getting the Olympics, we're proud of the Braves, Atlanta's skyline and that sort of thing. The project is focused on a three-county group of 20 neighborhoods called clusters, most named after the high schools which serve as their focal points. Within these clusters lie some of the poorest parts of the state, attended by the poverty-related problems of crime, joblessness, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, lack of education, poor housing and homelessness. The hope is that the ineffectiveness of previous anti-poverty efforts can be avoided by involving poor people themselves to set their own community priorities and participate in their implementation, rather than simply have another government plan foisted upon them. In each neighborhood cluster, the Atlanta Project is represented by a coordinator and an assistant, who help organize the community and relay its concerns to the Atlanta Project headquarters on Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Volunteers play a key role in the project's outreach.
Corporations have donated the funds for a vast computer network which will make it possible for participants and communities to network ideas and information with simple computer commands. Today, Sawicki and students Joe Zagame and Rick Wood are using current census data to map areas with high concentrations of children under the age of 5. Recently, the class was abuzz with a rumor that Vice President Al Gore had called Sweat to ask how the project would handle inoculations, should they be made available without cost by the U.S. government. Soon thereafter, newspapers nationwide ran stories telling of President Bill Clinton's intention to provide free inoculations to qualified children. But it makes you feel good to know that these maps can really make a difference in people's lives.