Wildlife and nature

Animal shelters and rescues

Theater and dance

Rivers, parks and trails

Hunger and food

Schools and learning

Housing and homelessness

Community health

Mental health

Mentoring and foster care

Legal help and rights

Jobs and money help

Atlanta

The Triangle

Everywhere

The Collective Workshop

Royal Animal Refuge

Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta

Georgia Advancing Communities Together

Atlanta Writers Club

Cobb Collaborative

Bosleys Place

Jewish Fertility Foundation

Emery Wright

La’Die Mansfeld

Azadeh Shahashani

Hanifah Shoatz-Bey

Shelley Danzy

Marc Turk

Annie Thomas

Ra’Niqua Lee

Stephanie Guilloud

Priyanka Bhatt

Desiree Evans

Ayinde Summers

Bassey Etuk

Jemar Raheem

Nautica Jenkins

Sofía Veronica Montez

Tina Al-kherson

Solidad Tillman

Imani Austin

Nanyamka Shukura

Evelyn Zachery

Kumasi Amin

Brandon Pittman

Aljosie Aldrich Harding

Programs

Events

About

Communities

As we prepare to celebrate 40 years of Project South's movement building work, we are also doing some reflection so that we can proactively move toward our next 40 years. We want to hear from our community! Whether you currently work with Project South or have worked with us in the past, participated in one of our programs, partnered with us in the work, or are part of the communities we serve and represent, your voice, experiences, and perspectives matter to us! If you have a few extra minutes, please fill out our survey! Thank you! TAKE THE SURVEY (CLICK THE QR CODE OR LINK IN BIO): bit.ly/PS40SUR

Project South Staff Attorney Sofía Montez will represent our team at an important community gathering hosted by the Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition (ISC) and the Interfaith Clergy Partnership of Greater Athens (ICPGA) in Athens, GA, on November 15! Sofía will join the conversation to explore the interconnected struggles against state repression faced by racialized communities and the urgent need to build solidarity across communities and movements.

📣 Join us tomorrow, October 29! Project South’s Movement Organizing Senior Strategist, Stephanie Guilloud, will join movement leaders for an important conversation hosted by Muslims for Just Futures (MJF): The Next 25: Movement Investment Prospectus Webinar. Building on MJF's Convergence 2.0: Futures Free of State Terror, this special virtual gathering will launch the complete Movement Investment Prospectus and the Capital for Just Futures campaign, outlining a bold 25-year vision for divesting from the War on Terror and investing in the collective power, resources, and infrastructure communities need to shape their own futures. 🗓️ Thursday, October 29, 2026 ⏰ 12:00–1:30 PM CT | 1:00–2:30 PM ET | 10:00–11:30 AM PT 💻 Virtual Webinar 🎤 Featured Speakers: Darakshan Raja | Executive Director, Muslims for Just Futures U.S. Representative Delia C. Ramirez Stephanie Guilloud | Senior Strategist, Project South Sahar Pirzada | Director, HEART Loan Tran | Executive Director, Rising Majority Lailah Said | Manager, Beloved Community Incubator 🔗 Register here: https://form.jotform.com/262784476932168

Our Gulf South family is in our thoughts as Hurricane Isaias approaches landfall along the Gulf Coast. States of emergency have been declared in parts of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. We're resharing these important hurricane preparedness and safety tips adapted from the K20 Planning Committee to help our communities stay safe. We encourage everyone in the storm's path to stay informed, take precautions, and look out for one another. In moments like these, community care, solidarity, and mutual aid are more important than ever. Stay safe, check on your neighbors, and remember: we keep each other safe. 💙

📢 UPDATE: EVENT POSTPONED: 📢 Brownsville Homecoming & People’s Movement Assembly (PMA) Postponed After thoughtful conversations with community members, partners, and staff, and in a spirit of collective care, accountability, and love, Project South has made the decision to postpone the Brownsville Homecoming & People’s Movement Assembly (PMA) due to the potential impact of Hurricane Isaias and the State of Emergency declared in Georgia and other states. The safety and well-being of our communities remain our highest priority. Project South is reaching out directly to all confirmed and registered participants and partners to share this update. We ask that you help spread the word to anyone in your networks who may have planned to attend. Over the next two weeks, we will work to confirm a new date for the Brownsville Homecoming & PMA and share that information with our community as soon as possible. We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who has poured their time, energy, and love into organizing this gathering. To our Brownsville community members, youth leaders, partners, organizers, and Project South staff, thank you for your commitment to this process and to building collective power in our communities. This work continues, and we look forward to coming together when it is safe to do so. We are postponed, not canceled! In solidarity and love, Project South

