ASHLEIGH STARNES | April 2, 2018
11Alive met with a Forest Cove resident and AVLF staff to discuss the housing issues that students and tenants face in the Thomasville Heights neighborhood.
On March 30th, local news channel 11Alive aired a segment on the work of Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation’s Standing With Our Neighbors (SWON) program. Natisha Lance spoke with Forest Cove resident Erin Tucker about the poor living conditions she faces.
“It’s not my fault that the conditions are not well enough,” said Tucker. “But when you have a situation where…you’re not financial stable, and you’re a single mom – push comes to shove, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.”
The segment features AVLF staff attorney Ayanna Jones-Lightsy and SWON Community Advocate Christal Reynolds. The “dynamic duo” talks about how their work supports and empowers the Thomasville Heights community.
SWON is the first program of its kind. By offering easy, local access to legal help to low-income residents, the SWON team has had a dramatic impact on student attrition rates, landlord responsiveness, and the overall quality of life for neighborhood residents.
“It takes someone coming in from the outside. A strong advocate,” Ayanna tells 11Alive. “I get to be Batman.”
The living conditions in Forest Cove apartments – where most students in Thomasville Heights reside- are chronically neglected. Through our place-based program SWON, AVLF embeds legal staff and community advocates directly in schools to offer help.
“The parents always come to us in trauma,” Crystal says.
SWON was founded on the belief that no child should ever have to change schools because of an eviction, an infestation, or because their landlord refuses to make necessary repairs.
“It takes someone coming in from the outside. A strong advocate,” Ayanna tells 11Alive. “I get to be Batman.”
Read the piece here.
By managing the immediate housing needs of students, the SWON program is able to stabilize a family, leading to more stable schools, and a more robust, thriving community. The program has been featured in the press several times, including a recent national segment on CBS This Morning.
Learn more about the Standing with Our Neighbors program and its impact.
Ashleigh Starnes
Communications Associate
As AVLF’s Communications Associate, Ashleigh helps Katie King with website content development, social media outreach, and various other forms of communication with our fiercely compassionate supporters. Ashleigh is ever-eager to share the remarkable stories of our clients, and the impact of AVLF’s staff and volunteers on our community.
Before joining AVLF, Ashleigh was a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey. She holds a BA in English and Linguistics from the University of Georgia. She is also a performance artist, and can occasionally be seen performing movement pieces, poetry, and combinations of the two around Atlanta and beyond.
Check out more from this author.