United College Park has spent years challenging city leaders, questioning government decisions and pushing for greater transparency. It’s work that has often put the resident organization at odds with College Park officials.

The group is currently rethinking its mission and how it engages the community while seeking additional members. United College Park is also being considered for a Good Trouble Honor from the Center for Civic Innovation. Good Trouble Honors are inspired by the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis and celebrate people and organizations working to challenge the status quo in service of their communities.

A nomination is only the first step in the selection process and does not guarantee that a nominee will become a finalist or receive an honor, said Clara Totenberg Green, communications director for the Center for Civic Innovation.

“The entire point of the awards is to say that these are the people who are doing the hard work in our community that are not getting celebrated,” she added.

Dom Kelly, a former co-chair of United College Park, nominated the group for the honor and serves on the Good Trouble Honors selection committee. Kelly said he will not participate in the committee’s consideration of United College Park.

Members of United College Park have been among the city’s most outspoken residents, regularly questioning council members at public meetings about transparency and city decisions. In 2024, members formed a committee seeking to recall Councilwoman Jamelle McKenzie. The effort was unsuccessful. That same year, members sued College Park and NextEra Energy Resources over plans for a lithium-ion battery energy storage facility in the community.

More recently, members have challenged the city’s process for selecting a new destination marketing organization, including the council’s decision to make the selection during a special called meeting in Savannah.

“It’s an affirmation that we are doing the right things,” resident Randy Godfrey said of the group’s consideration for the Honors. “Our engagement in how the city leverages its assets, how it operates from a transparency and accountability perspective, how it allows its citizens to be engaged, it feels good to be recognized for some of that effort.”

The Good Trouble Honors recognize individuals and organizations in five categories: democracy and transparency, organizing and advocacy, policy innovation, investing in impact, and youth advocacy. About 100 individuals and organizations are typically nominated each year, with the field narrowed through a selection process, Totenberg Green said.

“The meaning of the phrase, ‘Good Trouble,’ has sort of been watered down, but we want to make sure … that we are honoring work that doesn’t please everyone, that can be scary and hard to do but is critical and for the betterment of [metro] Atlanta,” Totenberg Green said. “That really drives what these are about.”

The Good Trouble Honors will take place in December.

As it goes through the Good Trouble Honors selection process, United College Park is considering its own future. The group is reframing its structure and mission and testing an in-depth questionnaire intended to identify the issues College Park residents care about most and the role they believe the organization should play.

“We’re looking forward to reaching folks throughout [College Park] and really becoming a model for other cities as well,” Godfrey said.

Kelly, who is now a mostly inactive member of United College Park, said the group’s scrutiny of city government is part of what makes it a fit for the spirit of the Good Trouble Honors.

He is co-founder, president and CEO of New Disabled South, an organization that advocates for people with disabilities. New Disabled South received a Good Trouble Honor last year. 

United College Park’s work has led other residents to pay closer attention to their local government, Kelly said. He believes that some city council members and other local officials have taken actions he describes as “blatantly illegal.”

“I think it says a lot about what our neighbors are building here,” Kelly said of United College Park. “People are really starting to open their eyes to what’s going on.. A movement has grown in College Park.”

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