Go South

Bringing resources where they are most needed, sharing narratives where they are least heard. || Go South connects college students interested in meaningful work to organizations building southern communities. Founded by Yale undergraduates who call the South home, this initiative is committed to sharing the region’s diverse people, places, challenges, and solutions with southerners and non-southerners alike. Go South was founded in response to two challenges: 1. The systemic lack of funding and human capital available to many of the South’s most dedicated public service organizations 2. The large number of students at Northeastern colleges who do not consider the South when choosing where to live and work. Go South believes we can turn these challenges into an opportunity. Our inaugural program, Go South Summer will place Yale students in summer fellowships throughout the South. Fellows will work on capacity-building projects and provide critical human capital to organizations doing great work in their communities. For our pilot summer, Go South is excited to partner with nonprofits in Savannah, Georgia. By providing students with an exciting, financially viable, and clear way to pursue work in the South, we aim to simultaneously support nonprofits in the vital work they already do and expand Yale students’ perspectives and life options in the South. Just as we recognize the South’s many obstacles––how to address deep poverty, health crises, racism and xenophobia, and educational achievement gaps––we recognize the creativity and dedication that southerners pour into overcoming these obstacles. Go South creates a platform where diverse experiences of the region can be shared and mobilized to support the community-based work that southern organizations are doing every day. We want to encourage students from southern states and across the country to go South to support those already fighting hard to make the South an even better place to call home.