In the spring of 2025, the Atlanta West End Rotary Club hosted its Inaugural Interfaith Fellowship and Prayer Breakfast, a fantastic initiative conceptualized by AWER Treasurer and Past President Rose Caplan, that brought together faith leaders, civic partners, and community members in a shared space grounded in fellowship, service, and the Rotary Four-Way Test. The purpose of the gathering was not only ceremonial but relational: to build trust across traditions, affirm shared values, and explore how organizations might collaborate more intentionally in service of the West End.

The breakfast demonstrated both the willingness and the capacity of diverse community institutions to engage constructively around common community challenges. Conversations during and following the event revealed a strong appetite for continued dialogue, deeper coordination, and practical action, particularly around issues affecting the well-being of the business corridors and unhoused neighbors.

Importantly, Myrna Fuller, President of the West End Merchants Coalition (WEMC) and a longtime friend of the Atlanta West End Rotary Club, was in attendance at the Interfaith Fellowship and Prayer Breakfast. Building on the relationships and shared purpose established at that convening, Ms. Fuller played a key role in advancing the work from fellowship into operationalization. Through WEMC’s organizing capacity and its Business Watch framework, she helped move the metaphorical football down the field toward a structured, action-oriented collaboration.

From this continued momentum, partners including WEMC, District 4 Councilmember Jason Dozier, and providers of services to the unhoused convened alongside faith leaders to formalize the effort at the inaugural convening of the West End / Westview Interfaith Council on December 16, 2025, with plans to reconvene in January and continue the work.

The Council represents a natural evolution of the Rotary-hosted breakfast: moving from convening and relationship-building into an organized, mission-driven collaboration focused on assessment, education, coordination, and aligned action. Embedded within WEMC’s Business Watch Program, the Interfaith Council provides a platform for faith-based leadership in the community to contribute constructively to addressing homelessness, reducing tensions, and strengthening the overall health of the West End business and residential community.

The Atlanta West End Rotary Club is proud to have played a catalytic role in seeding this effort, to have a representational seat on the Council, and to see it carried forward through strong operational leadership and sustained partnership, exemplifying Service Above Self in action. Stay tuned for ways that the Atlanta West End Rotary Club membership can be more involved.