On September 26, 175+ women from every state will come together in Houston to train, organize, strategize, and begin building what comes next. @womensmarch is convening feminists from across the country to connect, strengthen our collective power, and build the infrastructure needed for the work ahead. 📍 Houston, TX | September 26 🎟️ For tickets, visit womensmarch.com/conveningtickets * Project South is excited to be partnering with Women's March this year to train up a cohort of community leaders in all 50 states + DC and Puerto Rico to organize Women's Assemblies. Over the next year, hundreds will gather in assemblies to discuss how gender is used by authoritarians to divide, control, and demonize. They will discuss visions and strategies to activate the power of women, including transwomen and nonbinary people, setting our own agendas and taking action to build what we need in our communities. We are proud to partner with Women's March to move from mobilization to organizing, and from isolation to collective unity. It is time to move from reacting to attacks to building solutions for the long haul.

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the War on Terror, Project South is reflecting on what 25 years of resistance can teach us as we build strategies to protect Muslim communities, Black people, migrants, organizers, and all those facing criminalization and persecution in 2026. - What have our movements learned? - What strategies have carried us through? - And how can those lessons help us build power for what comes next? 👉🏾 Click through the slides for a few lessons from the last quarter century of resistance and what they can teach us now.

📢 TOMORROW! Project South's next Local to Global Webinar: 25 Years of Fighting the "War on Terror"! 🔗 Register here: bit.ly/NOWOT25 🗓️ Friday, September 11, 2026 @ 1-2pm ET The so-called “War on Terror” intensified aggressive imperial military occupations; expanded domestic surveillance; created DHS and ICE; and further shaped legal frameworks to counter dissent in the United States and around the globe. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we recognize how the mechanisms for U.S. violence upon the Global South are informed by, and reinforce, the violence of the police state at home. As we build our strategies to protect Black people, Muslim communities, migrants, and all those facing criminalization and persecution in 2026, what lessons do we need to sharpen and apply from 25 years of fighting back against the “War on Terror”? Project South Staff Attorney and member of the Countering State Repression Initiative Sofía Verónica Montez will moderate a discussion on the current moment with frontline organizers working across global borders. Speakers: Khury Petersen-Smith - Institute for Policy Studies Fatema Ahmad - Muslim Justice League Nisrin Elamin - Sudan Solidarity Collective Moderator: Sofía Verónica Montez, Project South

Breaking ICE: The Link Between Injustice at Home and Abroad Project South Staff Attorney and member of the Countering State Repression Initiative, Sofía Verónica Montez, will be speaking on September 24the from 7-9 PM at Oakhurst Presbyterian Church about the connections between state violence at home and U.S. violence abroad, and what we can do to protect our communities. Sofía will discuss how the current violence and repression carried out by ICE connects to the genocide in Gaza and the war against Iran, examining how systems of militarization, surveillance, detention, displacement, and state repression cross borders and affect our communities. The conversation will explore how we can build solidarity and keep one another safe across differences of nationality, immigration status, and background. THE ESCALATION Learn how the United States has intensified violence, repression, and militarization against people at home and abroad, and how these struggles are connected. THE CALL TO ACTION Gain practical strategies and resources for protecting your neighbors, responding to state repression, and strengthening community safety. BUILD COMMUNITY Meet others committed to solidarity, collective safety, and building stronger communities across borders. Join us for an evening of political education, conversation, and collective action as we examine the connections between struggles at home and abroad, and consider what solidarity demands of us now.

