Growing Justice
Celebrating 20 years of Georgia Appleseed 2005-2025
Georgia Appleseed launches under the leadership of Founding Board Chair, Steve Clay, and Founding Executive Director, Sharon Hill. Kilpatrick donates in-kind space for our first offices. We move to Taylor English in 2017.
Georgia Appleseed co-founds the JUSTGeorgia Coalition to reform Georgia’s outdated juvenile code.
‘Justice for People with Mental Illness in Georgia,’ spotlights systemic gaps in care, influencing reforms.
Inaugural Good Apple Award Dinner: Teri McClure (UPS) and Frank Alexander (Emory School of Law) are our first Good Apple awardees.
"Thanks to Appleseed’s work with the JUSTGeorgia coalition, as well as the generosity of so many Appleseed attorneys and partners, and the commitment you’ve shown in standing up for children, the poor, and others who, too often, are marginalized and underserved – you’ve proven that progress is possible.”
– U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
Our groundbreaking “Embracing Common Wisdom" report builds momentum for reform.
IMPACT: A statewide shift toward rehabilitation and diversion from detention.
Post-Katrina, we respond to families denied FEMA aid due to lack of clear legal title in their homes, and propose legal reforms.
POLICY WIN: We success-fully advocate for adoption of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (2012), increasing protections for landowners in poor, and particularly, Black communities.
Our ‘Effective Student Discipline’ report sparks state interest in alternatives to suspension, laying the groundwork for statewide adoption of evidence-based positive school climate practices.
"Keeping Kids in Class" Toolkit provides practical tools to reduce out-of-school suspensions and publishes discipline rates for Georgia public schools.
We publish ‘Unlocking Heir Property Ownership’ and propose creation of
an independent law firm to help families clear title to family property.
IMPACT: Families gain access to loans, aid, and stability over the 1.5 million acres of Georgia land held in heirs property, valued at $34 billion.
We launch the Georgia Education Climate Coalition (GECC), to lead a transformation of school discipline policies. Suspension rates decline steadily.
"When schools adopt PBIS and other disciple reform strategies recommended by Georgia Appleseed, discipline rates drop significantly, students feel connected, schools are safer, and teacher retention increases.”
— Dr. Garry McGiboney, Former Deputy
State Superintendent of Education
IMPACT: Hundreds of thousands fewer children are suspended—and stay on track to graduate.
Georgia Appleseed partners with Barton Child Law and Policy Center and Voices for Georgia’s Children drives the JUSTGeorgia
Coalition.
POLICY WIN: Georgia passes a complete juvenile code rewrite (HB 242–2014), unanimously.
"Within two years of the new code’s implementation, Georgia reduced youth in secure facilities by 20%.”
— Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
Georgia Appleseed spins off the independent Georgia Heirs Property Law Center.
"With the Heirs Property Act and expanded legal services, . . . currently inaccessible wealth can be unlocked to benefit the families who have lived on the land for generations.”
— Sharon Hill, Georgia Appleseed
Founding Executive Director
After the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a Georgia mayor asks for our help to prevent similar fatal police‑citizen encounters. We begin a wide-reaching, data‑driven effort to rebuild police–community trust statewide.
IMPACT: We invite more than 500 Georgians to share experiences and ideas. 180+ pro‑bono attorneys and other volunteers perform 140 in‑depth stakeholder interviews—with police, prosecutors, clergy, youth advocates, neighborhood leaders, and others.
We publish “Seeking the Beloved Community,” presenting 10+ specific, actionable reforms.
We facilitate statewide community forums, “Crucial Conversations,” to share findings and collect local input, in partnership with the State Bar and other community partners.
"Bringing together hundreds of officers, lawyers, youth, families, and neighbors opened eyes, built trust, and sparked a movement that will keep pushing until we reach the beloved community Dr. King showed us.”
— Harold Franklin, Partner, King & Spalding, Past President, Gate City and Atlanta Bar Associations
Georgia Appleseed launches the Tribunal Volunteer Lawyers Network (TVLN) to provide legal support to students in school discipline cases.
We launch FAIR to reach hundreds more foster-involved youth across Georgia. Staff train thousands of caseworkers, foster parents, and other advocates.
POLICY WINS: We propose and help pass many reforms, including for school accountability (SB 42 - 2021), mental health and school climate (HB 268 - 2025), and timely school hearings and instructional materials for students (SB 169 - 2024).
We launch our school-based behavioral health (SBBH) initiative, Bridges to Behavioral Health, to study integrating mental health services in schools. We form the SBBH Collaborative with The Carter Center and Voices for Georgia’s Children.
We publish our Medicaid Appeals Manual to help lawyers secure medically necessary care for children, in response to widespread, unjustified denials of children’s health care coverage by certain insurers
POLICY WINS: We draft and help pass the Trauma Impact Rule (HB 855 -2021) to address the impact of trauma on academics and behavior. With partners, we advocate successfully for the Mental Health Parity Act (HB 1013 - 2022) to improve access to mental health treatment.
The SBBH Collaborative develops a hub for best practices and resources at schoolbasedbehavioralhealth.org.
Our partnership is promoting mental health for all of Georgia’s children, boosting academic performance and preventing juvenile justice involvement.”
— Dr. Eve Byrd, Director of The Carter Center Mental Health Program
FAIR Project 2.0 expands statewide
to serve students on free/reduced lunch and adds special education advocacy.
IMPACT: Our legal support directly prevents 23,300 days each year of out-of-school suspension or expulsion – about four months per student – giving them life-changing opportunities to continue toward graduation.
"Thank you again for your willingness to help. You are one of a kind and truly an on-time blessing”
— Parent
Substandard rentals to safe homes: protecting tenants across Georgia
We launch our Georgia Healthy Housing Coalition (GHHC) to improve safety and stability in low-income rental homes.
POLICY WIN: We draft, help pass Georgia’s first law protecting tenants from retaliation for organizing or reporting unsafe housing (HB 346 – 2019).
We found the Homelessness Intervention Project (HIP) in Clayton County, which partners with the Magistrate Court and community leaders.
IMPACT: In 6 years, HIP-inspired reforms protect 3,000+ families from eviction, create a process for housing assistance, and help bring millions in housing relief to Clayton county.
NARRATIVE SHIFT: We lead a statewide push for a COVID eviction moratorium and spotlight Georgia’s dangerous rental housing crisis.
POLICY WIN: We successfully advocate for the Safe at Home Act (HB 404 - 2024), first state-wide standards for rental homes.
Executive Director Michael Waller testifies before a U.S. Senate Committee about institutional landlords and unhealthy housing impacts on Georgia families.
"The anti-retaliation bill was the first significant new landlord-tenant protection in Georgia in over 40 years.”
— Steve Gottlieb, Executive Director, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, retired
We mark two decades of justice and opportunity for Georgia’s children and families.
We envision a Georgia where every child thrives at home and at school. Help us plant the seeds for the next 20 years.
Our Big Goals Ahead:
An advocate for every child – expanding FAIR services statewide.
Mental health supports in every school – make school-based behavioral health as common as the school lunch.
Safer, healthier housing across Georgia, promoting stability for families and communities.
No more school-to-prison pipeline - Kids are in school, learning, and on track to graduate.
