The Matter of Our Shared Humanity
By Kristy Klein Davis, President & CEO
When we meet with partners and community members across Georgia, we often ask a simple question: What does a healthy Georgia mean to you?
The answers understandably vary person by person, but there are certain consistent themes that emerge. People talk about safety. About being able to live their lives without fear. About community, dignity, and knowing there is someone you can count on.
“A healthy Georgia is a peaceful place where families can feel safe and comfortable,” Brianne from Lithonia told us. Others name the basics without hesitation. “Where all children are able to get food, water, shelter, and schooling without trouble,” Torrie in Atlanta shared. And again and again, people return to belonging. “A healthy Georgia is a safe community where people are allowed to be themselves,” Brian in Decatur said.
These are not abstract ideals. They are the conditions we all need to live healthy lives.
And yet many immigrant families across Georgia are living with fear that is neither abstract nor hypothetical. It is rooted in real threats to stability, safety, and belonging. These threats are created by the conditions people are being forced to navigate, conditions shaped by decisions made far beyond their control.
Health is not only shaped in clinics or hospitals. It is shaped by whether people feel safe enough to exhale. Whether daily life feels stable rather than precarious. Whether fear is introduced into daily life as a condition people must navigate or intentionally removed.
Our shared humanity matters. Our guiding principles tell us that dignity and fairness matter, and that systems should work for people rather than against them. We can hold safety, humanity, and accountability together rather than pretending they are in conflict.
When any one of us is forced to live with fear as a condition of daily life, that fear does not remain isolated. It spreads. It weakens our families and our communities. It undermines trust. And it makes health harder for everyone to achieve.