Project South is excited to join the Muslim Counterpublics Lab and over 30 organizations at the convening, “When Will This War End: Lessons and Legacies of the War on Terror,” being held September 17-18, 2026 at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Project South Staff Attorney Tina Al-khersan will be moderating a panel on Sept. 17th called, “Palestine and the War on Terror: (Dis)arming Genocidaires and State Repression.” This year marks two anniversaries: 25 years of the Global War on Terror and 250 years of the American empire. We can never truly quantify or unearth all the levels of harm that have been inflicted. This conference comes at a critical juncture where the narratives, structures, and policies that led to the murder of millions of people through war and genocide continues to wreak havoc on the lives of Muslims, Arabs, and other targeted communities in the U.S. and across the globe. Conference details such as speakers, session descriptions, schedule and registration can be found at: WarOnTerror25.org

🔗 FOR MORE ON K20 MOVEMENT AGREEMENTS AND THE ASSEMBLY OF ASSEMBLIES, VISIT: bit.ly/AOA2027 *** One year ago, at the Katrina 20 People’s Movement Assembly, we collectively affirmed the K20 Movement Agreements, ten practices to help guide our movements in the years ahead. Today, we can see those agreements taking root. From assemblies focused on dismantling the prison industrial complex to gatherings centered on the power of arts and culture, people across the country are coming together to understand the conditions we face, build relationships across movements, develop shared strategies, and strengthen our collective power. As we mark another anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we remember what the South has shown us again and again: when our communities are abandoned, attacked, or left to fend for ourselves, we organize. We care for one another. We build what we need. We resist. ✊🏾 📲 Read through the carousel and consider: Which Movement Agreements are showing up on your frontlines? How are you putting them into practice? Tell us what this work looks like in your community! 📖 We also invite you to revisit the K20 Report and K20 Movement Agreements, learn more about the Assembly of Assemblies, and explore how these practices can take root in your own community and organizing: bit.ly/AOA2027

📣 DEADLINE THIS MONDAY, AUGUST 31st! APPLY TODAY: bit.ly/PSMedic **** Project South’s Community First Response 9-Day Training! Project South is continuing to build community capacity for emergency medical response by offering our next Wilderness First Responder certification course. This intensive training focuses on assessing, stabilizing, and caring for people in situations where illness or injury requires immediate action and professional medical help may be delayed. While Wilderness First Responder certification is traditionally designed for outdoor recreation and remote travel, often a privileged space, at Project south we are intentionally bringing these skills into frontline communities where access to timely emergency medical care is often limited. Whether because of underinvestment, climate disasters, state violence, or other social crises, many of our neighborhoods cannot rely on immediate emergency response. This training equips community members with the knowledge and confidence to provide life-saving care when it matters most. These life-saving medical mutual aid and first response skills are deeply rooted in the pioneering work of Black and Brown street medics who provided life-saving care in communities facing barriers to emergency medical services. The Black Radical Traditions has always taught us that liberation is holistic. Healing our people is political work. A community that can treat its own wounds, literally, is one that will survive and thrive. Bringing these skills back into our neighborhoods is more important than ever. This First Responder course is an excellent complement to any previous first aid training. However no previous training is needed. The course runs for 9 full days, with over 80 hours of focused, life saving information, practical application, and real world scenarios. Classes meet from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day, with two evening sessions that continue until 10:00 p.m. It will be held at Project South’s wooded sanctuary land in rural Georgia. Space is limited. Join us! This is for your block, your organization, and our collective movement. Someone needs to be ready when it matters most. Be that person.

Resharing a few lessons from Hurricane Katrina as we approach the anniversary and face today's crises. 1. Disasters are Political Disasters reveal the political and social fault lines already present in our society: who is deemed worthy of rescue, who is left behind, and whose lives are considered expendable. 2. Mutual Aid is Essential: Solidarity, Not Charity In the hours and days after the storm, communities across the Gulf Coast came together to rescue and house the displaced, and to deliver medical and relief services in the gaps left behind. Mutual aid must be a deeply rooted part of our social justice organizing. 3. Disaster Capitalism is a Brutal Reality Rather than investing in recovery for the people most affected, local leaders partnered with developers and corporations to reshape the Gulf Coast in ways that deepened inequality and sidelined working-class communities. Social movement organizing must stand with frontline communities to defend against displacement: to fight for a just recovery and a right to return. 4. Media Shapes the Narrative In Katrina’s aftermath mainstream media criminalized Black survivors, fueling state brutality and vigilante attacks on Black communities. To resist such harm, movement groups must challenge corporate media and reclaim the power to tell their own stories. Our storytelling is an act of survival, defense, and strategy. It is social movement infrastructure. 5. Frontline Communities are the Experts Frontline communities are often the ones with the deepest wisdom about survival. Look to them for solutions that are grounded in people’s lived experiences and cultural histories. What Do We Do Now? We keep building! We prepare our movements to meet the disasters to come. We study movement history to learn how people resisted and fought back in the face of abandonment and violence. We mobilize people power. When systems collapse, it’s our collective action that carries us through. Our organizing shows what’s possible when we refuse to leave one another behind. This is how we survive, and this is how prepare for the next disaster and beyond: for a future rooted in liberation. We are stronger together.

