Category: Awards

Brookwood Christian named a 2019 Top 25 Small Business of the Year

Brookwood Christian School honored among Cobb County’s Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year and 2019 businesses to Watch [pdf]

Acworth, Georgia (May 6, 2019) – The Cobb Chamber of Commerce today named Brookwood Christian a 2019 Top 25 Small Business of the Year at the Chamber’s First Monday Breakfast for its remarkable innovation, sound approach to organizational challenges and positive impact on the community.

“We are very honored to be named one of the Top 25 Businesses”, said Kim Wigington, founder and Headmaster at Brookwood, “This time last year we were crowded in our original building undergoing construction. Now we have our new building and are quickly filling the extra space to serve more students. This recognition highlights the hard work of all our staff.”

Brookwood Christian School (BCS) is a small private school with a focus on Dyslexia and other language processing disorders. BCS uses specialized curriculum such as Wilson Reading System® and Fast ForWord® Reading to help students overcome reading difficulties.  What makes BCS truly unique is our multi age groups which allow students with similar learning styles, needs, and abilities to work at their own level. Students usually gain between 1.5 to 2.5 years in reading scores every year.

Founder and director, Kim Wigington has received awards such as 2014 ABA Business Person of the Year and 2016 Cobb Chamber of Commerce Acworth Citizen of the Year.  In 2018 Wigington received the Leadership in Literacy Award from the Georgia branch of the International Dyslexia Association. BCS also earned the 2018 Top-Rated Nonprofit award from Great Nonprofits, as well as earning the Guidestar Platinum Seal of Transparency for the second time in March 2019.

“We are so proud of all the small businesses that make up such an integral part of our community,” said Cobb Chamber President and CEO Sharon Mason. “The quality of the businesses, the work they’re doing in the community, the great jobs they’re bringing—it all goes toward making Cobb County a vibrant and successful place to live, work and play.”

To be considered for the Top 25 Small Businesses of Year, each hopeful submits an application to the Cobb Chamber. The applicants must prove an increase in sales or unit volume, provide examples of innovation, discuss adversity and challenges, and thoroughly detail their community involvement. Applications are analyzed and considered by a group of independent community business leaders and affiliates of the Small Business Administration.

The First Monday Breakfast was sponsored by LOUD Security Systems and S.A. White Oil Company.

About Brookwood Christian School

Brookwood Christian School is a private, non-profit, non-denominational Christian school that serves students who have not been successful in public or private schools due to their unique learning needs: individual or multiple learning disorders such dyslexia, reading & language processing disorders, auditory processing disorders, and other specific learning disabilities. Most of the operating budget comes from tuition payments augmented by the Georgia SB-10 scholarship program. Eighty-six percent of our students receive some sort of financial assistance. Recognition such as this helps with our fundraising which helps keep our operating costs and tuition low.

About the Cobb Chamber

As one of the most influential business advocacy organizations in Georgia, the Cobb Chamber is dedicated to bringing the community and its leaders together to create jobs and strengthen the economy and quality of life so businesses and the community can achieve more. The Chamber achieves this by creating jobs and driving economic development; strengthening the community and the region; growing member businesses and nurturing leadership; and connecting businesses, government and the community.

Media Contacts

Tammy Urban | 678-401-5855| first.last@brookwoodchristian.com

Amy Selby | 770-859-2350| FLast@cobbchamber.org

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Cobb Chamber recognizes Brookwood as one of the Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year.

Acworth, Georgia (April 8, 2019) – On Friday, April 5, the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce recognized Brookwood Christian School one of Cobb County’s 2019 Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year. Each year, the Chamber celebrates the achievements of small businesses that contribute to the vitality of the community by announcing the Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year. Cobb County is home to many fast growing small businesses, and as a pro-business advocacy organization, the Cobb Chamber is committed to supporting these businesses.

“We are very honored to be named one of the Top 25 Businesses”, said Kim Wigington, founder and Headmaster at Brookwood, “This time last year we were crowded in our original building undergoing construction. Now we have our new building and are quickly filling the extra space. This recognition highlights the hard work of all our staff.”

In addition to Brookwood Christian School, the following businesses were also named one of the 2019 Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year:

AquaGuard Foundation Solutions, Artisan Custom Closets, Assured Comfort Heating Air & Plumbing, Deluxe Athletics, DeNyse Companies, DynamiX, Elder Law Firm, The Employment Law Solution: McFadden Davis, Fulfillment Strategies International, Inc., Georgia Trade School, InPrime Legal, The Marietta Local, Mills Specialty Metals, LLC, North Georgia Staffing, Otter’s Chicken, Poole’s Pharmacy, RE/MAX PURE, Roam Innovative Workplace, SpeedPro Imaging Marietta, Three-13 Salon, Spa & Boutique, Tom + Chee Kennesaw, Vertisys, Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q, Yalo!

