You won't want to miss our annual Consumer Champion Awards Celebration on Thursday, October 10 in the King Historic District! Join us for great food, drinks, and jazz music as you help us recognize this year's amazing Consumer Champions!

This year, we are honoring Representative Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta, Health & Human Services Chairman), our Champion for Well-Being, for her hard work to promote healthcare and healthy conditions for the people of this state, especially the most vulnerable. Our Champion for Community Education award will go to Iris Harris, Care Manager at Fayette Senior Services, Inc. in Fayetteville, for her relentless and steadfast dedication to educating seniors about consumer issues, including medical debt and energy bills. For his work protecting consumers through his Better Call Harry segments on CBS-46, Harry Samler will receive our Champion for Financial Protection award. Janelle Williams, Ph.D., Senior Associate, Atlanta Civic Site, the Annie E. Casey Foundation is our Champion for Change. Janelle has motivated and inspired our organization in countless ways to become a stronger advocate for racial equity and the elimination of systemic barriers to opportunity for all Georgians.

Sponsorship opportunities are available. Contact Liz Coyle at 404-525-1085 or  lcoyle@georgiawatch.org for more information. Every dollar raised through the Annual Consumer Champion Awards Celebration helps us continue our advocacy and education work on behalf of Georgia consumers.

Jenny Guadalupe joined the Georgia Watch team this month as the Policy Research Associate. She brings a mix of experience in the private and public sectors, most recently spending five years as a legislative assistant in the Georgia Senate. Her passion for equity and justice stems from her formative years growing up in an immigrant family. In her role as Policy Research Associate, she leverages this experience to close opportunity gaps, reduce health disparities, and protect consumers’ income in Georgia.

 

Jenny has a background in legislative procedure and political science, with a focus on the relationship between systemic barriers and health outcomes. Prior to joining Georgia Watch, she worked as a legislative assistant for six Georgia State Senators where, among other things, she served as liaison to numerous intergovernmental agencies and constituents.

 

Jenny received a B.A in Political Science from Georgia State University, and holds a certificate from the Institute of Comparative Political and Economic Systems from George Mason University and The Fund for American Studies.

In 2018 and 2019, through generous funding from Wells Fargo, Prosperity Now worked with five regional coalitions in Hawaii, Washington, Wisconsin, Illinois and Georgia to strengthen asset building coalitions that build pathways to financial stability in their communities. In August, Prosperity Now released a report summarizing insights gained from working with these coalitions.

Georgia Watch used the sub-grant, coaching and technical assistance to strengthen staff capacity and to leverage the work of the Georgia Financial Protection Coalition (GFPC), which advocates for safe financial products and industry practices. In August 2018, GFPC released a policy paper titled “ Making Small-Dollar Lending Safer for Georgians,” detailing dangerous financial products and practices, and highlighting policy recommendations for state-level reforms. The GFPC is currently using this paper to garner support on policy reforms, build advocacy skills, and mobilize partners to take legislative action in 2020. Furthermore, Georgia Watch is kick-starting an initiative exploring the systemic and institutional barriers perpetuating generational poverty and racial inequity in Georgia. Working with coalition partners around the state, Georgia Watch plans to address these issues through advocacy and mobilization in the future.

Read Prosperity Now's report here.

Have you visited Georgia Watch’s website today? You might notice that it looks different. We hope you found it more engaging, too! After months of hard work, we are happy to officially announce the launch of our brand new website. We’ve updated the design and added some new features to make navigation smoother. Check it out here!

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