FOR MORE ON THE ASSEMBLY OF ASSEMBLIES AND TO DOWNLOAD THE K20 REPORT: bit.ly/AOA2027 One year ago thousands of people across the Gulf South held events and commemorations marking 20 years since Hurricane Katrina. As part of a powerful week of action in New Orleans, Project South co-facilitated the K20 People’s Movement Assembly alongside our allies and in partnership with the Katrina 20 Local Planning Committee. More than 200 people gathered together at the K20 PMA to honor the lessons and visions that have grown out of the decades since Katrina. Including the networks of grassroots power built in the face of disaster, displacement, and state abandonment. A year later, the lessons of Katrina are more important than ever. Across the country, we continue to see the state fail to protect our communities. We see it in the response to extreme climate disasters, the weakening of our food safety net and public health systems, the kidnapping of our immigrant community members, and the horrific deaths inside ICE detention. From power outages in Gary and Memphis, to Black people killed by police and the National Guard, working-class Black communities face many of the same questions Katrina asked us to confront: Who is protected? Who is abandoned? Who is criminalized? And what do we do when the systems that are supposed to keep us safe instead cause more harm? Katrina taught us that a climate disaster is never just about the storm itself. What happened in New Orleans was also shaped by racism, public policy, corporate extraction, and government neglect. But Katrina also showed us what people can do when we organize together. Those are lessons we still need today. This weekend, take time to reconnect with the lessons and commitments that emerged from K20: - Revisit the K20 Report and reflect on the lessons from the gathering. - Read and share the K20 Movement Agreements. - Learn more about the Assembly of Assemblies planned for April 2027. - - Bring the Movement Agreements into your community, organization, and everyday organizing. - Gather with others to discuss how these practices can strengthen our movements and build collective power.

📢 Project South's next Local to Global Webinar! 25 Years of Fighting the "War on Terror" Friday, September 11, 2026 @ 1-2pm ET The so-called “War on Terror” intensified aggressive imperial military occupations; expanded domestic surveillance; created DHS and ICE; and further shaped legal frameworks to counter dissent in the United States and around the globe. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we recognize how the mechanisms for U.S. violence upon the Global South are informed by, and reinforce, the violence of the police state at home. As we build our strategies to protect Black people, Muslim communities, migrants, and all those facing criminalization and persecution in 2026, what lessons do we need to sharpen and apply from 25 years of fighting back against the “War on Terror”? Project South Staff Attorney and member of the Countering State Repression Initiative Sofía Verónica Montez will moderate a discussion on the current moment with frontline organizers working across global borders. Speakers: Khury Petersen-Smith - Institute for Policy Studies Fatema Ahmad - Muslim Justice League Nisrin Elamin - Sudan Solidarity Collective Moderator: Sofía Verónica Montez, Project South Register today: bit.ly/NOWOT25

In honor of Black August, Project South is resharing book recommendations from our staff to honor the month. This list features organizers, freedom fighters, and visionaries who have resisted incarceration, fought for liberation from behind prison walls, organized to dismantle the prison system, worked alongside communities to win reparations for state violence, and strengthened our movements through poetry, political education, and organizing. May we spend this month in study, reflection, and action. #BlackAugust #BookRecommendations

