Ninth District Opportunity, Inc. is a private Non-Profit corporation founded in 1967 to carry out the mandate of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. NDO's primary purpose is to work in partnership with low-income people, promoting access to opportunities leading toward Self-Development, Self-Reliance, and Self-Determination. From December of 1964 until NDO's legal incorporation, OEO (Office of Economic Opportunity) funded community action activities were operated under the aegis of the Area Wide Human Resources Committee, a subcommittee of the Georgia Mountains Area Planning and Development Commission. Mr. Frank Moore directed these activities. However, the Federal government was serious about the nation's "War on Poverty"​ and required a board structure and other legal requirements which led to the emergence of a separate organization which opened its doors at 123 North Main Street on May 31, 1967 under the leadership of James "Jim"​ Redmond, NDO's first Executive Director. NDO has experienced a tremendous amount of change since those early days when board meetings were held in the chairman's home in Cleveland, Georgia. Our funding, which initially supported only a program developer and a secretary, has expanded to a staff of over 600 persons. Leadership has been described as "the art of changing a group from what is to what ought to be"​. NDO has, by this standard, certainly had its share of competent leadership under these chairpersons: Father Frank Ruff, Clarence N. Lambert, Schley H. Burrell, J. Marlin Smith, Mary Waldrip, Dr. Hugh I. Shott, II, William E Patterson, Fay J. Kight, Cullen C. Larson, Sam Sosebee, and Judge Garrison Baker. Even though the agency has undergone a variety of changes over the years, our stated goal of providing opportunities for low-income families to work and live in decency and dignity has remained unchanged. Throughout its existence, the agency has served continuously as a catalyst to, and an advocate for, the low-income residents of the NDO service area. NDO is currently under the leadership of Ms. Patsy Thomas, the organization's Executive Director, and Mr. Garrison Baker, Board Chairman.

Positive Impact Health Centers provides HIV specialty care, along with HIV testing and prevention services. We also offer support services for behavioral health, including substance abuse and mental health treatment.

Atlanta Mission is the city’s largest and longest-running provider of services to homeless men, women and children. We transform, through Christ, the lives of those facing homelessness. We work to empower those experiencing homelessness in Atlanta by investing in their spiritual, personal, and professional development.

Atlanta Habitat for Humanity partners with working families, sponsors, and communities to build affordable, green, quality homes and to provide support services that promote successful home purchase and ownership. As one of 1,500 local affiliates of Habitat for Humanity International, Atlanta Habitat works primarily in the city of Atlanta and Fulton County to bring generous donors and hardworking volunteers together with qualified, working families. The result is dramatic, positive differences in the lives of family members and in neighborhoods. We construct quality houses that are sold to homebuyer families through no-profit, no-interest loans. Homebuyers complete 250 sweat-equity hours and other requirements, pay for their homes and all upkeep, and maintain current payments on their properties. More than 40 staff members support the efforts of over 13,000 volunteers to raise funds, qualify homeowner applicants, build houses, provide administrative support, and much more. Our extensive homeowner education program offers a wide variety of classes, 12 of which are required. With 30 years of experience fostering successful transitions from tenancy to ownership, we know the essential ingredient that fosters success is knowledge. Our four-star rating by Charity Navigator is an affirmation of our intense focus on fiscal responsibility as we work to serve more parents, grandparents, guardians, and most importantly – children. Please visit our website for more information.

Open Hand prepares, packs and delivers nearly 5,000 health-promoting meals each day throughout metro-Atlanta to thousands of our friends and neighbors who are homebound, disabled or simply too sick to prepare their own meals.

Tommy Nobis Center has been empowering people through employment since 1977. Our focus is to educate, train, and employ people with disabilities. Fueled by the vision of supportive communities where people with disabilities are afforded the opportunity to work, Tommy Nobis Center helps people with disabilities find independence and workplace success. • Tommy Nobis Center provides comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services to individuals with disabilities in the metro Atlanta community. Tommy Nobis Center provides participants the opportunity to train or gain employment at community businesses and offers business solutions including fulfillment and production solutions in our 40,000-square foot warehouse equipped with six loading docks, forklifts, shrink wrappers, heat sealers and more. In addition, we serve students through EYES (Early Youth Employment Services) in Metro Atlanta schools and at TNC through our Summer Youth Program. • Nobis Enterprises is an AbilityOne nonprofit agency that services government contracts by training and employing people with disabilities. More than 70 Nobis Enterprises employees provide administrative, custodial, mail center, and supply room services supporting 10 federal and state contracts throughout 23 states.

