About
Ujima Way, Inc. a Metropolitan Atlanta 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, was birthed out of the overdue and dire need for the Urban community to unite as one to address some of the most challenging issues we face as a people. Fueled by the hurt and pain of injustice, and driven knowing that cutting edge solutions are already within us, Ujima Way is positioning itself to play a critical role in changing and transforming our communities through its comprehensive program design which is geared towards addressing the needs of vulnerable citizens and supporting high-impact grassroots agencies who serve them.
Garvey Cills
Board Treasure
Board Treasure, received his MBA in Finance from Duke University and has 17 years of experience in corporate finance.
Cills serves on multiple nonprofit boards within the community, mostly in a financial advisory capacity. As the Finance Supervisor for TJX Companies, Cills has managed budgets as high as $50 M and provided oversight for a team 15 people in the department.
A native of Sumter, South Carolina, and a ## year resident of Atlanta, Cills brings invaluable financial skills and an impeccable record of integrity to Ujima Way, and will ensure funds are collected, managed and distributed in accordance with the strict guidelines which govern all financial transactions of the agency.
Alvin Johnson
Board Secretary
Board Secretary has 25 years of experience in the Manufacturing, Marketing, Public Relations and Medical industry.
He is a seasoned leader, as well as an accomplished Pastor. Johnson’s talents will be utilized well beyond his role as the Board Secretary, as he has extraordinary people skills that will be help Ujima Way with public relations, corporate sponsorships and staff development and training.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Johnson is expected to play a key role in helping establish the Ujima Way brand and secure corporate sponsorships.
Ujima Way's Board Members
Donald Keith Cheney
Board Chairman
Deborah Anglin
Assistant Board Chairman
Garvey Cills
Treasurer
Alvin Johnson
Secretary
Shirley Smith
Member
Our Approach
Our approach to positively impacting our communities is to galvanize community support in a manner that encourages and promotes cooperative work and responsibility and thus enables us to address issues in our communities as one united force. The organization is based on the Kwanzaa principle Ujima, meaning to build and maintain our communities together and make our brother’s and sister’s problem our problem and solve them together. To this end, Ujima Way aims to establish a massive nationwide crowdsourcing network comprised of corporate partners and donors whose contributions help support our programs as well as the worthy causes of our members and affiliate agencies who are delivering proven strategies and solutions for the betterment of the communities in which we live.
The Strategic Goals and Objectives of Ujima Way, Inc. are to:
- Effectively impact, provide positive outcomes, and affect significant and positive change, within our 8 priority focus areas of Publishing, Innovation & Technology, Youth Enrichment, High Risk Youth, Entrepreneurship, Residential Services, Media, and S.W.A.T.
- Relentlessly pursue the eradication of problems in our 8 targeted areas;
- Recruit and develop a team of proven and highly innovative 5 Star professionals to serve as management and subject matter experts who utilize a tactical approach to manage and deeply impact change and solutions within the 8 funding initiatives;
- Conduct and invest in research relevant to the 8 priority initiatives;
- Develop and deliver state-of-the-art programs, support and solutions geared towards addressing and eradicating problems relevant to high risk and vulnerable community citizens;
- Build a thriving and effective network of grassroots and start up organizations and programs and provide them with resources, technical expertise, training and other support that will help foster a culture of collective work and responsibility and highly effective program outcomes;
- Sponsor and/or conduct special events for charitable purposes to benefit the organization, its targeted initiatives or any of our affiliate or member agencies;
- Our five year goal is to become the leading charitable institution serving the urban community and addressing and eradicating some of the communities most complex challenges.
Our 8 Priority Focus Areas:
Ujima Way, Inc. has identified 8 distinct priority areas that will be the focus of its technical support and innovative service delivery. These focus areas represent a broad range of community challenges we are committed to address in a meaningful way. The greater portion of our funding and technical support efforts will go towards these causes and also be distributed among our member and affiliate agencies who are doing outstanding work in these areas:
- UW Residential: Providing technical and financial support to vulnerable homeless youth and elderly populations
- UW Publishing: Innovative and relevant curricula and program materials created by authors who know the urban population. Support will be given to help validate such works with proper research backing to garner the evidenced-based/research-based seals of approval
- UW Innovation & Technology: Investing in technological innovations in such areas as application development, coding, and STEM education in a manner that encourages and supports urban youth to thrive in the technological arena
- UW Youth Enrichment: Supporting after-school, summer, mentoring, enrichment and sports programs for school aged youth
- UW High Risk: Holistic support, programs and services given to pioneering mental health, substance abuse, prevention, intervention, diversion and re-entry initiatives serving court involved youth and young adults
- UW Entrepreneurial: Support to proven programs that inspire, promote and develop youth entrepreneurs and small minority businesses.
- UW Media: Support to creative and conscious media entities and record labels that promote positive messages to entertain, educate, empower and uplift people.
- UW S.W.A.T. Specialized Ways and Tactics: Two years of specialized and targeted support to strategically and methodically attack one significant community problem.