📣 JOIN US! Project South’s Community First Response 9-Day Training! Project South is continuing to build community capacity for emergency medical response by offering our next Wilderness First Responder certification course. This intensive training focuses on assessing, stabilizing, and caring for people in situations where illness or injury requires immediate action and professional medical help may be delayed. While Wilderness First Responder certification is traditionally designed for outdoor recreation and remote travel, often a privileged space, at Project south we are intentionally bringing these skills into frontline communities where access to timely emergency medical care is often limited. Whether because of underinvestment, climate disasters, state violence, or other social crises, many of our neighborhoods cannot rely on immediate emergency response. This training equips community members with the knowledge and confidence to provide life-saving care when it matters most. These life-saving medical mutual aid and first response skills are deeply rooted in the pioneering work of Black and Brown street medics who provided life-saving care in communities facing barriers to emergency medical services. The Black Radical Traditions has always taught us that liberation is holistic. Healing our people is political work. A community that can treat its own wounds, literally, is one that will survive and thrive. Bringing these skills back into our neighborhoods is more important than ever. This First Responder course is an excellent complement to any previous first aid training. However no previous training is needed. The course runs for 9 full days, with over 80 hours of focused, life saving information, practical application, and real world scenarios. Classes meet from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day, with two evening sessions that continue until 10:00 p.m. It will be held at Project South’s wooded sanctuary land in rural Georgia. Space is limited. Join us! This is for your block, your organization, and our collective movement. Someone needs to be ready when it matters most. Be that person. APPLY ONLINE HERE: bit.ly/PSMedic

At Project South, when we say we are stronger together, we acknowledge that our movements are built by organizations, grassroots groups, communities, and people united in struggle. We believe that powerful social movements rooted in collective action and people power are the foundation of our collective liberation. As we work to keep each other safe in the streets, we must also work to protect our movements and organizations. The State Department recently released a report timed to coincide with the July ministerial on “Far Left Terrorism.” The report, centered on Cuba, is another political weapon aimed at discrediting social justice activism. It echoes 1940s McCarthyism and 1960s COINTELPRO attacks on social movements. Alongside the National Security Memo (NSPM-7), the Trump regime is putting in place legal mechanisms to target anyone who challenges the West, whiteness, or U.S. policies. In other words, all of us who stand against fascism. These measures justify more repression and control by the state while discrediting the work of people advocating for racial, economic, environmental, and social justice. As Toni Morrison reminds us in Racism & Fascism, fascist regimes seek to “criminalize the enemy” and “maintain, at all costs, silence.” As attacks on our movements intensify, and as the state continues to kill, disappear, detain, and intimidate our communities, our response must be rooted in solidarity and organized resistance to fascism in all its forms. This is a time to be bold, to be loud, and to connect across our differences. Project South remains firm in our belief that social movements are the primary force capable of rebuilding our world. That is precisely why this regime continues to target our movements and the communities organizing power from below. Let us all remain unapologetically and boldly antifascist. And let us stand together in defense of one another against every attempt to divide, intimidate, criminalize, and silence our communities. ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE - Create organizational protection plans: bit.ly/GetReadyZine - Recruit Sanctuary Zones in Atlanta: bit.ly/sanctuaryzone-atl - Join and follow Project South!

🔗 Support Project South's Summer Solidarity Campaign: bit.ly/FundPS26 ✊🏾 Help Us Build the Mutual Aid Liberation Center @ 9 Gammon! The Mutual Aid Liberation Center (MALC) @ 9 Gammon, a collaborative project of Project South and the Hunger Coalition of Atlanta, is housed in a 70-year-old building that was once a community center and school. Every day, we care for this historic space while imagining what it can become for generations to come. Located in South Atlanta, MALC sits within 10-historically Black neighborhoods in what was once Brownsville, one of the first communities established by formerly-enslaved Black people after emancipation. As a Black-led organization in a rapidly gentrifying area, we are committed to honoring Brownsville’s legacy by organizing alongside residents, preserving local history, and helping build its future. We know this place matters. Even during the hottest summer months, when the air conditioning fails, the internet goes down, or the power cuts out, we continue to open our doors and do the work. More importantly, our community continues to show up with us, reminding us that this space belongs to the people who need it most. Today, MALC is a home for movement organizing, political education, mutual aid, food distribution, leadership development, and community gatherings. But the building’s aging infrastructure is limiting what it can support. Your monthly contribution helps us maintain this historic space today while ensuring it can continue serving our communities for the next 100 years. It also brings us closer to the future envisioned in this rendering by @ateliercoryhenry: a fully-renovated campus designed to meet our community’s growing social, climate, and economic needs. Imagine community gardens, playgrounds, affordable housing, meeting spaces, and green gathering spaces! You can help us keep MALC running today in the short-term, and help us build the future our communities deserve for the long-term! 🔗 Donate today: bit.ly/FundPS26 — 📸 Image Credit: Design and concept by ATELIER CORY HENRY