An overall winner will be selected among the Top 25 and announced on May 6 at the Small Business of the Year Breakfast at the Cobb Galleria Centre. The top winner is determined by a thorough selection process including applications and site visits by a panel of outside judges. The breakfast will honor the Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year and the Small Business Hall of Fame inductees.

Tickets to the breakfast are $35 for members and are $60 for general admission. Visit www.cobbchamber.org/SBOY for more information and event registration.

The 2019 Small Business of the Year awards are presented by LOUD Security Systems and S.A. White Oil Company. For more information about the Small Businesses of the Year awards, contact Jani Dix at 770-859-2335 or jdix@cobbchamber.org.

Media Contacts:

Tammy Urban
Director of Development
Brookwood Christian School
first.last@brookwoodchristian.com
678-401-5855

 

Brookwood Christian Earns GuideStar’s Highest Seal of Transparency

Platinum Seal Allows Donors to Focus on Progress and Results

Acworth, Georgia (March 26, 2019) – Brookwood Christian today earned a 2019 Platinum Seal of Transparency, the highest level of recognition offered by GuideStar,, the world’s largest source of nonprofit information. By sharing metrics that highlight progress Brookwood Christian is making toward its mission, the organization is helping donors move beyond simplistic ways of nonprofit evaluation such as overhead ratios.

“In accordance with our long-held belief in being transparent about our work,” said Kim Wigington, Headmaster, “we are excited to convey our organization’s results in a user-friendly and highly visual manner. By updating our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile to earn a Platinum Seal, we can now easily share a wealth of up-to-date organizational metrics with our supporters as well as GuideStar’s immense online audience, which includes donors, grantmakers, our peers, and the media. We’re thrilled that our Platinum Seal of Transparency and the associated benefits help us better communicate our organization’s exciting initiatives to a broader audience.”

To reach the Platinum level, Brookwood Christian added extensive information to its GuideStar, Nonprofit Profile: basic contact and organizational information; in-depth financial information; qualitative information about goals, strategies, and capabilities; and quantitative information about results and progress toward its mission. By taking the time to provide this information, Brookwood Christian has demonstrated its commitment to transparency and to giving donors and funders meaningful data to evaluate nonprofit performance.

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About Brookwood Christian

Brookwood Christian School is a private, non-profit, non-denominational Christian school that serves students who have not been successful in public or private schools due to their unique learning needs: individual or multiple learning disorders such dyslexia, reading & language processing disorders, auditory processing disorders, attention deficit disorder, neurological disorders, and other specific learning disabilities. Most of our operating budget comes from tuition payments augmented by the Georgia SB-10 scholarship program. Seventy-nine percent of our students receive some sort of financial assistance. Recognition such as this helps with our fundraising which helps keep our operating costs and tuition low.

About GuideStar Nonprofit Profiles

The GuideStar, database contains a profile for every tax-exempt nonprofit registered with the IRS. GuideStar, encourages every nonprofit to claim and update its profile at no cost to the organization. Updating allows nonprofits to share a wealth of up-to-date information with the more than 10 million people who visit GuideStar, to learn more about nonprofit organizations each year. Updating also allows nonprofits to share information with the more than 200 philanthropic websites and applications that are powered by GuideStar, data. To reach a given participation level, organizations need to complete all required fields for that participation level. The GuideStar, participation levels, acknowledged as symbols of transparency in the nonprofit sector, are displayed on all updated participants’ profiles in the GuideStar, database.

GuideStar, is the world’s largest source of nonprofit information, connecting people and organizations with data on 2.7 million current and formerly IRS-recognized nonprofits. Each year, more than 10 million people, including individual donors, nonprofit leaders, grantmakers, government officials, academic researchers, and the media, use GuideStar, data to make intelligent decisions about the social sector. GuideStar, Nonprofit Profiles are populated with information directly from nonprofits, the IRS, and other partners in the nonprofit sector. The Seal levels, acknowledged as symbols of transparency in the nonprofit sector, are earned by nonprofits providing specific information to its profile.

In addition, users see GuideStar, data on more than 200 philanthropic websites and 5 applications like AmazonSmile, Facebook, and Network for Good. Foundation Center and GuideStar, joined forces to become Candid, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Find out more at candid.org and on Twitter @CandidDotOrg.

Media Contacts:

Tammy Urban
Director of Development
Brookwood Christian School
first.last@brookwoodchristian.com
678-401-5855

 

 

Brookwood Christian named “2018 TOP-RATED NONPROFIT” by GreatNonprofits

Award based on Outstanding Online Reviews

Acworth, GA. (September 4, 2018) –Brookwood Christian announced today it has been named a “2018 Top-Rated Nonprofit” by GreatNonprofits, the leading provider of user reviews of charities and nonprofits.

