Ms. Kennette Reed has taken on management of daily operations at ORR. She comes to us with a broad range of corporate and entrepreneurial experience, and valuable insights to enhance the ORR's core mission.

"I look forward to meeting everyone, and exploring how we can better the ORR's ministries and businesses", says Ms. Reed. In the coming weeks, our members will begin to see improvements in our available products (SPARKS, The Conductor, Business Resource Directory, website advertising, etc.), services (Business Resource Center, referral service, etc.), education (Biz Forums) and events (Annual Gala, Annual Golf Tournament, etc.).

Stop in, or call and introduce yourself. Tell us how we can better support your church or business. Phone 404-346-0808 or email vbenjamin@overgroundrr.com .

In a Saturday, May 3rd ceremony attended by dozens of local clergy and hundreds of family, friends and well-wishers, Superior Court Judge Penny Brown Reynolds, already first lady at College Park's Midway Missionary Baptist Church, became a minister herself. Judge Reynolds is a recent graduate of Atlanta's own Interdenominational Theological Center.

With the upcoming September TV debut of "Family Court With Judge Penny" , Brown's potent mixture of empathy, legal scholarship and common sense will make it much more than just another judge show. Judge Brown expects to remain active in the ministry at Midway, where her husband, the Rev, Edward S. Reynolds is pastor. Overground RR!! has exclusive video highlights of the ordination ceremony.

After a few years of academic law, Attorney Bernardine Layne did what so many others have done. She made the pilgrimage to Atlanta, America's Black Mecca, where she set up a thriving practice in business and family law. But events in her own life, as well as Atlanta's status as a global transit hub, led her to see the growth possibilities in serving the area's substantial African, Afro-Caribbean, Latino and other populations by specializing in immigration law.

"It's a global economy, and we're one corner of the global village. People want to come here, and once here, they want to be united with their families. I'm grateful to be able to make a living helping this happen.

View a revealing video interview with Atlanta's Attorney Bernie, click here.

There's no doubt about it, Cascade UMC pastor Marvin Anthony Moss agrees, today's working families are hard pressed. Hanging on to homes, taking care of elders and raising children are no small things. Pastor Moss explained to the ORR how the Black Church in general, and Cascade UMC in particular, is dedicated to helping families meet those challenges, and has a word or two to say about the real meaning of liberation theology.

Click here for Pastor Moss' thoughts on the challenges to Black families, and how our churches must meet them.

"There's a new class of urban and suburban poor," FAACA's Joyce Dorsey told SPARKS. "They're people who had jobs to go to and mortgages to pay, and middle class lifestyles a short time ago. For quite a few, what used to be America's Black Mecca is becoming a disappointment."

In good times and bad, the Fulton-Atlanta Area Community Authority develops and runs programs to meet human needs. A social worker by training and a minister's daughter, Ms. Dorsey has been at the helm of FAACA since its inception seventeen years ago.

To hear Joyce Dorsey on the state of our communities and economies, and what FAACA is doing, click here.