Voter Engagement Project
On Tuesday, March 25th, 2008, Community Voices Heard participated in a briefing on the Pushback Network - our national electoral network - at the Carnegie Corporation's offices in New York City. Rodney McKenzie, Jr., Coordinating Director of Pushback, gave an overview of the national network's evolution, purpose, and structure. Henry Serrano, CVH's Voter Project Director, then talked about the nuts and bolts of doing civic engagement work in a community based organization and provided CVH case studies of how we have integrated the work into our ongoing organizing efforts.
In 2005, CVH combined its desire to show impact in key electoral districts (through increasing the percentage of people voting) with its desire to elevate the issue of poverty in the campaign discourse. CVH decided to start the geographic work of voter contact in the neighborhood right outside the office doors, East Harlem…a community with a high number of registered voters, but particularly bleak rates of voter turnout. A team of community canvassers were hired and trained to knock on doors and talk to people.
This power point presentation was created for the
Pushback Network convening. It is a case study of the work we have been doing for our Voter Engagement Project from its origin until now. It goes through our goals, our process, and our results.
In 2004, CVH initiated a three year plan to build our power through an electoral strategy. This plan focuses on building a list of progressive economic justice voters, increasing turn out and participation, and training community members about the electoral and political process. This past year, CVH ran the program in a way that would test and evaluate systems and the intersection between a voter engagement program with our core economic justice organizing work.