*NEW DATE* 🚨 COMMUNITY RESPONDERS: GETTING READY + STAYING READY We have a new date for the first of Project South's fall BAM Training Series! This first training is designed for community members who have previously completed First Aid and CPR/AED certification and want to refresh their skills in a supportive, hands-on environment. This is not a certification or recertification course! But instead, it's an opportunity to: ✅ Review lifesaving techniques ✅ Practice emergency response skills ✅ Build confidence ✅ Ask questions and learn together ✅ Stay prepared when emergencies happen At Project South, we believe strong communities are built when neighbors are equipped to care for one another in times of crisis. Join us as we strengthen community emergency response capacity together. 📅 Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026 🕚 11:00 AM–3:00 PM 📍 9 Gammon Ave SE Atlanta, GA 30315 Register at the QR Code or online here: bit.ly/bam-june #ProjectSouth #CommunityResponders #MutualAid #EmergencyPreparedness #CPR #FirstAid #CommunityCare #BAMTrainingSeries

Want to stay connected with the work happening on the ground? Follow Project South across all our social media for updates, organizing resources, stories from communities, and opportunities to take action. Every follow helps amplify the work we do! Follow, share, and learn more about our work at: 🌐 Website: www.projectsouth.org 📘 Facebook: ProjectSouthATL 📸 Instagram: ProjectSouthATL 🎥 YouTube: ProjectSouthATL 🐦 X (Twitter): ProjectSouth 🎵 TikTok: ProjectSouth 🦋 Bluesky: ProjectSouth 💼 LinkedIn: ProjectSouth Follow, share our content, and help amplify the voices of communities organizing for a liberated South and future! #ProjectSouth #CommunityPower #SocialJustice #MovementBuilding #Organizing #PeoplePower #SouthernPeoplePower

☀️ DONATE TODAY: bit.ly/FundPS26 Support Project South's Summer Solidarity Campaign! At Project South, we know that we keep each other safe. Your donation helps us: ✊🏽 Train Community First Responders We’re training up community responders. We’ve trained up with more than 100 people though our first-response skills-shares, workshops, and trainings this past year, helping our folks to learn the skills they need to protect and support their neighbors. Your monthly gift helps expand this vital work. 🏡 Build Sanctuary & Liberated Zones Our Mutual Aid Liberation Center @ 9 Gammon and our Sanctuary Land in rural Georgia are both Sanctuary Zones that serve as hubs for organizing, political education, skills training, and resource sharing. Our Sanctuary Zones are being shaped to be spaces where our communities can gather, connect, and support one another. We're also working to implement safety protocols and rapid-response systems at both sites to help community members when they need it most. Every contribution helps strengthen this work. Donate today: bit.ly/FundPS26

This past June, Project South hosted a 2-day Community Medic Training, and it was a powerful step toward building the skills our communities need to care for one another in times of crisis. 📸 Swipe through to check out some photos from the training! Some of the biggest takeaways for attendees: 🩺 1. Focusing on patient assessment. Learning how to quickly evaluate a person's condition and respond to their most immediate needs. 🏥 2. Building emergency community clinics. Exploring how our mutual-aid spaces can be safely transformed into fully operational emergency response clinics when access to traditional healthcare is limited. 🩹 3. Creating intentional first aid and trauma kits. Understanding what supplies and medications are essential and how to improvise with everyday items when resources are scarce. Deep gratitude to the organizers, trainers, and everyone who showed up ready to learn! At Project South we know that learning together is one way we grow our power, and every new skill strengthens our collective ability to keep each other safe. #WeKeepUsSafe #MutualAid #CommunityMedics #SkillUp #FirstResponse #ProjectSouth