For 40 years, Quality Care for Children (QCC) has worked to ensure Georgia’s infants and young children reach their full potential. QCC helps child care programs provide nutritious meals and educational care to young children so they are ready for success in school and helps parents access quality child care so that they can attend college or succeed in the workplace.

1 person HR dept. providing HR support for approximately 185 employees of a private non-profit Community Action Agency. Member of the Senior Executive team providing leadership for the entire agency.

Families First works to improve outcomes for children, youth, individuals and families at every stage of life by providing them with mental health support, coaching, early education, parenting skills, and supportive housing via prevention and intervention techniques that help strengthen families, as well as build resiliency, no matter what challenges they may be facing. Families First leads a portfolio of programs and services across five impact areas that help improve individual outcomes while strengthening and stabilizing families. Adoption & Adoption Support Services Early Learning, Maternal Child Health, Teenage Pregnancy & Prevention Foster Care Mental and Behavioral Health Parenting Through a highly skilled workforce and a comprehensive approach to service delivery, we serve and impact over 16,000 children, youth and families annually.

For more than 50 years MUST has established itself as a servant leader caring for those in need in the Marietta, Smyrna and Canton/Cherokee county communities. Founded in 1971 by the Rev. Wayne Williams, MUST Ministries’ initial programs included a grocery bus ministries for the elderly, a youth tutoring program and outreach ministries to "alienated"​ young people. Since it’s inception, MUST has fulfilled Wayne's vision of connecting people who have a desire to help with those who need help the most. Today, MUST encompasses more than 6,000 volunteers who are continually helping MUST Ministries achieve its goal of being Georgia’s most respected servant-leader. Find out how you too can be a part of the movement of Christ’s call! Don't forget to vote MUST the best non-profit in Cobb County at bit.ly/MUSTISBEST

At Goshen Valley, we believe kids in foster care deserve better. Kids enter foster care due to abuse, abandonment, or neglect from their families, and many youths are placed in negative environments and separated from their siblings. Youth aging out of care experience high arrest, addiction, and homelessness rates. With help, the youth at Goshen is beating the odds. Over the past 24 years, Goshen Valley has expanded and now has four programs, Goshen Valley Boys Ranch, Goshen New Beginnings, Goshen Homes, and Goshen Therapeutic Services. Each program has a unique focus and ministry to foster children in Georgia.

MAAC coordinates people, resources, information, and a network of quality providers to create positive outcomes for vulnerable youth and families. Our vision is that all youth impacted by multiple child-serving systems receive coordinated care and support to experience a path to permanency and wellbeing. MAAC has been approaching child welfare and behavioral healthcare with an innovative, custom-tailored approach for nearly 20 years. In 1996, several private non-profit agency directors gathered together to create what ultimately became the MAAC collaborative. These directors were driven to create a new way of doing business in the field of behavioral healthcare. Their vision was to create a seamless continuum of care to address all of the needs of the child, adolescent and family while reducing treatment "failures" and uncoordinated multiple placements.   By teaming together to create a continuum of collaborative care, each MAAC member-agency maintains their individuality and expertise in the service areas they uniquely provide. This team approach eliminates the duplication of services across multiple agencies, reducing the risk of becoming "spread too thin.” Today the nine non-profit behavioral healthcare providers that form MAAC are united in their passion for serving children and families through an individualized, case-by-case approach. The scope of services offered by MAAC’s member agencies range from assessments to intensive psychiatric care, adoptions to residential group homes, therapeutic foster care to maternity care and much more. As MAAC has grown and expanded throughout the past two decades, we’ve worked hard to keep our focus on what matters most: an unwavering commitment to caring for each of the children and families referred to us. MAAC’s passion and creativity shine through its dedicated staff members; seeing the results of our work in transforming lives is more than enough to keep us motivated both today and for years to come!