Policy & Politics is not meant to focus on a specific campaign or election cycle. Instead it is a portal to the policy concerns of my community – voter education & rights, healthcare, education, criminal justice, economic development, constitutional law and freedom of speech, etc.
These are the topics that touch the people in my community every day. But during my tenure at the legislature I’ve learned that what sometimes seems like a simple issue is in truth complicated. This is because many of them are interconnected and there are many perspectives and community stakeholders to keep in mind while developing and implementing policy solutions.
My politics focus on the values of making sure people get what they need to lead productive lives. To help bring that about I have served in public office as a Georgia State Representative (District 117 Athens). In addition I have undertaken a few roles to develop female candidates, enhance the Latino voter base in Georgia, and help jump start a new regional League of Women Voters out of Athens and surrounding counties.
To see information on my current political campaign please check out the Deborah Gonzalez for DA website: http://www.deborahforda.com.
To help assist in these endeavors and others (such as the Open Records radio show), I created the Gonzalez Community, Policy & Media Fellowship Program (GCPMFP).
The Gonzalez CP&M Fellowship is designed to offer college students an opportunity to research and explore real world policy concerns in their communities and then prepare content based on that research for multichannel distribution. These fellows get to research policy and then learn how to share it with everyone in their communities using a variety of multimedia channels – from radio broadcast to online platforms and more. Their imaginations are the limit. Calls for applications are made 2-3 times a year based on class semesters via our Facebook page and emails.
Some policy and political organizations I support and/or work with on policy issues include:
- 9 to 5: Winning Justice for Working Women https://9to5.org
- ACLU GA https://www.acluga.org/en
- American Constitutional Society Athens Attorney Chapter https://www.facebook.com/AthensACSLaw/
- Emerge America https://emergeamerica.org
- Emily’s List https://www.emilyslist.org
- GA WIN List http://gawinlist.com
- Georgia Budget & Policy Institute https://gbpi.org
- Georgia Equality https://georgiaequality.org
- Jobs with Justice http://www.jwj.org
- Latino Victory Fund https://latinovictory.us
- Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense https://www.facebook.com/MomsDemandActionGA/
- NAACP Athens http://www.naacpga.org
- National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators https://nhcsl.org
- Planned Parenthood https://www.plannedparenthood.org
- SCHR https://www.schr.org
- Sierra Club https://www.sierraclub.org/georgia
- SPLC Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org
- United Campus Workers of Georgia (and a variety of unions, including IBEW and GAE) https://www.ucwga.com