Brookwood Christian provides services for dyslexia and other language processing disorders for students in the Northwest Metro Atlanta area, resulting in students attaining full literacy by graduation.

“We are honored to be named a 2018 Top-Rated Nonprofit,” says Kim Wigington, Principal. “We are proud of our accomplishments this year, including completing construction on our new high school building and receiving a Dollar General Literacy Foundation Grant.”

The Top-Rated Nonprofit Award is the based on the rating and number of reviews that Brookwood Christian received from volunteers, donors and aid recipients. “As the parents of a child with with auditory processing disorder and several other special needs we were determined to give our son every opportunity we could for him to succeed” said Shan Burnette. “We are confident that Brookwood was the key that opened the door for our son to have everything he needs for success.”

“Brookwood Christian is a great example of a nonprofit making a real difference in their community,” said Perla Ni, CEO of GreatNonprofits, “Their award is well-deserved recognition not only of their work, but the tremendous support they receive, as shown by the many outstanding reviews they have received from people who have direct experience working with Brookwood Christian School.”

GreatNonprofits is the leading website where people share stories about their personal experiences on more than 1.6 million charities and nonprofits. The GreatNonprofits Top-Rated Awards are the only awards for nonprofits determined by those who have direct experience with the charities – as donors, volunteers and recipients of aid.

The complete list of 2018 Top Rated Nonprofits can be found at:
https://greatnonprofits.org/awards/browse/Campaign:Year2018/Issue:All/Page:1

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About Brookwood Christian 
Brookwood Christian School is a private, non-profit, non-denominational Christian school that serves students who have not been successful in public or private schools due to their unique learning needs: individual or multiple learning disorders such dyslexia, reading & language processing disorders, auditory processing disorders, attention deficit disorder, neurological disorders, and other specific learning disabilities. Most of our operating budget comes from tuition payments augmented by the Georgia SB-10 scholarship program. Eighty-six percent of our students receive some sort of financial assistance. Recognition such as this helps with our fundraising which helps keep our operating costs and tuition low.

About GreatNonprofits
GreatNonprofits is the leading site for donors and volunteers to find stories and ratings of nonprofits. Stories on the site influence 30 million donation decisions a year. Visit www.greatnonprofits.org for more information.

Media Contacts:
Tammy Urban
Director of Development
Brookwood Christian School
first.last@brookwoodchristian.com
678-401-5855

 

Perla Ni
Great Nonprofits
650-249-3792
firstlast@greatnonprofits.org

 

Principal Kim Wigington receives prestigious award

Kim receiving the Leadership in Literacy award from Karen Huppertz, President of International Dyslexia Association Georgia Branch.

Principal Kim Wigington was awarded the 2018 Leadership in Literacy Awaard by the International Dyslexia Association, Georgia Branch (IDA-GA) on Saturday, March 24 at IDA-GA’s Dimensions of Dyslexia Conference to be held at Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta.

This award recognizes a school administrator who has shown leadership in developing literacy in his/her school or school system within the state of Georgia. Kim has demonstrated:

♦outstanding leadership through the development of effective reading programs,

♦the support of excellent teacher training and professional development

♦significant gains in student reading achievement, and

♦the engagement of parents in school/home cooperative ventures to support literacy.

We, at Brookwood Christian, are extremely proud of  her dedicated service to education and outstanding efforts to promote and encourage student reading achievement.

Kim is a Georgia native, growing up in Calhoun, Georgia. She taught high school English, speech, drama, and psychology for 6 years at Cartersville High School, then worked as a school counselor for 4 years at Allatoona Elementary School, where she won a regional school counselor of the year award.  Having a daughter struggle with dyslexia and realizing the lack of adequate resources and services offered in public education, Kim started what would grow into Brookwood Christian School in 2004 by creating the perfect learning environment for her daughters and other children struggling with learning differences. Many have witnessed her tireless efforts to expand the schools reading programs as well as community awareness of dyslexia and other language processing disorders.

Brookwood Christian School serves students who have not been successful in public or private schools due to their unique learning needs.  Many of these students have been diagnosed with a language based learning disability such as dyslexia and were either on an IEP in public school or eligible for one had they attended public school.  

We use Wilson Reading® and Fast ForWord® reading programs, depending on the students’ needs, and class sizes are kept small so students get the individual attention and appropriate instruction they need for success.  Teachers are certified and experienced in the content areas they teach. Those teaching the reading programs have had extensive training in those programs.

For the  2016-2017 school year, the average gain on the Woodcock Johnson IIIC broad reading battery was 1.2 grade levels with 45.7% of students gaining greater than 1 year and 91.4% of students gained 1 year or more on at least one of the subtests.  The biggest gains were seen on Passage Comprehension with an average gain of 1.8 grade levels and 60% of students gaining more than 1 year and over a third seeing a gain of 3 or more years. Our next goal is to expand our programs to be able to serve more students in need.

