Real Communities Intiatives Continue Building Inclusive Communities
Real Communities added the following new intiatives to continue its work to build inclusive communities for people with and without disabilities.
Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (GFADP): The State of Georgia has twice tried to execute Warren Hill, a 52 year old man with intellectual disability. Despite undisputed testimony from the States’ experts, Warren faces execution because of Georgia’s incredibly high burden of proof for defendants with intellectual disability. Even with court intervention, Warren remains at risk of execution. His case highlights the ways in which people with developmental and intellectual disabilities are railroaded by the criminal legal system every day. There has been incredible collaboration from the anti-death penalty community and the disability justice/rights community around Warren’s case. Expanding on this partnership, GFADP’s vision is to create local alliances and/or coalitions in three key communities (Atlanta, Columbus and Dawson) that come together to focus on a local problem. Through this coming together, GFADP wants to create meaningful relationship building and leadership development opportunities that move people to action with a focus on the intersections of the criminal legal system and developmental disabilities. This will be achieved by launching local alliances that reflect GFADP’s and Real Communities’ values and are led by local community members; providing uplifting leadership development activities and meaningful leadership roles for individuals with developmental disabilities and their family members; and building strong relationships between – and deepening the analysis of – members of the Disability Justice/Rights community and communities fighting mass incarceration.
Women on the Rise: Women on the Rise – a group formed by formerly incarcerated women – works to create a space where everyone, including the most marginalized, can bring their whole selves, are seen for the gifts they possess, the assets they embody, and feel proud and contribute to the collective. The group also seeks to create a transformative space where people can practice being the change they want to see in the world – being in radically different relationships with each other than what mainstream society teaches. Women on the Rise wants to foster a community of trust, of care, of interdependence, building on the incredible resilience that people and communities have developed and enhancing the capacity to transform trauma to healing, while living and working in deep connection with one another.
The group holds monthly Transformative Leadership Development and Community Building gatherings and Strategy Sessions as a part of activities for the Real Communities Initiative. This past summer, they ran a successful internship program for formerly incarcerated women, conducted street and organizational outreach, engaged leaders in an intensive somatic leadership development program, and won an important policy victory that impacts the lives of hundreds of formerly incarcerated people in Fulton County.
