founder: Lora Smothers
The Joy Village School is Athens’ only K-8th private school centering Black culture and history in its curriculum. Our mission is to curate joyful learning experiences for Black youth. Joy Village addresses a critical need for culturally safe education for Black students, who often face marginalization and traumatization in our public schools and cultural isolation in our traditional private schools. The Joy Village School was founded in 2022 by Lora Smothers, M.Ed., who was motivated by her own difficult experiences as the only Black student in a predominantly white school setting in 5th-12th grades. Joy Village came into being after years of conversations, focus groups, and surveys of Black families and educators in Clarke County who expressed dissatisfaction with the way their children were being underestimated and demeaned in the classroom. Joy Village is a groundbreaking innovation in a school district where only 1 in 10 Black students are reading on grade level. Now, instead of choosing between the poor academic outcomes of our local public schools and the cultural alienation of private school, Black families have a school option where their children can be both intellectually engaged and culturally affirmed. By reinforcing a positive racial identity in our students, we are imbuing them with the confidence they need to engage in the risk of learning and to succeed at high levels.