Because of her accomplishments, Kim was honored with the Acworth Business Person of the Year in December 2014 and then named Acworth’s Citizen of the Year by the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce in December 2016.  Kim is the current Chair of the Acworth Downtown Development Authority, Co-Chair of Taste of Acworth Committee, as well as Chair of the Acworth Business Association Women’s Network for 2018.

Kim with her daughters, Ineja (left) and Kristen (center), both graduates of Brookwood Christian.

Principal Kim Wigington to receive prestigious award

Kim has been selected by the International Dyslexia Association, Georgia Branch (IDA-GA) to receive this year’s Leadership in Literacy Award.  IDA-GAs Leadership in Literacy Award recognizes a school administrator who has shown leadership in developing literacy in his/her school or school system within the state of Georgia.

Kim has demonstrated:
♦outstanding leadership through the development of effective reading programs,
♦the support of excellent teacher training and professional development
♦significant gains in student reading achievement, and
♦the engagement of parents in school/home cooperative ventures to support literacy.

Kim will be honored at IDA-GA’s Dimensions of Dyslexia Conference to be held at Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta on March 24, 2018, for her dedicated service to education and outstanding efforts to promote and encourage student reading achievement.

Kim is a Georgia native, growing up in Calhoun, Georgia. She taught high school English, speech, drama, and psychology for 6 years at Cartersville High School, then worked as a school counselor for 4 years at Allatoona Elementary School, where she won a regional school counselor of the year award.  Having a daughter struggle with dyslexia and realizing the lack of adequate resources and services offered in public education, Kim started what would grow into Brookwood Christian School in 2004 by creating the perfect learning environment for her daughters and other children struggling with learning differences. Many have witnessed her tireless efforts to expand the schools reading programs as well as community awareness of dyslexia and other language processing disorders.

Brookwood Christian School serves students who have not been successful in public or private schools due to their unique learning needs.  Many of these students have been diagnosed with a language based learning disability such as dyslexia and were either on an IEP in public school or eligible for one had they attended public school.  

We use Wilson Reading® and Fast ForWord® reading programs, depending on the students’ needs, and class sizes are kept small so students get the individual attention and appropriate instruction they need for success.  Teachers are certified and experienced in the content areas they teach. Those teaching the reading programs have had extensive training in those programs.

For the  2016-2017 school year, the average gain on the Woodcock Johnson IIIC broad reading battery was 1.2 grade levels with 45.7% of students gaining greater than 1 year and 91.4% of students gained 1 year or more on at least one of the subtests.  The biggest gains were seen on Passage Comprehension with an average gain of 1.8 grade levels and 60% of students gaining more than 1 year and over a third seeing a gain of 3 or more years. Our next goal is to expand our programs to be able to serve more students in need.

Because of her accomplishments, Kim was honored with the Acworth Business Person of the Year in December 2014 and then named Acworth’s Citizen of the Year by the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce in December 2016.  Kim is the current Chair for the Acworth Downtown Development Authority, as well as Chair of the Acworth Business Association Women’s Network for 2018.

GuideStar Platinum Seal Recognition!

Great news! Brookwood Christian just earned the Platinum Seal of Transparency from
GuideStar, the world’s largest source of nonprofit information.

By sharing these metrics, we’re helping the sector move beyond simplistic financial ratios to assess nonprofit progress.
We chose to display quantitative metrics such as:

  • Number of Students Showing Improvement in Test Scores,
  • Number of Students Graduating,
  • Number of Students Planning Post-Secondary Education,
  • Per Pupil Expenditures, and
  • Administrative Costs, 

to represent how hard Brookwood Christian is working toward achieving our mission.

Tracking and sharing this information gives not only us, but also potential donors, relevant information on the results we are getting, for what cost, and how funds are allocated.

We’re proud to use GuideStar Platinum to share our full and complete story with the world. To reach
the Platinum level, we added extensive information to our Nonprofit Profile: basic contact and
organizational information; in-depth financial information; quantitative information about goals,
strategies, and progress toward our mission.

GuideStar Gold Seal Recognition!

Brookwood Christian was recently recognized for our transparency with a Gold Seal on our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile!

GuideStar USA is the world’s largest source of information on nonprofit organizations. More than 8 million visitors per year and a network of 200+ partners use GuideStar data to grow support for nonprofits.

In order to get the Gold Seal, Brookwood Christian shared important information with the public using our profile on www.guidestar.org. Now our community members and potential donors can find in-depth information about our goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

We’re shining a spotlight on the difference we help make helping students with dyslexia and other language based learning differences.
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Check out our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile and tell us what you think: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/20-8499098