I was fortunate to grow up in circumstances and with parents who always provided good food on the table, a comfortable home, and a safe roof over our heads.
They also were kind enough to instill in me the understanding that not everyone had things quite so good. I have always admired those who rise out of challenging circumstances and almost immediately turn around to help others and give back.
Rodney Bullard, a native of south DeKalb County and now CEO of The Same House, is living one of those life stories.A graduate of Redan High School, Bullard went on to the Air Force Academy, a Juris Doctorate of Law from Duke University, and later his MBA from the Terry College of Business at UGA, as well as additional certifications and accreditations from Harvard Business School and Stanford Law.
As an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, Bullard developed diversion and youth intervention programs to redirect wayward youth back toward education, training, and job opportunities and staying out of the criminal justice system.
This work would lead to a connection with theChick-fil-A Corporation and a dozen years as head of its Corporate Social Responsibility programs, as well as managing the Chick-fil-A and Cathy Family Foundations, which provide a wide range of philanthropic support across north Georgia and the nation.
“Leadership is giving back, it’s solving hard problems,” Bullard said in a recent interview with Crystal Edmundson of the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Bullard left a comfortable, highly compensated corporate position, leading efforts like Chick-fil-A’s support of the Westside Future Fund, to build from scratch a community-benefit organization to help level the playing field and spread the gospel of economic opportunity, education, and the benefits of giving back.
His inspiration and a guiding star was longtime Georgia 5th District Congressman U.S. Rep.John Lewis(D-Atlanta), who represented Atlanta, most of Fulton, and part of DeKalb County from 1986 until his death in 2020. Lewis spent the bulk of his life fighting the good fight for civil rights and issues of equality.
Bullard named his community-benefit organization “The Same House,” after one of his favorite John Lewis quotes: “We’re one people. We’re one family. We all live in the same house.”
The primary annual fundraiser for The Same House, “Beloved Benefit” will take place Aug. 24, at the Georgia World Congress Center, where singer-songwriter John Legend will perform. Limited tickets and tables are still available (belovedbenefit.org/ home).
Since its inception, Beloved Benefit has raised and distributed approximately $12 million to more than 40 worthy charitable and nonprofit causes, all involved in lifting up, assisting those in need, and divining a path toward the light.
The beneficiaries of the 2023 Beloved Benefit are the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship, First Step Staffing, the Urban League of Greater Atlanta, and the Westside Future Fund.
And beyond filling immediate needs, and with mindful thought toward self-improvement and self-reliance, true servant leadership involves sharing wisdom, mentoring, and guidance of others. You can now see some of those efforts being borne out across Atlanta’s westside.
Though our nation, our state, and the city of Atlanta have come a long way in Rodney Bullard’s lifetime, as well as in the 80 years of John Lewis’s life, there is still a long way to go. The Same House strives to create equality of opportunity while reducing and eliminating structural biases and inequities, without attempting to guarantee equality of outcome.
Bullard’s long-term goal is to grow The Same House into a nationwide organization. He hopes that along with the many nonprofits that The Same House will assist in funding, real gains can be made in the short, middle, and long term, in terms of both economic mobility and the expansion of available affordable housing across the region.
Bullard recently pointed out in a guest editorial in the Atlanta Journal & Constitution that an Atlantan living on English Avenue on Atlanta›s Westside has an average life expectancy of just under 64 years, yet someone living just a few miles north in Buckhead has a life expectancy of 87 years. Bullard wants to help all boats float to that higher tide.
Bullard has some big ideas, hopes, and dreams...but has also demonstrated by building coalitions and putting in the work and sweat equity that he is willing to roll up his own sleeves to help close these equity gaps.