Georgia Appleseed Inc

At the heart of our work is a drive to bring people together to listen and learn from each other, so that we can move toward just, systemic solutions that make a better future for the children of our state.

Our tactics include research projects that leverage thousands of pro bono attorney hours to tackle complex issues, the development of self-advocacy tools for parents and caregivers, supporting local and state leaders' efforts to adopt meaningful policy changes, legislative advocacy, bipartisan coalition building, and sometimes just a conversation, where we have the opportunity to listen to a child’s experience firsthand.

Our Strategies--

Get children the support they need:

--Expand school-based behavioral health to get children help where they need it
--Integrate restorative practices and trauma-informed instruction into school discipline and the juvenile justice system
--Bring schools, police, and courts together to implement shared strategies that keep children out of juvenile court
--Acknowledge and eliminate barriers created and reinforced by racism and systemic bias
--Ensure safe and equitably funded schools

Improve school climate and reduce the use of disciplinary actions, such as out of-school suspension and expulsion, that remove children from school:
--Increase supports and protections for children in foster care, including access to legal representation for those facing removal from school
--Expand funding for evidence-based diversion programs and other supports for justice-involved children and youth
--Increase school resources to close achievement gaps between children in high-resourced communities and those in low-resourced communities

Promote healthy homes:
--Improve low-income families’ access to healthy, safe homes through various levels of advocacy
--Organize efforts to support positive policy changes to local court procedures and housing code enforcement

Our renewed focus on child welfare, education, and juvenile justice helped us recruit relevant expertise and talent. In January 2020, Michael Waller was promoted to Interim Executive Director by the Board of Directors and then Executive Director in May. Prior to being Interim ED, Michael was our Director of Projects and led our strategic planning. He brings important subject matter expertise (education law and housing) directly relevant to our programming priorities. Michael hired two new lawyers on staff with experience as public school teachers and a Legal and Policy Director (Caroline Durham) to lead the program team. Caroline brings 30 years of criminal and juvenile justice experience to Georgia Appleseed.

Over the last three years we have seen significant developments in our strategic approach and personnel. We completed our new strategic plan, for FY20-22, which focused our programming on three priority outcomes: dismantling the school to prison pipeline; ensuring that children with behavior and learning challenges receive the necessary interventions and supports to succeed at school; and increasing access for low-income families to stable, healthy housing.

Some of Georgia Appleseed's Milestones since 2005:

2020--Georgia Appleseed promotes Director of Projects Michael Waller to Executive Director.

2019--Georgia Healthy Housing coalition led the charge on HB 346, a bill that proposed to ban retaliatory evictions.

2018 & 2019 -- Focus on children and juvenile justice renewed, with new strategic plan created for FY20-22.

2017 --Georgia Appleseed moves to new offices, donated “in kind," at the law firm of Taylor English Duma.

2016 -- Seeking the Beloved Community: Fostering Crucial Conversations about Race, Law Enforcement published, and presented at The Law at the Atlanta Bar Association’s Equal Justice in Law Enforcement Symposium.

2015 & 2017 -- The long-running Heirs Property Project takes the next big step by incorporating The Georgia Heirs Property Law Center in 2015 and subsequently becomes an independent nonprofit in 2017.

2015 --Creation of Georgia Educational Climate Coalition (GECC)

2013 --Launch of the Keeping Kids in Class Toolkit – includes 10 years of Out-of-School Suspension data for 2,200+ public schools in Georgia.

March 2013 -- New Georgia Juvenile Code (first comprehensive rewrite in 40 years) is passed unanimously (HB 242, effective date: January 1, 2014).

March 2012-- Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (HB 744) is passed unanimously. Rep. Edward Lindsey is the lead sponsor.

2008 --Kick-off meeting of the new Georgia Appleseed Young Professionals Council (YPC) led by its first president, Jason Carter. For more background, see https://gaappleseed.org/ypc.

2006-- Georgia Appleseed becomes a lead partner in JUSTGeorgia, a collaborative effort for adoption of a new Georgia juvenile code.

2005--Established; First Executive Director Judge Sharon N. Hill and Board Chair Stephens A., Clay. Founding Firms/Companies include: Southern Company, Eversheds Sutherland, Kilpatrick Townsend and King & Spalding.

What's Next? See our new strategic plan: [link]