Closer Look: The Mission of Atlanta’s Gateway Center

Tuesday on “Closer Look with Rose Scott”:

• 0:00: Rose gives a news brief covering the official renaming of Confederate Avenue and hear the City of Atlanta and Super Bowl Committee ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to kick off the countdown to Super Bowl 53.
• In other news, today marks 32 days into the partial federal government shutdown — the longest in U-S history. The D.C. Super PAC Majority Forward recently released television ads criticizing state senators, from around the country, over the shutdown including Senator Perdue. According to The Washington Post, Majority Forward plans to invest around $683,000 on the ad campaign. Majority Forward’s website defines the nonprofit as a PAC working to quote “support voter registration and voter turnout efforts.” The organization has largely supported Democratic candidates running for state legislative races. In a statement to “Closer Look,” a spokesperson for Purdue said “No one wanted to prevent this situation more than Senator Perdue. He fought to keep the Senate in session last August, which allowed Congress to complete 75 percent of federal funding for the first time in 22 years. Senator Perdue is working with both sides to find a bipartisan solution that could reopen the government this week.”
• 4:10: Today, we head downtown to the Gateway Center, which has been providing essential services to Atlanta’s homeless community since 2002. The center provides aid, such as temporary housing and medical care, to members of the homeless population in metro Atlanta with the goal of making homelessness “rare, brief and nonrecurring.” In part one of our visit, we’ll hear more about this goal and the history of The Gateway Center’s creation from founder and co-chair of the Regional Commission on Homelessness, Jack Hardin.
• 30:02: “Closer Look” recently launched its Open for Business series, which profiles local business owners throughout metro Atlanta. Today, it’s an encore of our visit to For Keeps bookstore, which recently opened on Auburn Avenue and specializes in rare, African-American literature. A conversation with its founder and owner Rosa Duffy, about why she envisions For Keeps as not just a bookstore but also a “community space”.

Closer Look is produced by Candace Wheeler and Grace Walker. Anastaciah M. Ondieki contributed to this article.