Athens is a “GICH” community.  “GICH” is the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing, a three-year program that helps communities develop housing and revitalization strategies in an effort to improve their quality of life and economic vitality.  To those ends, GICH provides communities with technical assistance, expert presenters, training, facilitation, networking, cross-community sharing, and mentoring. 

GICH was started in 2004 and is a partnership of The University of Georgia Public Service & Outreach and College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the Georgia Municipal Association, and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.  Funding support for the program is provided by Georgia Power and a USDA Rural Development RCDI grant, and in-kind support is offered by The UGA Archway Partnership, UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, UGA Extension, and Georgia EMC. 

Communities must apply to take part in the GICH program with up to five communities selected each year to participate.  Cities, counties, or public housing authorities in Georgia are eligible to apply on behalf of a community housing team.  Communities are selected based on need and their demonstrated commitment to community improvement.  One of the key components of a competitive application is a community’s ability to demonstrate it will put together a diverse, inclusive housing team to represent it during the GICH program.  A community’s housing team ideally includes representatives from:  local government (both elected and non-elected officials), nonprofit housing organizations, the public housing authority, faith-based organizations, chamber of commerce, the school district, major employers, development authorities, and law enforcement.

Forty-five communities in Georgia have already completed the GICH program, and an additional fifteen communities are currently participating in the program.  In the fall of 2015, Athens-Clarke County was chosen to participate in the GICH program starting in 2016, along with Evans County, and the cities of Millen, Monroe, and Rockmart. 

Over the course of the three-year program, Athens’ GICH team will attend two retreats per year with other GICH communities.  At the retreats, the GICH teams have the opportunity to learn about best practices and available funding and technical assistance for housing and community development, identify and explore solutions for housing issues and needs in their communities, develop a plan for meeting community housing goals and objectives, and begin implementation of the plan they’ve developed.

February 23-24, members of Athens’ GICH team participated in its first retreat in Dublin, Georgia.  The retreat agenda offered a chance for the GICH team to hear from speakers talking about housing trends, challenges, and possible solutions.  The retreat also included a tour of several community development/housing initiatives implemented by the host city, Dublin, as a result of Dublin’s past participation in the GICH program.  Most importantly, the retreat allowed time for several team work sessions with facilitators from Georgia Power and Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs.  In its work sessions, the Athens team had the opportunity to discuss the wide range of community housing issues facing Athens, and begin to explore the issues the team would like address in order to develop a work plan for the program.  The Athens GICH team members who participated in the Dublin retreat were:

• Diane Bell, ACCUG Commissioner

• Heather Benham, Executive Director, Athens Land Trust

• Sharyn Dickerson, ACCUG Commissioner

• Sarah Hasib, Development Coordinator, ACCUG Economic Development Department

• Alice Kinman, ACCUG Planning Commissioner and Land Bank Authority Chair

• David Ogunsanya, Housing Director, Athens Land Trust

• Rick Parker, Executive Director, Athens Housing Authority 

• Delene Porter, President/CEO, Athens Area Communities Foundation

• Marqueta Reese, Housing and Community Development Coordinator, ACCUG Housing and Community Development Department

• Lawton Stephens, Project Manager, Athens Area Habitat for Humanity

• Rob Trevena, Director, Athens-Clarke County Unified Government (ACCUG) Housing and Community Development Department (GICH team leader)

• Carol Williams, realtor and Clarke County Board of Education member

Since returning from the Dublin retreat, the Athens team is meeting monthly to continue to work on focusing its community housing goals and a plan to accomplish those goals in anticipation of the next GICH retreat in September.