THE EMPOWER HOUSTON LEADERS PROJECT
A PROVEN APPROACH TO BUILDING GRASSROOTS LEADERSHIP, CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND VOTING IN
HISTORICALLY DISENGAGED COMMUNITIES
C r e a t i n g a n e m p o w e r e d n e t w o r k o f g r a s s r o o t s l e a d e r s t o e ff e c t c i v i c p a r t i c i p a t i o n a n d v o t i n g i n H a r r i s
C o u n t y
OVERVIEW
• Texas and Harris County Suffer From a Lack of Civic Engagement
• Civic Engagement is a Process that takes Face-to Face Action!
• EHL is Designed to Engage Low Propensity Minority Participants
• Hands on experience with Community Projects Residents want!
• How does Texans Together make this happen?
• How does this increase voting in these areas?
• How does this voter network work?
• Accountability
• Where we are today
• How can you help?
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TEXAS AND HARRIS COUNTY SUFFER FROM A LACK OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND VOTING
In 2008, Latino adult citizens voting in Texas and Harris County lagged far behind the country. Texas is the only
Hispanic-rich state where the Latino turnout percentage has declined since 2000; the other states
have increased turnout significantly. US Census Voting Data (2011)
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OTHER STATES HAVE INCREASED MARKEDLY CIVIC PARTICIPATION AND VOTING THROUGH GRASSROOTS LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
“Renewing and building civic participation doesn’t really happen through one more direct mail piece or a better television commercial. It requires person-to-person connections, leading to positive experiences within a supportive community addressing personally felt issues. Effective grassroots leaders are active at the heart of these endeavors.”
W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Grassroots Leadership Development
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Breakout Groups Where The Class Works On Individual Projects
THE EHL PROJECT IS DESIGNED TO DEVELOP LOWER INCOME, MINORITY GRASSROOTS
LEADERS
• Materials and training are devised for working people.
• Trainers are from minority, working class backgrounds.
• Grassroots leaders continue to learn leadership skills with supervised community organizing projects after the classroom training ends.
• The Project utilizes social media and regular networking meetings to build an activist culture.
• It provides small stipends and mentorship for leaders’ own projects.
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FOR EACH EHL LEADERSHIP CLASS
• We recruit and accept 30 potential grassroots leaders from disengaged communities
• We provide 8 practical trainings on engaging their communities
• Leaders receive small stipends and supervision for community projects of their choosing
• Leaders are part of an on-going grassroots network that includes regular meetings
• Each leader commits and receives support to work with volunteers to turn out 100 neighbors to vote in Nov. 2014
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WHERE THE GRASSROOTS LEADERS AND VOTER TEAMS WILL BE LOCATED
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HOW THE VOTER NETWORK WORKS
• 200 EHL leaders become voter captains in the target areas
• Each of the 200 EHL leaders forms a voter team with 5 volunteers
• Each of the 200 voter teams is responsible for engaging 100 potential voters who normally do not vote
• Each team hosts 2 house parties or meet-ups
• Each team will have 3 personal contacts (2 in-person and a phone call ) with each of the 20,000 targets
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ACCOUNTABILITY
• Each Voter Teams’ list of 100 identified potential voters will be collected
• Participation of each potential voter on the lists will be verified after the Election
• An accountability report will be provided to each donor by the end of December 2014
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WHERE THE PROJECT IS TODAY
We have raised $550,000 of our $1,266,038,000 budget
Our current funding will pay for:
• training 2/3rds of the planned 200 voting leaders
• making 3 personal contacts to 13,000 targets out of 20,000 planned targets
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CONCLUSION
• Because of Texans Together reputation and collaborative community partnerships, we believe we can train more constituents in Harris County and graduate them into our Grassroots Organizing Network.
• This network helps disengaged communities increase voting, improve their neighborhoods and become self-sustainable local leaders.
• In order for this innovative method of engaging constituents in the minority communities, we need your help!
• The Meadows Foundation was founded on improving people’s lives and a major part of that mission is through civic engagement.
• Please greatly consider our funding proposal of $60,000 and join other donors in making a change in Houston!
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