Our Policy Initiative


How We Got Here

In an inequitable ecosystem that is the product of an unjust history, placing the burden of change only on young people and vulnerable populations ignores their day-to-day realities, sets them up to fail, and, most importantly, misses the root causes of their challenges. Far too often Deep has lifted up youth, adults,  and families only to see them bump into ceilings they did not build. We have come to understand that, in order for us to truly support Savannah’s youth and families, we must lift them up while simultaneously working to dismantle these ceilings. In 2018, in a strategic planning session, it became evident that we could no longer in good conscious continue to hold up our young people in our programs  without confronting the systemic barriers that they would run into. We made the decision to work from a root-cause framework and begin incorporating legislative and administrative policy and advocacy into our work.

Just a few years later, we now have a public policy wing that works in tandem with our community organizing efforts. Our policy decisions are pulled from our young people in our spaces, the experiences in our communities, and the day in, day out work with our partners, fellow stakeholders, and identifying the many different needs in our city, our county, and in our state. As of 2022, we have published numerous policy briefs and memos, worked directly on city and county task forces, advocated at the state level, and provide nonpartisan policy development, technical assistance, and support to elected leaders, administrative officials, and think tanks across every level of legislation.

The Urgency of This Moment

Everyone outside of the South is talking about the South, but few outside intermediaries understand the context, the movements, the regional differences (we are not a monolith), and the existing and emerging models for systems change that will ultimately remove the barriers that keep people in poverty and caught in cycles of harm from racist systems and narratives. Deep Center’s work is a model for the South that is like no other. We focus on strategies that move hearts and minds, while challenging fractured thinking grounded in false binaries and old stories, making it possible to organize for change inside a deeply conservative context. By connecting the personal development and lived experiences of youth, citizens, and communities most affected by dehumanizing systems and policies, with movement-building work in concert with our village, Deep has developed an intersectional creative-placemaking (and placebreaking strategy) that can deliver sustainable policy and systems change in the South. 

The COVID-19 pandemic presented incredible challenges for us all, especially the young people and families of Chatham County. COVID-19 further exacerbated racial, class, and other inequities in the United States, Georgia, and Chatham County.  In the wake of the increased learning deficits and trauma related to COVID-19, which are disproportionately carried by the low-income communities and youth of color served by Deep, the next 24 months are a critical window to address healing and correct these losses, while simultaneously working with our partners to disrupt systems of harm. 

Former Mayor Otis Johnson’s notes on the history of Savannah’s fight to desegregate public schools, a topic of Deep Center’s Policy Action Committee.

Youth Action

Deep has convened two teams (the Action Research Team and the Policy Action Committee) made up of youth, family members, local community stakeholders, and national experts to research and identify the administrative and legislative policies that are harming Chatham County’s families. The first phase of this research and dialogue culminated in late 2019, when Deep and our youth leaders, in partnership with Dr. Kevin Burke of the University of Georgia and published 1) our research findings and 2) our first ever  policy brief published in 2019, Our Stories Are the Evidence: Youth-Powered Policies for a More Just and Equitable Savannah, which  identified policies that, if enacted, would make Savannah a safe and supportive place for working-class young people, youth of color, and other marginalized young people and their families.

Since then, Deep has committed to systems change work, publishing two more policy briefs, Rapid Responses, New Realities: Deep Center’s COVID-19 Policy Recommendations, and our 2020 policy brief, Building a Restorative Community: Recommendations for City, County, State, School Board, Law Enforcement, and Beyond.

Institutional Partners

In addition to our local team, we partner with the following local, regional and national organizations to lend expertise, research, a framework for strategizing and networking, and training on the ground.


Support

Deep Center’s policy work is funded and supported in part by the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, Ford Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Forward Promise initiative, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.