How the East Lake Foundation makes difference in its community | Golf Channel

proceeds continuing to support the East Lake foundation which has helped to transform what was one of the nation's most severely challenged public housing projects into a thriving community over the last 30 to 40 years property values up crime rates Down East Lake a blueprint for holistic Redevelopment through purpose-built communities now in New Orleans Charlotte Indianapolis Kansas City among other cities the best in the world competing here part of what they call the miracle of East L it is one of the most successful neighborhood revitalization projects in recent American history Atlanta real estate developer and philanthropist Tom cousins saved Bobby Jones's home Club from bankruptcy there you see Tom on the left convinced 100 corporate Partners to invest $200,000 each not only for the privilege of playing an historic course but as an investment in the future of this country Tom called it golf of the purpose he told me once he couldn't stand the thought of another Lost Generation so he set out to create a community set around three pillars and you can see the results here the pillars are safe affordable housing health and wellness with a YMCA a golf course first with mentoring programs a grocery store and above all Cradle to college education and thrilled to be joined Now by Ilia oia she is the CEO of the East Lake foundation so good to see thank you for having me so let let's take people back 35 40 years ago what what was the state of the East Lake community so 35 uh 45 years ago there were T there was talent in East Lake there were children who had a lot of talent there were caring mothers and fathers who really wanted their children to excel but they were in a place where crime was at an all-time high it was not a great place to live work or play our graduation rates were less than 30% we did not have adequate housing and affordable housing where people could Thrive and so Eastlake was not the place to be about 30 30 35 years ago how does the private public partnership work and why is proved to be such an effective model so we cannot do this work alone right and so for us you know Mr cousins Mr and Mrs cousins Eva Davis who was the president of the tenant association East Lake meals and Renee Glover who was the president of the Atlanta Housing Authority The Architects of the vision came together and Mr cousins through all of his context and corporate context said all people should deserve a quality place to thrive so public private Partnerships are instrumental in the success that happened 3 30 35 years ago and continues to be important as we continue this work in East Lake what goes into the holistic approach so the holistico like you said before is mixed income housing quality uh education cradle through college education Economic Development and Community Wellness the ecosystem of Partners Drew Charter School the East Lake Family YMCA Columbia Residential our property management team we have to come together as one to make sure that East Lakes thrives uh we saw some of the numbers there I want you to brag on the Drew Charter I'm a brag on Drew you know I'm going to bring Drew I've I've been there and you know it just blows you away so what are some of the great successes you've had and and why do you think it's been so successful so I think you know Drew Charter School is the only certified steam school in the state of Georgia we are the first science technology engineering art and math our graduation rate has not Fallen below 96% over our history for the high school level the why it's successful is we don't just address the child in terms of their educational needs we look at the whole child do they have a safe place to walk to school do they have quality housing do they have all the supports and so collectively all of us together is why Drew has been such a success what are their hours what about uniforms what's the impact of all that so our children are in school sometimes is there there's early as 8 sometimes 7:30 all the way to 4: 4:30 in the afternoon then they have all of their after school and academic support programs so for us it's not just going to school from 8 to 4 it's what's happening while you're in school uniforms we want we don't want a barrier we want everyone to be treated the same in terms of equity and provideed Equity so we are a uniform school and it's worked it works performing everybody no even the schools from neighborhoods where the the children might come from gated communities and so forth Drew is doing exceptionally well and it's the reason the magic sauce the secret sauce is because we start early when they're six weeks old and we take them all the way through high school um how is golf playing a role golf as the East Lake Golf Club says it's golf with a purpose Mr cousins said that years ago when he started this vision is we could not do this work without golf we could not do this without TOUR Championship and all the committed people here um what's the legacy of Tom cousins Mr cousins and his family continue we are now in the third generation of the cousins family and their commitment their promise to the children of East Lake and it will continue so Mr cousins has been just he put his commitment his time his energy and he kept to that promise and he's still keeping to that promise lastly what's the lesson in all this that you'd like uh our audience maybe to take away so for for for us really it's not what can be done to the community it's what can be done with the community resident voice is important the reason we are successful is because the residents come first in all that we do Ilia congratulations on all that you do thank we wish you nothing but the best going forward thank you so much IL Askia CEO of the East Lake foundation said one resident we tore down hell and we built heaven