The nonprofit GreenLight Fund hires new leader for Charlotte division | Charlotte Observer

The Boston-based nonprofit GreenLight Fund has hired a new executive director for its Charlotte division – one that hails from the Queen City and has a passion for giving back to her hometown.

Carrie Cook wants to use her position to address Charlotte’s opportunity gap. She said the best way to do that is to bring nonprofits already proven to positively impact people in poverty to the city of Charlotte.

GreenLight Fund announced early last year it was coming to Charlotte and its commitment to give $3.5 million over five years to address social and economic issues. The fund works with community leaders to identify one issue to address annually and brings a proven nonprofit to the area to address that problem.

Charlotte is the sixth city the fund has chosen to focus on. GreenLight has also helped tackle various problems in Boston, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay area, Cincinnati and Detroit.

The fund will work with the incoming nonprofit and city officials to scale the nonprofit’s work to fit the city it is moving to, which helps ensure success, said John Simon, co-founder of GreenLight.

The fund is working with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force, which began its work after a 2015 study by Harvard University and UC-Berkeley revealed that Charlotte’s poor children are least likely to escape the cycle of poverty out of 50 U.S. cities.

Over the next year, Cook will create a selection advisory council, and they will identify the highest-priority needs, gaps and issues in Charlotte, as well as research nonprofits with proven records in addressing those issues. Cook plans to choose a nonprofit near the beginning of 2019.

She said examples of issues that could be addressed include early childhood education readiness, affordable housing and workforce development.

GreenLight has recently launched its Becoming a Man initiative in Boston, which focuses on fostering values, goals and important life skills in young men from at-risk communities. The program attempts to improve academic outcomes and to decrease involvement with the juvenile justice system.

Simon said he is confident Cook will accomplish the mission of building a better Charlotte by following the GreenLight process.

“She is one of the next-generation leaders that we see emerging in Charlotte,” he said.

Cook was raised in the University area of Charlotte and identifies herself as a proud Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools alum. She’s worked with former U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, and her most recent position was with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

“We want people to have a voice, and have ownership, and be empowered to rise out of poverty, and I really think that’s really what this is about.”