The American Friends Service Committee's Atlanta Economic Justice Program (AEJP) has launched the Atlanta People Power Lab (APPL), a new movement infrastructure initiative to build durable democratic power in Atlanta by training grassroots leaders, strengthening participatory governance spaces, and providing the institutional backbone necessary for sustained organizing.
In the wake of the Stop Cop City movement and amid rising authoritarianism, surveillance expansion, economic inequality, and political repression, it has become clear that mobilization alone is not enough. Atlanta needs trained leadership, organized neighborhoods, and resilient democratic institutions rooted in impacted communities.
Over the next 12 months, APPL will expand leadership development programs, support People's Assemblies, provide strategic training across movements, and integrate community care and rapid response practices into organizing efforts.
Click here to support staffing, training and coordination for the Atlanta People Power Lab's first full year of implementation.
The city of Atlanta currently faces escalating challenges:
- Corporate and utility expansion with limited public accountability
- Increased surveillance and criminalization of dissent
- Rising housing instability and economic unpredictability
- Fragmented organizing ecosystems vulnerable to burnout
AFSC's decades-long presence in Atlanta has prepared AEJP for this work. But to build lasting change, Atlanta requires leadership pipelines, democratic coordination, and sustained training capacity.
AEJP has supported and incubated grassroots movements at critical moments through training, fiscal sponsorship, strategic advising, meeting space, and logistical support to initiatives including Occupy Atlanta, the Housing Justice League, the Student Career Alternatives Program, the Justice for Cornelius Taylor Coalition, DeKalb Water Watch, the People's Community Land Trust, Stop Cop City, and many other grassroots campaigns.
The APPL formalizes and expands this historic role, positioning AEJP as a structured hub for leadership development and democratic organizing infrastructure.
You can support the APPL in its first year as it works to serve a wide cross-section of movements, from environmental justice to racial justice to international solidarity efforts. Click here to support the APPL today.