Deep Center

Deep Center is tracking state legislation during the 2021 Georgia General Assembly and will be advocating for and against five specific bills before Crossover Day, the day when bills officially make it over to the second half of the legislative sessions. These bills are: SUPPORT #HB479 Repeals citizen’s arrest (Sponsored by Representative Bert Reeves) This legislation repeals citizen's arrest, which is an arrest made by a private citizen that is, a person who is not acting... as a sworn law-enforcement official. This bill is a crucial response to the death of Ahmaud Arbery. We join in support of this bill alongside Southern Center for Human Rights and the Georgia NAACP. #HB272 Raise the Age (Sponsored by Representative Mandi Ballinger) This legislation that raises the age of juvenile court jurisdiction from 17 to 18. Georgia is 1 of 3 states that tries 17 year olds as adults. #HR96 A House resolution urging the Georgia Department of Education to create a textbook and curriculum for African American / Black studies. ____________________________________________________ OPPOSE #SB42 Discipline Data (Sponsored by Senator Jeff Mullis). This legislation gets rid of discipline data in school rating and relies on parents/teachers in a survey to think what is going on/ measure discipline efforts. There is a 32% drop in students being pushed out over the past decade and it's due to PBIS standards being applied to schools with high discipline numbers in the school climate -- if schools no longer have the data, we no longer can provide interventions like PBIS. #HB60:Georgia Educational Scholarship Act (Sponsored by Representative Wes Cantrell). This legislation targets public school systems that, through local control, have decided to offer instruction virtually in response to the pandemic and divert their funding to private schools that would reopen. The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts found that, once fully implemented, HB 60 would cost the state $542.6 million annually, a loss would come at the absolute worst time for public schools that are in the middle of a 19-year stretch of strict budget cuts where lawmakers have withheld $10.2 billion cumulatively from public education. We join in opposition of this bill with groups like Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, and Fund Georgia's Future.

Deep Center is in full support of #HB272- Raise the Age. HB272 would raise the juvenile code age in the state of Georgia from 17 to 18. Georgia is 1 of 3 states in America that tries 17 year olds as adults. To read the full bill text: https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/HB272/2021 Today at 1pm, there will be a hearing on the bill and whether or not it should move forward in the legislature. We encourage everyone to tune in, and then contact their state representatives to support th...e passage of HB272. Georgia's young people can't wait for justice any longer. To find your state legislator, input your address here and contact them: https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/ #juvenilejusticereform #juvenilejustice

Join Deep Center and our partners at Georgia Justice Reform Partnership at Justice Day on February 25, starting at 10AM. The event is free! On the tenth anniversary of Justice Day, the Justice Reform Partnership explores the road ahead for criminal legal system reform at the local, state and federal levels. Justice Day at the Capitol is our biggest event of the year, where we provide everyday people with an opportunity to learn about criminal legal reforms; strengthen and... build relationships with people in their communities and across the state; and advocate to their state legislators for a criminal legal system based on equity in administration and justice in application of the law. We will be joining organizations fighting for a more just and equal Georgia including Southern Center for Human Rights, Southern Poverty Law Center, End Mass Incarceration Georgia, elected officials, those most impacted, and many more.

Deep Center is proud of this piece by our assistant teaching artist, Rush, in Savannah Morning News & SavannahNow.com. "The topic of race, like most other things in Savannah, is slow and subtle. Never overt, always polite and almost inviting. The distinctions of race, which almost always compound with class, make things easier to understand. It was a lot, constantly warring and trying to match expectations yet debunk stereotypes and still remain my own person. For so long I was blinded by microaggressions disguised as sweet words. It’s hard for me to explain, but growing up in these spaces where I had to decide how ethnic to appear gave me a perfectionist attitude, and as unapologetically black as I am now it definitely was not always this way."

"Together, we identified 8 village roles that actively affect students’ educational and developmental journeysfour of which represented family and community members (elder, ambassador, guardian, and protector) and the other four, representing those within the school environment (advocate, teacher, confidante, and council). We then stripped those titles away and reimagined them in the context of ancient village traditions. In these sculpture heads is a spark of remembrance for what their true and intrinsic roles are in the lives of our young people" - Lucy LLong, A Spark Of Remembrance: The True and Intrinsic Village Roles in the Lives of Our Young People To read the full blog, click here: tinyurl.com/1tu89f3e

We have a brand new blog post out. A Spark Of Remembrance: The True and Intrinsic Village Roles in the Lives of Our Young People, is written by visiting teaching artist, Lucy Llong. Llucy was a visiting artist in Deep Center’s Block by Block program last year, where she worked with young people to identify the important support structures in their communities and reimagine those roles through the art of African mask making. Click below to read: A Spark Of Remembrance: The Tr...ue and Intrinsic Village Roles in the Lives of Our Young People ------- Tenemos una nueva publicación en el blog. Una chispa de conmemoración: los verdaderos e intrínsecos roles de la aldea en la vida de nuestros jóvenes, está escrito por la artista maestra visitante, Lucy Llong. Llucy fue artista visitante en el programa Block by Block de Deep Center el año pasado, donde trabajó con jóvenes para identificar las estructuras de apoyo importantes en sus comunidades y reinventar esos roles a través del arte de la fabricación de máscaras africanas. Haga clic aquí para leer: Una chispa de conmemoración: los verdaderos e intrínsecos roles de la aldea en la vida de nuestros jóvenes