GROW Southwest Georgia celebrates one year of helping underserved students

ALBANY, Ga. – A non-profit group based out of Albany is celebrating a year of operation. We caught up with the group’s founder about the impact he’s had in the last 12 months.

This is Dontravious Simmons, who founded GROW Southwest Georgia in early 2023, with the goal of helping underserved students in areas such as Mitchell, Randolph, and Worth counties.

“We were put into existence to help service those young people in those communities and provide them an opportunity for the future,” said Dontravious Simmons, Founder, GROW Southwest Georgia.

Over the course of the past year, GROW has helped more than 400 students by helping provide them with a more well-rounded experience to prepare them for college or a post-high school life, especially in more remote communities.

“You’re talking about communities where those young people where typically if they weren’t involved in sports or academic programs after school, a majority of those students after school would just go home with no extracurricular activities or youth development programs to participate in,” said Simmons.

For Simmons, giving back to the next generation of students has always meant a lot to him.

And, for him, grow has been the perfect opportunity to do just that over the last calendar year.

“I want to be able to shed light into young peoples’ lives, who typically feel like, because of their background, because of their community, their poverty situation or lack thereof, we wanted to be that light for them,” said Simmons.

And, when it comes to year two, Simmons has one big addition in mind for expanding grow.

“Then this coming summer, we’re planning on providing college and career tutelage for these young people to colleges and careers across the state of Georgia,” said Simmons.

And, as Simmons and grow begin their second year of operation, they’re looking to expand and grant kids in more counties more opportunities.

GROW will be holding a one year anniversary gala featuring representatives and leaders from state organizations on February 2nd on Albany State University’s West Campus.

For more information on GROW Southwest Georgia, Inc. click here.

Brian Roche reporting.

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