Another Tragic Death in ICE Custody in Georgia 🔗 Download + read the full press release: bit.ly/irwindeath As the nation grapples with the ICE murders of Joan Sebastián Guerrero, 26, in Maine, and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, in Texas, another life has been lost in ICE custody here in Georgia. On July 13, Jesus Manuel Arenas-Silva, 45, died while being transferred from the Irwin Detention Center to the Folkston Detention Center in Georgia. Jesus Manuel had been detained by ICE just days earlier. According to his family, he had serious medical needs and relied on medication. His sister shared: "We implored ICE not to take him due to his medical needs, but they didn't listen to our pleas. They also ignored our request to at least allow him to take the medication with him, allowing only one medication." His family is demanding justice and an independent investigation into his death. Fiscal Year 2026 has become the deadliest year in ICE's history. Immigrant justice advocates are calling on Congress to: • Zero out ICE funding • Revoke billions already allocated to the agency • Remove ICE from communities nationwide • Shut down ICE detention centers, including Irwin From Priyanka Bhatt, Project South’s Senior Staff Attorney: “It is appalling that ICE has caused the death of yet another community member, Mr. Jesus Manuel Arenas-Silva, in Georgia. This tragedy raises the death toll to 21 deaths in ICE custody in Georgia since 2005. This horrible news is received after reports of three ICE-related murders around the country. We send our deepest condolences to Mr. Arenas-Silva’s family and all the families who have suffered due to ICE’s brutality. ICE’s callous decision to once again detain immigrants at Irwin County Detention Center despite its track record of abuses and neglect is abhorrent and inhumane. It is clear that ICE and its private prison contractors are violent agents of the white supremacists currently in charge of the U.S. government and must be treated as such. We demand justice and accountability for all the atrocities they have committed both inside ICE prisons and within our neighborhoods.”

In recent weeks, ICE killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Maine, and the National Guard killed four Black men in Memphis, including Tyrin Johnson, Jonah Neal, and Darrin Pigram. As law enforcement agents target our communities, our responsibility is clear: WE ORGANIZE. Come together and protect our people. ATL Get Ready is a coalition of community groups organizing together to stop ICE and police from entering our Sanctuary Zones. Since May 1st, we have recruited almost 50 sites to sign on as Sanctuary Zones in Atlanta, and we're working toward 100! 🔥 JOIN US! ✊🏽 Become a Sanctuary Zone in Atlanta! Ready to sign on? Go to: bit.ly/sanctuaryzone-atl * What is a Sanctuary Zone? A Sanctuary Zone is a place that commits to protecting the people who live, work, and gather there. In practice, that means your site: ✅ Does not allow ICE entry without a judicial warrant. ✅ Does not rely on policing as the first response to community concerns. ✅ Prioritizes alternatives such as de-escalation, mutual aid, and community-based resources whenever possible. Sanctuary Zones put safety over surveillance and solidarity over fear. * Who do we call instead of law enforcement authorities? Many situations do not require a police response, and businesses are not required to admit ICE without a judicial warrant. For many non-emergency situations, Atlanta residents can call 311 to access PAD (Policing Alternatives & Diversion). PAD is a community organization that assists people who may need help with basic resources, housing, mental health or substance use but are at risk of arrest or jail. Learn more at www.atlantapad.org. What are we building? We envision a connected network of Sanctuary Zones: businesses, organizations, and community spaces that can respond proactively during times of crisis instead of reacting after harm has occurred. Together, we can create a city where everyone can live, work, and gather with dignity and without fear of unnecessary criminalization. If you're ready to become a Sanctuary Zone or want to help recruit others, we'd love to have you involved. Sign up today: bit.ly/sanctuaryzone-atl

Another inspiring summer of building young leaders! 🌟 Project South just wrapped up the 13th Annual Septima Clark Community Power Institute (SCCPI), our summer leadership and community organizing fellowship for Atlanta-area teens ages 13–18. Over the past several weeks, more than 20 incredible teens came together to build leadership skills, deepen their understanding of social justice, and explore how they can create meaningful change in their communities. Inspired by the educational philosophy of civil rights leader Septima Clark, SCCPI is rooted in the principles of popular education, where learning happens through dialogue, creativity, hands-on projects, and collective action. This is a place where we hope youth are able to connect movement history to their own personal experience in ways that will continue long after the summer ends. For nearly 15 years, SCCPI has been shaping young leaders, amplifying youth voices, and building grassroots youth power. We’re so proud of this year’s fellows and can’t wait to see where they go next! #ProjectSouth #SCCPI #YouthLeadership #YouthOrganizing #CommunityOrganizing

