Per Scholas Atlanta Receives $100,000 Award from Atlanta Women’s Foundation to Expand Access to Tech Careers for Women

Atlanta, G.A., August 7, 2025 — Per Scholas Atlanta is proud to announce a generous $100,000 award from the Atlanta Women’s Foundation (AWF), which will significantly enhance the campus’s ability to provide no-cost, high-impact tech training to women across metro Atlanta. The funding was celebrated alongside the Atlanta Women’s Foundation and special guest Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. The video footage captured at the celebration, including Per Scholas Atlanta’s Managing Director Sherri Sims’ interview, will be featured during AWF’s “Numbers Too Big to Ignore” Luncheon on October 29, 2025, at the Georgia World Congress Center. The annual event raises awareness and funds to support economic empowerment for women and girls in Atlanta.

Since launching its Atlanta campus in 2016, Per Scholas has trained more than 1,700 local learners in high-demand tech skills, including IT Support, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, and Software Engineering. This funding from AWF marks the first grant Per Scholas Atlanta has received from the foundation and comes at a pivotal moment in the campus’s growth.

“Support from the Atlanta Women’s Foundation is transformational,” said Sherri Sims, Managing Director of Per Scholas Atlanta. “This investment allows us to deepen our focus on supporting women into thriving tech careers—careers that don’t just offer that first job, but long-term opportunity, growth, and generational change.”

The grant will enable Per Scholas Atlanta to expand its reach to even more women throughout the region—many of whom face compounding barriers such as limited access to technical education, caregiving responsibilities, lack of traditional credentials, or career interruptions. Per Scholas meets these challenges head-on, offering rigorous technical instruction paired with robust professional development and career coaching at no cost to learners.

“AWF’s investment fuels not only our training but also our wraparound supports,” Sims added. “This includes resume coaching, mock interviews, employer exposure, and community-building that empowers learners to not only enter the tech workforce—but thrive within it.”

Mayor Andre Dickens attended the celebration as the keynote speaker and praised the ongoing work of Per Scholas and AWF to build a more inclusive tech ecosystem. “When we invest in women, we invest in families, communities, and the future of our city,” he said.

AWF joins a growing list of funders supporting Per Scholas Atlanta’s efforts, and this City Hall celebration emphasized the power of community partnerships, equity-driven investment, and storytelling. “It was an incredible moment to stand alongside so many mission-aligned organizations and feel the collective impact we’re having,” said Peggy Still Johnson, Per Scholas’ Senior Manager of Development for the Southern Region. “We’re honored to be among this year’s grant recipients.”

Per Scholas Atlanta is grateful to The Atlanta Women’s Foundation for this game-changing investment, and to all donors and community supporters, such as Sage, Stand Together Foundation, and KMS Technology, who continue to believe in economic mobility for Atlantans. Per Scholas Atlanta invites employers and aspiring technologists alike to get involved.

To learn more about Per Scholas Atlanta, follow them on LinkedIn or visit perscholas.org/atlanta.