Margo Smith Georgia Network Against Domestic Violence papers

Margo Smith was born as the youngest of five siblings in Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1950. She studied at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the 1970s, and graduated with honors with a major in Physical Education and a minor in Women’s Studies. Upon graduation, Smith went to work for the Massachusetts Coalition of Battered Women’s Groups. After moving to Atlanta in 1982, she worked as the executive director for the Association on Battered Women of Clayton County. She later held the position of Executive Director for the Georgia Network Against Domestic Violence. Smith went back to school at Georgia State University in 1994 to get her master's degree in Urban Studies with a concentration in Human Resources, while simultaneously working as the director of the Southeast Women’s Employment Coalition, and the interim director of the Women’s Resource Center. Smith then served as the Director of Development for the Atlanta Women’s Foundation. She later worked for the Trust for Public Land, Heifer International, and CARE, the international agency working to end poverty and empower women through social change.

For over 35 years, the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence (GCADV) has been Georgia’s leading representative of domestic violence agencies, advocates, allied individuals and survivors throughout the state. Tracing its roots back to 1980, GCADV grew out of the overwhelming need for domestic violence agencies to form a statewide network of programs to coordinate and expand the services available to victims of domestic violence in Georgia, increase public awareness, and achieve crucial legislation to protect domestic violence victims, including state-funding for domestic violence programs.

Originally formed in 1980 as the Georgia Network Against Domestic Violence, a grassroots volunteer agency, the organization changed its name to the Georgia Council on Abused Women in 1992, and again in 1995 to the Georgia Coalition on Family Violence. In 1999, the agency took on its current name of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Located in Decatur, Georgia, GCADV has a staff of nine who are dedicated to creating social change and eliminating domestic violence in the lives of all Georgia citizens through providing quality support, comprehensive training, and legislative advocacy for domestic violence agencies, advocates, and communities statewide.