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Here’s the invisible line that separates Atlanta’s haves and have-nots

The separation is by not just income, but geography, too.

In the basement floor of a nondescript building hang the photos of success: photos of the first graduates of an Atlanta job readiness program called Construction Ready.

Student success manager Veda White points them out.

“All the people you see here on the wall, are from the west side of town," she says.

Each person who did, jumped a gap … a gap that, in Atlanta, is clearly drawn and wider than any in the country.

READ | Inside the program that's giving people on Atlanta's Westside a chance to rise up

IN CONSTRUCTION | Watch the full documentary now

The Brookings Institute looked at census data and found Atlanta has the highest inequality rate in America. But the separation is by not just income, but geography, too.

You can split Atlanta in half along the CSX rail line and I-20. On the north and slightly east side, median income doubles. On the south and what’s known as the Westside, poverty and crime rates triple.

“The West Side of town of Atlanta is poverty-stricken and used to be drug-infested,” White says, “so that’s how people see the west side of town. They don’t see people.”

White sees barriers needing to be busted … from the gap in our city to the hurdles in many minds.

“A lot of people grew up in this side of town and feel like this is it for them, that they can’t go outside of the box of the Westside," she explains. "They are good people who just need the opportunity to get the training they are getting, who just need someone to believe in them.”

But the faces in those photos, of the ones who rose up?

“I see joy. I see happiness. I see pride," White said. "I see people who thought they couldn’t do it and are still doing it.”

Click below to hear some of the personal stories of the latest Construction Ready program.

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