GEORGIA WAND EDUCATION FUND INC
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Mission Statement
To educate the public about the need to re-direct public investment in environmental justice and human needs while ending systemic violence, resulting in less of our taxes going weapons production and toxic waste.
About This Cause
Georgia WAND is a black women-led, grassroots, nonprofit organization educating and developing frontline women leaders to create sustainable change in their communities. We work at the intersection of systemic racism and misogyny, environmental and climate justice, the nuclear industry, rural and regional justice, public spending on state violence and militarism, and public health. Our work centers frontline communities living downstream/downwind from expanding nuclear weapons and energy sites. Our efforts are created and led by women of color in Burke County, GA. Rural areas of Burke are mostly black. The County has long-standing roots in agriculture, but today the community is poor or working class. Of Burke’s 22,925 residents, 32% live below the poverty line, compared to 19% for the rest of Georgia. There is high unemployment (14.1%). Burke County residents are historically disadvantaged and have borne the brunt of radiological contamination from the nuclear industry. Burke County is downstream and downwind from the Southeast’s highest concentration of radiological contaminants: Nuclear power Plant Vogtle, currently expanding from two to four operating reactors, is located on land once owned by black farmers. The 310-sq mile nuclear weapons complex Savannah River Site across the river has increased tritium manufacturing three-fold; plans to produce 50 plutonium pits in the coming years; and is currently increasing Spent Nuclear Fuel reprocessing. We are the only organization invested in educating and developing leadership among black women who are directly affected by this confluence of environmental insults. The project utilizes a cohort methodology: each month, ten leaders will receive education, and then do an activity for experiential learning outside the meeting. The meetings will consist of educational and discussion components so the women in the room can share their expertise gained through their lived experience. We developed Nuclear Harm Reduction, a framework, tool, and strategy, to build relationships between nuclear agency officials and local communities to collectively create solutions. This model brings people together across sector, geography, and background. Informed by frontline residents, this model centers people who are employed by the toxin-producing industries that contaminate their environment. They share dual concerns about high cancer rates in the area and a reliance on well-paying jobs at the plants. In the past year, we have accomplished the following efforts: 1. We contacted 121,392 registered voters in the following counties: Fulton, Dekalb, Burke, Richmond, Screven, Jenkins, Effingham, Chatham, Appling, Early. We made 78,867 phone calls; canvassed 110 doors in Atlanta City Council Districts 1, 4, 12; sent over 118,000 educational / GOTV mailers to our targeted counties; participated in a texting campaign with Atlanta Jobs with Justice; registered over 340 people to vote; completed 225 voter pledge cards; and made 1,418 calls for the Dec 4 Run-Off election. We hired a permanent We Count! Coordinator who oversaw 29 canvassers from the communities we serve, such as Peoplestown, Mechanicsville, the Dunbar community, Agnes Scott College, and Spelman College. During our GOTV work, we surveyed voters on the phones about the relationship between climate change, the nuclear industry, and the Public Service Commission race. We were able to have this conversation with 3,500 people across the state. 2. We hosted the 6th annual NPU-V Community Forum; were asked back to host the 7th annual forum; and we hired young mothers of Dunbar Elementary School children to go door to door in NPU-V, targeting other mothers and grandparents of Dunbar kids, as part of our GOTV canvassing efforts. 3. We brokered and supported the launch of the Radionuclide Environmental Monitoring and Outreach Program (R.E.M.O.P.) with the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Lab, a three-year participatory, community-based program in Shell Bluff, Burke County, GA. We engaged the community primarily through "Community Talks”. We helped build a Community Advisory Council (CAC) to serve as an advisory council REMOP. 4. We successfully underwent a Just Transition within our organization in which Lindsay Harper, former deputy director, has assumed the executive director position; and Becky Rafter, former executive director, has become Development Lead. We hired staff in Burke County, GA, who co-designed campaigns and programs to build power in rural Georgia. By developing leaders in front-line communities, Georgia WAND is more effectively facilitating social change. We hired a Nuclear Harm Reduction Strategist, Government Affairs Coordinator, and Civic Engagement Coordinator. 