Georgia Bill Tracker Update! 📣 Urgent: Georgia, tell your legislators to OPPOSE HB 963! HB 963 restricts some immigrant communities from participating in civic engagement efforts, like campaign volunteering and ballot initiatives, while imposing unnecessary administrative burdens on grassroots organizations. This bill threatens to silence immigrant voices, enable political attacks on nonprofits, and limit meaningful civic participation. This follows a troubling pattern seen in other states, where similar laws have been used to target nonprofits working on community issues. 📣 Tell your legislators to OPPOSE HB 963! 👉 Check out the factsheet here: bit.ly/HB963FS

Georgia Bill Tracker Update: Groups Urge Georgia Legislators to Oppose Anti-Homeless Bill HB 295 Project South and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (@glahr.ga), along with our partners, have issued a statement strongly denouning HB 295, a harmful bill that would negatively impact people experiencing homelessness and immigrant communities across Georgia. Download the full press statement here: bit.ly/4m5VXAT HB 295 would allow property owners and businesses to sue cities and towns if they believe laws criminalizing homelessness are not being enforced harshly enough. This bill would pressure municipalities to double down on ineffective and costly approaches, arresting and jailing people instead of addressing the root causes of homelessness. As Project South’s Senior Staff Attorney Priyanka Bhatt said: "HB 295 is a cruel and inhumane bill that coerces localities into criminalizing and punishing Georgia's most vulnerable communities. At a time when we are already seeing a dramatic escalation and targeting of immigrants and unhoused communities, this bill will only worsen conditions without providing real solutions. We have already seen the deadly consequences of these types of policies. Just last year, the forced clearing of homeless encampments in Atlanta resulted in the murder of Cornelius Taylor, an unhoused community member, who was still inside his tent. HB 295 could result in exactly these kinds of tragedies—where displacement and punishment take precedence over human life.” On any given night, more than 12,000 people in Georgia are unhoused, and with eviction rates rising, that number is likely to grow. HB 295 does nothing to provide real solutions, such as access to housing, mental health care, or community-based support. Instead, it deepens the criminalization of poverty, trapping people in a cycle that is increasingly difficult to escape. 📢 Tell your legislators to Vote NO on HB 295! 👉 TAKE ACTION at: bit.ly/NOHB295

At a time when our communities are already vulnerable and under attack, the Georgia Legislature is actively fueling the fire. In just the past week alone, harmful bills have begun advancing out of committee. A troubling trend is emerging: rather than upholding the rights of our communities, protecting immigrant communities under attack, and defending the fundamental right to protest, lawmakers are moving to expand surveillance, criminalize dissent, and shield ICE and police violence. Project South, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), and our partners are closely tracking new legislation that poses serious and immediate risks to our communities. Follow us for updates during the session. The 2026 Georgia legislative session began January 12.

📢 JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT VIRTUAL PANEL! THE MAKING OF A DETENTION STATE: The History of Immigrant Repression and Resistance in Georgia 🗣 Speakers: • Azadeh N. Shahshahani – Legal & Advocacy Director, Project South • Adelina Nicholls – Executive Director, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights • Anton Flores-Maisonet – Executive Director, Casa Alterna 🎤 Moderator: Daniela Rodriguez – Executive Director, Migrant Equity Southeast 🗓 Date: January 26, 2026 ⏰ Time: 6:00–7:30 PM ET / 5:00CT / 3:00PT 💻 Virtual on Zoom! 🔗 Register here: bit.ly/GADetentionJan26 At a time when immigrant communities face escalating criminalization, state violence, and detention, this conversation offers critical historical context on Georgia’s detention system and the resistance challenging it. Thank you to the following supporting organizations who helped to make this webinar possible: - Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Atlanta (AAJC-A) - Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) - Black Diaspora Liberty Initiative (BDLI) - Campaign to Shut Down Folkston ICE Processing Center - Casa Alterna - Community EsTrEl/La - Georgia Detention Watch - Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) - ICE Breakers - El Refugio - Migrant Equity Southeast - Project South #ImmigrantJustice #AbolishICE #EndDetention #GeorgiaOrganizing #MigrantJustice

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