Housing Justice Saturday!

This past Saturday was jam packed with a lot of exciting housing justice work! Saturday morning I had the opportunity to meet with residents of the Peeples town community to talk about the housing crisis. There had been talk about the possibility of working on a community wide initiative to address the issue of foreclosures, evictions, lack of affordable housing, and vacant homes.

We purposed moving forward with a community wide listening project in late January early February. A listening project is a different way to engage with a community. Instead of telling folks what they need or what you can offer, a listening project assumes that folks that live in the community have the best ideas about what they need. Listening projects are a way of finding out what a community would like to see change.

The idea was very well received with multiple residents volunteering yo help do interviews door to door for the listening project. Super excited to move forward on that project next year!


All day the Atlanta Friends Meeting House hosted Occupy Our Homes Atlanta's year end member retreat, at which AFSC had a seat at the table. The retreat is an opportunity to reflect on the last year of work, look at the goals that were set last year, evaluate what was accomplished and what areas still need work. There was also space to set new goals for 2014, one of which is the listening project in Peeples town!

Rob Call put together this pretty amazing 2013 recap video, check it out:






To top off the night we had a holiday party at the Atlanta Friends Meeting House with delicious food, lots of folks, and music. It's important to create space to reflect and celebrate our work and each other. It's hard work, which is why so many call it struggle, which makes it even more important to lift up our victories.

BIG thanks to the Atlanta Friends Meeting House!

Celebrating A Year Of Housing Justice Work In Atlanta

A week ago the Atlanta Friends Meeting House played host to Occupy Our Homes Atlanta's holiday party. It was a space to celebrate and reflect on the all of our work. Occupy Our Homes Atlanta has brought has managed to bring the Occupy movement into some of the hardest hit communities in Atlanta and built real momentum through tangible victories for those in housing crisis.

At the party several residents shared their transformative experience with folks and we were all treated to a beautiful film screening of a short look at some of the work we've engaged in over the year put together by Rob Call.



It was a time for me personally reflect on the role Quakers have played supporting the movement in Atlanta. Not only has American Friends Service Committee provided tangible support in countless ways, but the Atlanta Friends Meeting House has provided space when needed and many of it's members have made considerable contributions to the work.

I'm proud to know that the AFSC and the larger Quaker community in Atlanta has lived up to it's legacy of quietly nurturing the grassroots that grow resistance to systems of violence and oppression in a way that lifts up those most impacted.

A big thanks to the Atlanta Friends Meeting House for hosting, and Erik Voss for all the beautiful pictures which you can see here.

The Road Back From Detroit, A Youth Report Back

On Monday July 26 The Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition hosted a report back from the 2010 United States Social Forum which was held a month earlier in Detroit. This was no ordinary report back, instead of getting an academic analysis of the events in Detroit attendees were treated to more personal narratives from the young people who road to Detroit in the AFSC organized van.
The reason Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition decided to have a report back in this format was two fold.

1. The United State's Social Forum was HUGE! It would be so difficult to give an accurate summery of what went down. As Amber Keller said, " You could ask ten people and get ten different opinions". It seems the best way to get a comprehensive report on the many aspects of the Forum and the actions items that are coming out of it is to visit the official USSF 2010 site:

http://www.ussf2010.org/

2. For those of us that went there was a general feeling that this year's USSF was much more youthful then the last, and perhaps more youthful then other national progressive mobilizations. We wanted to create a venue where young people could discuss how the experience effected them, and how they plan to apply the lessons of Detroit here in Atlanta.


Erica Schoon, With American Friends Service Committee, played emcee for the evening and members of the Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition provided a pretty amazing dinner spread. It was an evening of tummy warming food and heart warming stories.











Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee