Atlanta Local Organizing Programs

Over the last eight years, the youth development work at Project South has laid the foundation for youth-led organizing to address the most pressing concerns in public schools and in Atlanta communities of color. The annual summer program, the Septima Clark Community Power Institute trains up 40 predominantly Black youth to become more effective organizers, facilitators, and leaders in the community. The youth in 2014 collected over 100 surveys that they developed and canvassed in the South Atlanta neighborhoods to determine the highest concerns.

At a youth-led Movement Assembly in October, the youth decided to launch a campaign to address the over-policing and police violence in schools and to re-direct funds to student needs including transportation, childcare, and job training. The $10Mil for Real Campaign was named in response to the $10 million contract that the Atlanta Public Schools paid to the Atlanta Police Department to increase policing. Since the beginning of the year, the Youth Leadership Team meets 2-3 times a week to plan the stages of the campaign including research, media development, education and awareness forums, and decisionmakers roundtables to investigate the process, resources, and accountability of school-based police.

In 2015, the $10Mil4Real Campaign will achieve many wins on the road to a broader victory that transforms how our schools are resourced and made safe. Violence perpetrated by police in schools will be documented by youth and publically released, and educational materials will connect school surveillance to police violence, over-incarceration, and economic injustice.

Communication infrastructure and exchanges will facilitate sharing between Southern youth & National Student Bill of Rights Task Force members in Philadelphia, Boston, & Baltimore.