Community Collaborations

Out of Hand partners with a wide range of community organizations in Atlanta in Georgia to produce theater-based projects to support their missions. Projects cover topics such as homelessness in partnership with Families First, the celebration of Juneteenth with The Home Depot Foundation, climate change with the Atlanta Science Festival and The Weather Channel, and voter turnout with Atlanta comedian Mark Kendall.

Current Collaborations

PACE (Preventing Abuse and Commercial Exploitation) 

PACE is a child sex trafficking awareness and prevention program for Georgia middle school students featuring the original film, See You. See You was developed with the Georgia Department of Education, Georgia Council for the Arts, Office of the Attorney General, Wellspring Living and Street Grace. The current PACE curriculum aims to fill the need for engaging and practical prevention education at an age-appropriate level. 

The PACE Education Program is being implemented at four middle schools in Athens Clarke County this 2024 spring semester!

Equitable Vaccines 

Out of Hand Theater’s award-winning Equitable Vaccines (EqVax) program, developed in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Public Health and Performance Hypothesis, successfully boosted COVID-19 vaccine confidence across Georgia before its cancellation due to the rescission of Health and Human Services funding in 2025. EqVax was an innovative public health initiative designed to address vaccine deliberation through the intersection of art, information, and meaningful dialogue. In partnership with CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), EqVax brought artistic experiences and open, respectful conversations to communities across the state, creating welcoming spaces for people to explore their concerns and make informed decisions about vaccination.

EqVax—originally launched as Time Has Chosen Us—began in late 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially supported by CDC Foundation funding, the program’s early success led to a $500,000 grant from the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) to boost vaccine confidence in rural Black communities in Georgia. Building on that success, the program expanded its outreach to include rural Black as well as Hispanic communities across the state in 2025. Several Spanish-language artistic assets were created, and community engagement was underway when the program was unexpectedly canceled due to the rescission of government funds. Despite the premature ending, EqVax made a meaningful impact through innovative public health storytelling and intentional community dialogue.

fear not.

fear not. is a short film written and directed by John Settles made possible by support from the Gilead COMPASS Initiative and Out of Hand Theater.

fear not. aims to serve as a hopeful example of what it can look like when we use our faith practices to uplift our LGBTQ+ neighbors and people living with HIV, since the social impact of HIV/AIDS stigma intersects with many forms of discrimination, and faith-based discrimination is no exception.

PAST COLLABORATIONS

PROMOTING VOTER TURN OUT

We have partnered with the Atlanta Science Festival to produce 2100: A Climate Odyssey, a fun, family-friendly, interactive piece of theater exploring Atlanta in the year 2100.

Helene S. Mills senior Multipurpose Center Project

Each summer Out of Hand brings a playwright, a choreographer, and a composer to work with a group of seniors at the Helene S. Mills Senior Center in the Old Fourth Ward. Together they devise a short piece of theater on a central theme that they then present to other members of the facility.