5. We held several successful events in Southwest Atlanta and beyond: Justravaganza and the launch of the "Freedom to Breath" tour; Leadership in Partnership; the REAL State of the Union; Mother's Day for Peace; Hiroshima and Nagaski Remembrance; Public Service Commission rallies and partiication around the Integrated Resource Plan and Vogtle Construction Monitoring Report; DC Days; Conversation Day at the Capitol; our 1st Annual Legislative Tea and Sweets, and other events. 6. We co-authored a report: Community Impacts at the Crossroads of Nuclear and Climate Injustices 7. Conducted a survey and focus groups with Korean American Georgians in Gwinnett County about nuclear weapons, militarism, foreign policy between the U.S. and the Korean peninsula, racism and the U.S. media, and allotment of public resources distributed to various racial and ethnic communities. These surveys were conducted in partnership with Asian Americans Advancing Justice (Advancing Justice) and were conducted in Korean. We also held a Telephone Town Hall translated into Korean in real time, in which over 600 people across the country took part. 8. Secured the support of a powerful coalition, the Partnership for Southern Equity’s Just Energy Circle, for our Just Transition jobs policy. In that, Becky Rafter became chair of the Just Energy Circle’s Policy Committee. 9. We are launching an Atlanta-based project-- the Redistricting Initiative, where our We Count! team will be hosting a town hall meeting to inform and educate voters about redistricting and gerrymanding, and we will be hiring a fellow to manage that process. In addition, we are working closely with NPU-V resident leaders in crafting, budgeting, and planning for the 7th annual NPU-V Community Forum. We were pleased to have been asked back to host a second year, and as yet are the only organization that has. We are facilitating a community-led process, which focuses on providing stipends to local youth, leaders, and vendors to provide a robust event, rather than bringing in outside facilitators as in years past. Working so closely on this project was not in our plans yet we are grateful to do it! 10. Another new initiative is based in Burke County, the Burke County Organizing Project (BCOP), which we plan to replicate in NPU-V. BCOP will educate and train front-line women leaders in Burke County, GA. Burke residents bear the brunt of the nuclear industries' environmental contamination, including radioactive tritium, in their water, land, air, and food. This project will increase the number of local women residents who are educated about what’s going on and can begin speaking out for themselves and developing nuclear harm reduction strategies. The project's will follow a cohort model, through which 10 local leaders will create and conduct a community survey about water, emergency preparedness needs, public health, and voting habits. Since Burke County needs data, we will share with the results of the survey as part of our feedback loop and a tool to enhance awareness and public participation. The project will also be increase resources and income opportunities for local residents, who will receive stipends for participating in the program. Each month, the 10 cohort members will have a meeting and an activity outside the meeting. The meetings will consist of both an educational and discussion component. The educational and training topics range from civic engagement, to nuclear weapons, to building consensus. Outside of the meetings, the cohort will conduct the water survey as well as other activities. Georgia WAND works in several coalitions. Some main partners are listed here: -Georgia WAND helped launch ProGeorgia in 2012 and served as its fiscal sponsor from 2012-2015. Georgia WAND's executive director serves on the board of directors of ProGeorgia; and two other staff members are involved in four ProGeorgia working groups. Georgia WAND works with ProGeorgia, Georgia's civic engagement state table, and its partner organizations to maximize use of the Voter Action Network (VAN / voter file) and other resources regarding voter engagement in targeted areas. Results of our work with ProGeorgia last year included our successful GOTV campaign, which reached over 120,000 voters; capacity building support from ProGeorgia; conducting a voter survey with 3,500 people across the state; and providing tracking data to know how many of the people we contacted actually voted. -Georgia WAND participates in Partnership for Southern Equity's Just Energy Circle (JEC). We participate in the JEC as chair of the Policy Committee, supporting the annual Just Energy Summit, spearheading the nuclear track regarding the industry’s environmental pollutants, and serving on the JEC executive committee. Results from our partnership in the last year include hosting a successful Leadership in Partnership two-day summit in Burke County, GA; launching a statewide survey to inform our participatory sustainable and equitable jobs policy platform; and developing a statement about the Integrated Resource Plan, which was read to the Public Service Commission -Georgia WAND serves on the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC)'s Legislative Committee; Groundwater Protection Subcommittee; and Equity and Diversity Committee. We support their annual Capitol Conservation Day, especially the coalition's groundwater protection efforts.