Georgia Focus

GAgives on #GivingTuesday offers every Georgia nonprofit the chance to be part of a worldwide end-of-year giving-season kickoff, and the tools to make it a revenue-generating success. This year GAgives is Tuesday December 1. Guests Karen Beavor, Georgia Center for Non-Profits President and CEO and Gena Taylor and Cherie Trice from the Greenbriar Children’s Center in Savannah, talk about the impact...

For many of the state’s counties, economic prosperity has dwindled and many rural communities are slowly dying. The Georgia Chamber recognized this and established the Rural Prosperity Council to champion the needs of rural Georgia and recently Gov. Brian Kemp named a new Deputy Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development to lead his Rural Strike Team. Gov. Kemp talks about the...

National Adoption Month is celebrated every November government agencies, courts, child advocacy organizations and families across the nation. Its purpose is to provide awareness, celebrate children and families, and call the nation to action to find families for children waiting in foster care. Deborah Burrus, State Adoption Director for Georgia Division of Family & Children Services, discusses A...

Haunted Tourism is a unique segment of Georgia’s Tourism industry that highlights the state’s history as well as the unexplained. Mark Jaronski, Deputy Director for Tourism at the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Visit Savannah’s Jeremy Harvey and Steve Short from the Windsor Hotel in Americus, talk about the interest in hauntings at Halloween and year round.

Mark McDonald, President and CEO of the GA Trust for Historic Preservation, discusses this year’s Places in Peril list of 10 historic structures in Georgia that are in danger of being torn down and efforts to save them.

Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life, by Jonathan Gould is the long-awaited, definitive biography of The King of Soul, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Redding's iconic performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Redding remains an immortal presence in the canon of American music yet an aura of myth and mystery has always surrounded his life, which was tragically cut short at the heig...

Americorps AmeriCorps offers a variety of service opportunities, from the classroom to the outdoors, and everything in between. No matter what you're passionate about, where you're from, or why you choose to serve. Linda Thompson, Executive Director, Georgia Commission for Service and Volunteerism, discusses their programs.

Marsy’s Law seeks to give crime victims meaningful and enforceable constitutional rights equal to the rights of the accused. It was passed in GA in 2018. Guests are Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia - Executive Director Pete Skandalakis, Cordele Judicial Circuit District Attorney Brad Rigby and DeKalb County Solicitor-General Donna Coleman-Stribling. A

The Georgia Public Library Service empowers libraries to improve the lives of all Georgians by encouraging reading, literacy, and education through the continuing support and improvement of our public libraries. Georgia’s public libraries support lifelong learning, K-12 education, distance learning, workforce skills and much more. Julie Walker, Georgia’s State Librarian and Associate Vice Chancell...

CareSource is nationally recognized for leading the industry in providing member-centric health care coverage. The CareSource mission of making a lasting difference in members’ lives by improving their health and well-being was the catalyst for developing several programs that target the social determinants of health. Guests are Karin VanZant, VP, Integrated Community Partnerships and Ariel Esteve...

More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease. Additionally, more than 16 million family members and friends provide care to people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. In Georgia alone, there are more than 150,000 people living with the disease and 540,000 caregivers. The Alzheimer’s Association is dedicated to Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Its mission is to...

Enduring Hearts launched in 2013 with a mission to fund research that increases the longevity of pediatric heart transplants, improve the quality of life for children living with a new heart and eliminate pediatric heart diseases that may lead to a transplant. Executive Director Carolyn Salvador talks about their work.

Curing Kids Cancer Just one year after the devastating loss of their nine-year-old son Killian to leukemia, Grainne Owen founded Curing Kids Cancer in 2005 in order to celebrate Killian’s life and to fund research to find a cure for childhood cancer. Since then Curing Kids Cancer has raised millions for pediatric cancer research and treatment. Grainne Owen discusses their work.

CEFGA is the Construction Education Foundation of Georgia. They were founded by leading construction presidents and CEOs who recognized a need for quality construction skills training in Georgia. Skilled labor was then—and remains now—a primary need of the construction industry. Scott Shelar, Director of CEFGA discusses their work.

Plans to reopen Georgia’s Schools and Fall sports - Efforts are underway for reopening Georgia’s schools, colleges and fall sports and this programs provides the latest information on these planned reopenings. Guests are Dr. Linnette Dodson, the Georgia State School Nutrition Director, Aaron Diamont, Vice Chancellor of Communications for the University System of GA and Dr. Robin Hines Executive Di...

North Georgia has more than 40 lakes, and not one is natural. The decision to dam the region’s rivers for power and water supply changed the landscape forever. Lost communities, forgotten crossroads and even entire towns disappeared. Lisa Russel dives into the history beneath North Georgia’s lakes with her book Underwater Ghost Towns of North Georgia.

Atlanta Lab Rescue is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization, whose mission is to identify and rescue Labrador Retrievers and large breed mixes from overwhelmed shelters and abusive situations and place them in secure, loving homes. Becky Cross, founder of ALR , Kathy Camp, Intake and Vetting Coordinator and Stacey Brogan, Adoption Coordinator, discuss ALR and the great need across Georgia.

Georgia Made Georgia Made is a program that Georgia manufacturing companies use to inform domestic and international end-users that a company’s products are “manufactured” in Georgia. Scott MacMurray Deputy Commissioner for Global Commerce, Georgia Dept. of Economic Development,

A Man’s World is a collection of 20 profiles of fascinating men by author and magazine writer Steve Oney. These profiles, 5 with Georgia connections, were written over a 40-year period for publications including Esquire, GQ, Time, Los Angeles, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Steve Oney discusses the book.

Cool Town - In Athens in the 80s, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian's eye, she reconstructs that period in Athens’ history in the book Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and C...

DECAL - Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is responsible for meeting the childcare and early education needs of Georgia's children and their families. The department distributes federal funding to enhance the quality and availability of child care and works collaboratively with Georgia child care resource and referral agencies and organizations throughout the state to enhance early car...

Mission Dawgs is an organization started last year with the mission of supporting much of the homeless population of Georgia by providing basic human needs like food, clothing and toiletries. They take to the streets every day to serve 100s of homeless people. This program goes on the streets of Atlanta with Kevin Weakley, founder of Mission Dawgs.

Micajah Clark Dyer - On this program recorded in Blairsville Sylvia Dyer Turnage, author of Flying Off Rattlesnake Mountain: The Amazing Story of Pioneer Inventor-Aviator, Micajah Clark Dyer tells the story of Clark Dyer who invented a Flying Machine and was one of the first, if not the first, person to fly.

+2 Project – Stokes Nielson - Award-winning country artist Stokes Nielson, who grew up in Dougherty County, is leading a nationwide effort of recovered COVID-19 survivors who are donating their life-saving plasma to COVID-19 patients in critical care. Stokes discusses his +2 Project which works with community blood banks like Georgia’s Blood Assurance and Atlanta Blood Services, to ensure COVID-19...

Three Governors Controversy - The death of Georgia governor-elect Eugene Talmadge in late 1946 launched a constitutional crisis that ranks as one of the most unusual political events in U.S. history: the state had three active governors at once, each claiming that he was the true elected official. The first full-length examination of that episode is in the form of a book titled The Three Governors...