Ambassador Andrew Young Serves as Honorary Chair for Inaugural Community Impact Awards

The Georgia City Solutions (GCS) event is designed to highlight and honor the work that GCS and its partners are doing to improve and empower communities in Georgia. Andrew Young will serve as Honorary Chair and the event will be held at the Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta.

GCS is a nonprofit organization that the Georgia Municipal Association created in 2018 in order to address the social and economic challenges faced by Georgia cities and their residents. GCS aims to “imagine, inspire, and impact” these cities through research, programs, and partnerships that are focused on increasing civic engagement, addressing systemic issues like intergenerational poverty and racial inequity, and building prosperous cities.

“Georgia City Solutions was created to help cities address the major challenges which may be holding cities back and preventing them and their residents from reaching their full potential,” said Kirby Thompson, GCS board chair. “Many of these challenges are a result of intergenerational poverty. We know that municipal leaders cannot solve these issues alone and GCS is helping to bridge this gap through collaboration, innovative programs, and strategic partnerships.”

In the spirit of collaboration, the Community Impact Awards will recognize and honor entities that have made a significant impact on their cities and people. These will include:

• Annise Mabry for her work in the area of workforce development, youth engagement and DEI in rural Georgia.
• Creature Comforts Brewing Co. for the Get Comfortable Initiative to improve the percentage of Athens-Clarke County 3rd graders reading on grade level from 20%—where it sits today—to 60%.

Cities:

• Dublin for their long-standing commitment to elevating youth leadership and engagement through the Dublin Youth Council, the Dublin-Laurens County Teen Court, and the Summer Youth Works programs.
• Lawrenceville for the city’s commitment to strengthening community relations, advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and enhancing youth leadership and engagement.
• Valdosta for their work in youth leadership and engagement, and workforce development through the Great Promise Partnership program.

The event will be interactive. There will be a reception, a silent auction, and the opportunity to experience a Porsche ride-along. There will also be a dinner with speakers Andre Dickens, the Mayor of Atlanta, and Donna Lowry from Georgia Public Broadcasting. All proceeds from the event will go back into supporting the GCS programs.

These programs include: Engage, their youth outreach program designed to educate and empower Georgia’s children and young people through the arts and youth council guides. Embrace, their equity and inclusion program was created to equip cities and leaders with the tools they need to address social issues like systemic racism, injustice, and intolerance.

GCS seeks to improve our Georgia communities through engagement, resources, and tools. To get involved with them or to take advantage of those resources, visit their website. For ticket information for the Community Impact Awards event or to learn how to become a sponsor, visit their event page.