All Ways Up (Formerly Perlman Foundation)

OUR Story In 2009, Greg and Jodi Perlman established ALL WAYS UP (known then as the Perlman Foundation) with a simple, yet compelling mission: To help hardworking, low-income individuals improve their lives. The Perlmans have a long history of supporting individuals and organizations that are working to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. As owners of thousands of Section 8 housing units across the country, Greg and Jodi were struck by the rampant generational poverty they saw, and the difficulty many individuals, couples and families had in breaking free of it. They realized that at these properties, they had the resources to identify — and lend a helping hand to — those working hard to better their lives. With this idea, ALL WAYS UP was born. ALL WAYS UP started by offering a scholarship to any high school graduate who lived in Section 8 housing and enrolled in a two- or four-year college or university. These students were given scholarships of up to $2,500 a year to ease the financial burden of college. After seeing the impact of this initial effort, ALL WAYS UP soon began to offer Section 8 residents other services, including summer camp scholarships for children and home ownership down payment grants for couples and families saving every spare penny to buy their first home. As ALL WAYS UP began to evolve, it discovered another way to create positive change: To partner with community-based, non-profit organizations that were running programs for low-income, hard-working, motivated participants. The first such partnership was created with the Social Justice Learning Institute’s Black Male Youth Academy, whose success rates were astounding. This partnership allowed ALL WAYS UP to expand services beyond Section 8 housing to other low-income residents in the community. In 2012, ALL WAYS UP broadened its charity partner outreach by launching the Bridging the Gap Awards (BGA), a grant program that assists smaller-sized nonprofits working hard to help low-income residents all around the country. Through partnerships with these grass-roots charities, ALL WAYS UP has expanded its giving programs to include college scholarships and the annual UP Through Education Summit for students entering their first year of college. To date, through the BGAs and other initiatives, ALL WAYS UP has funded more than 50 community partners and over 450 education scholarships. In 2014, the Perlman Foundation officially changed its name to ALL WAYS UP. This change reflects the organization’s expanding base of partnerships, widening reach and continuing devotion to create unique and powerful ways to bridge the gap between ambition and achievement. ALL WAYS UP is proud of the many “ways up” being taken by those we serve — low-income youth and families with a demonstrated commitment to elevating their lives.