Families First Returns To Its Roots On Atlanta’s West Side
Alison Guillory / WABE
One of Georgia’s largest family services agencies returned to its roots Thursday.
Families First, a nonprofit organization that provides adoption, foster care and mental health services, moved its headquarters from Midtown Atlanta to a new, $13 million facility in Washington Park. The organization was Georgia’s first licensed adoption agency when it first opened its doors on the campus of Spelman College in 1890.
The new center is housed in the former E.R. Carter Elementary School. It now has an upscale, urban look with exposed brick walls and meeting spaces with modern sofas and chairs.
Still, Julie Salisbury, the former board chair for Families First, says the center’s mission is to provide help.
“Moving into this community allows us to return to our roots as a place-based provider, and really bring the services and support directly to a community that needs us,” she says.
The organization launched a capital campaign to raise the money to build the new headquarters. It also partnered with other nonprofits, like Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, led by Olympic track and field gold medalist and Morehouse College graduate Edwin Moses.
“Our partnership with Families First is really about being able to use our resources and our acumen to do something directly here in the West End,” Moses says.
He says Laureus could provide financing, training and coaches to work with kids in the neighborhood.
Families First says the new center plans to serve about 200,000 families by the year 2020.
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