May 2019
Thank you, Good Apple supporters!

This year's Good Apple was the best yet. Close to 300 people gathered at The Stave Room in Atlanta to honor this year's award winners and support our mission. Our Fund-the-Mission auction raised more than $57,000 to support critical programs that keep Georgia's children in school and healthy housing and out of the school-to-prison pipeline.

A special thanks to our 2019 Pillar of Justice and Core Supporter Sponsors:

Kilpatrick Townsend
Eversheds Sutherland
Taylor English
King & Spalding
Alston & Bird

Pictured top (left to right): Jason Byars representing the PBIS Team of Georgia; Georgia Appleseed Executive Director Talley Wells; honoree Dr. Garry McGiboney representing the PBIS Team of Georgia; MiMi Gudenrath representing the PBIS Team of Georgia; and Georgia Appleseed Director of Projects Michael Waller. Pictured bottom (left to right): Honoree Virginia Adams representing EY and Honoree Vicki Noel Vaughan representing Child Protection & Advocacy Section of the State Bar of Georgia.
A landmark victory for Georgia children's health and safety

On May 8, 2019, Governor Brian Kemp signed into law healthy housing legislation championed by Georgia Appleseed.

This law will dramatically help low-income children be healthier and safer. It is the most important landlord/tenant legislation to become law in Georgia in the last forty years. The law prohibits landlords from evicting tenants solely for seeking repairs for housing conditions that create significant health and safety concerns, including mold and pest infestations.

Georgia Appleseed’s Legislative Advocate Elizabeth Appley and Director of Projects Michael Waller worked tirelessly, along with our  Georgia Healthy Housing Coalition , to ensure the legislation made it through the House, Senate, and Governor’s Office. The bill was championed by Representative Sharon Cooper, who fought for the legislation at every step. 

We are already hard at work, building on the momentum of this critical victory. We are collaborating with housing experts, local municipalities, judges, code enforcement officials, landlords and tenants to create policy recommendations so that tenants and landlords do not have to go to eviction court in order to resolve health and safety disputes.
 
Spellbound 2019

Join us on June 25, 2019 , for the annual Spellbound SCRABBLE® tou rnament to support our Young Professionals Council ! Sponsor teams will play in the tournament, receive recognition benefits and more. Register today.
Summer Reading--Updated Toolkit Data!

Our Keeping Kids in Class Toolkit now includes data from 2018. This tool provides powerful, yet easy-to-understand, easy-to-access information that can help parents and school leaders work together to transform the school-to-prison pipeline into the school-to-opportunity pipeline.

Additional Reading
Want to learn more about some of the ideas and issues mentioned in this newsletter? We got you covered!