October 24, 2019: This is really happening! PWN-USA is going on the road to Atlanta, Georgia, for our in-person electoral organizing bootcamp starting this Sunday, October 27! Teams from 11 key geographic locations who are part of PWN’s cutting-edge new Organizing for Power: Road to 2020 (OFP) electoral organizing project will be trained up on concrete skills and knowledge they need to succeed to educate, activate, and mobilize their communities for the 2020 election cycle, with plenty of hands-on practice.
OFP teams will be heading to Atlanta from Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas (Dallas and Houston).
The excitement and momentum for a successful bootcamp are well underway. Our teams have been selected through a rigorous application process, have been planning and participating in pre-bootcamp webinars, and they have fundraised to get to Atlanta. We asked core members from each team to tell us about their motivations and their expectations as OFP 2020 gets underway in earnest.
Team Alabama Voices
As Alabama Voices is in the beginning stages of forming a PWN regional chapter, we thought that the Organizing for Power campaign would teach us to work together as a group and increase our visibility in our community, making a difference during a dire moment in our nation’s history while learning tools and skills to continue making a difference in our state for years to come. We hope the experience will teach us to put away our individual egos and help us to form a unified, efficient, and effective team that can take on any issue this state has together as one. PWN Alabama Voices is excited to just get started, we’re excited to receive our training, share that training with our team, and start getting things done. We’re ready to make a difference in the 2020 elections by working to make sure that every disenfranchised vote matters.
– Katie Willingham, Team Alabama Voices
PWN Texas Dallas-Ft Worth registering voters in 2018
We wanted to be a part of Organizing For Power 2020 because we want to see change happen, not just for people living with HIV, but for everyone. We also wanted to gain more experience in policy, so that we can have a better understanding of the ins and outs on the policies that are in place to better explain to the community. To let people know the importance of their vote. To make sure that people who are off of parole/probation know their rights and also explain to them that they can in fact vote. To get the trans community on board to vote because some Trans people will not vote because they don’t identify with the gender and or name listed on their ID, Drivers License, or birth certificate.
– Roxanne Glapion, Jamie Collins, and Kimberlee El, Team Dallas-Fort Worth
OFP Team H-Power registers voters at a hair and health show in September
We believe it is important for us to mobilize our community around the issues because we can no longer separate the policies from the work and our lives on the ground. So, when PWN announced Organizing for Power 2020, we formed H-Town Power. It was the perfect opportunity for us to continue shifting attention to the issues – locally, statewide, and nationally. It’s very important that we educate our constituents about what’s at stake for low-income communities and to know what’s on the ballot; to know whether the officials we vote into office support black and brown communities. Telling people who have felonies that if they are not on parole or on paper here in Texas they have the right to vote. Encouraging people to take the pledge to vote and vote early can change voter suppression efforts. These are the kinds of changes we want to see as a result of our work between now and the 2020 election. Our team’s interests lie in educating people on issues that affect marginalized communities, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, women’s rights, economic justice, housing and health care for everyone. H Town Power has had so much support from our Houston community to even get us to the bootcamp. We are grateful for all of the support and are excited to really dig into what we’ll learn at the training so that we can bring it back to the rest of our team. We’re also anticipating connecting with other teams across the country. Based on the passion and excitement we feel from everyone on the webinars, we have a notion that the energy at bootcamp will be electric.
–Crystal Townsend, Team Houston
Team Michigan decided to participate in Organizing for Power program for a number of reasons. But the one main reason was to engage communities that feel their voices are left out during election cycles as policies are created that barely provide any protection for the citizens. So we as a team feel it is our duty to get involved to bring awareness of the issues of people living with HIV to those who may or may not be aware to ensure that the voices of PLWH are not left out in the process. Lastly, to ignite the hearts and minds of my fellow people living with HIV, whether young or seasoned; to become engaged in this voting process whether that is getting registered to vote, or just simply receiving a text, email, or phone call on updates.
-Chunnika Hodges, Team Michigan
Our team, North Carolina Queens of Change, was interested in participating in the Organizing for Power program because there are so many issues in the state of North Carolina that need powerhouse voices to speak up about, one being Medicaid expansion. The women on our team vow to work together to mobilize community members, partners, and allies to do what needs to be done so that no person is left behind in the struggle of health disparities. We definitely want to see Medicaid being expanded in North Carolina. We want to see more people living with HIV and other comorbidities have full access to care. We want to see a positive change in this upcoming election cycle. The North Carolina Queens of Change team is most excited about coming together with other state teams to learn more on strategic and intentional ways of organizing, learning more on what to say to our local and state officials to get the things our communities need to thrive.
– Alicia Diggs, Team North Carolina Queens for Change
OFP Pennsylvania registering voters in Philadelphia in September
Our team wanted to participate because we know when we organize people living with HIV and allies in a concerted effort to encourage others in civic engagement, educating on our values and how these values relate to the issues, and running get-out-the-vote campaigns, we really do make a difference in all of our communities. We participated in Progress for Pennsylvania in 2018 and had great results, learned a lot, and educated our community on voting to make a difference. We know that we are the people we’ve been waiting for to fight for our values of economic justice, universal healthcare, sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, transgender rights, safety, and justice, ending violence against women and ending criminalization of HIV. There are currently direct attacks on our freedoms and we must have a sense of urgency. We would like to see more people get active in the community and be passionate about doing our civic duty in voting and encouraging others to vote, especially in areas of historically low voter turnout. We’d like to strengthen our community alliances and share resources and best practices to increase voter turnout at the local, state, and federal levels. We’re excited to learn and practice new skills that will help us in our communities and increase voter turnout and participation of people in our communities in the process and issues at stake. I’m looking forward to learn new ways to speak about the values and issues that relate to our neighbors, coworkers, and people in offices.
–Michelle Kohler, Team Pennyslvania
Meanwhile, PWN staff and our guest trainer team are hard at work preparing to make the 4.5-day bootcamp as comprehensive, impactful, and hands-on as possible so that all of our teams leave equipped with what they need to really build power and make change where they live. Stay tuned for news from the OFP 2020 bootcamp here and on social media! Follow the hashtag #PWNPower2020 for video interviews with OFP participants, some livestream, and plenty of people power!
