By Lynn Buske, JONAH Organizer
For 18 years, JONAH has touted the benefits of collaboration and worked to bring in more and more voices to engage civically to increase impact on issues and our community. But what we may not illustrate enough is what that looks like when it works.
Our Voices United civic engagement team is part of broad connections that increase our collective impact on voter education, election impact, and issue knowledge in a non-partisan way, with a larger mission of empowering voices on what they care about and supporting democracy through voter support. The task force itself is composed of folks from different experiences: congregation members, Chippewa Valley Votes, League of Women Voters-Greater Chippewa Valley, local elected leaders, and University students. We are also part of the EC Coalition – a group of grassroots partners who operate in and around the Chippewa Valley. In addition to the connection to WISDOM and affiliates, JONAH is part of the statewide network Wisconsin Civic Power Table.
While the group only recently became a JONAH task force, Voices United has hosted Common Grounds – a coffee chat group which has successfully built connection and increased civic dialogue, distributed material to inform voters about elections, held and sponsored candidate forums and a Fair Maps presentation, and made free rides to the polls happen through bus, paratransit, and drivers. We intend to repeat the CV Postcard Project and send those comments to congressional legislators, hold a public education community conversation, and prepare our churches and local residents for the fall election in myriad ways. We also will continue to be part of the Palm Sunday Path – faith voices publicly stating values in light of political unrest.
Our partners have done extensive voter registration, held other candidate forums, trained people in election work, been poll chaplains, and more. (add Martha’s group info and others?)
As truly amazing as that local work is, it is a small part of the larger impact we have made by being part of the WI Civic Power Table (WCPT)!
Coalition work doesn’t mean we all work on the same thing, it often means clarifying common values, staying aware of what we’re all doing and preventing overlap, leaning on individual organization’s strengths, and recognizing that all of those efforts help us reach our collective goals and are a symbol of collective power.
Groups that are part of WCPT, which is part of State Voices, are: the entire EC Coalition (Power Up EC, Citizen Action, GROWW, WPEN, LCV, CV Votes, Opportunity WI, and more), All in WI, WI Voting Rights Coalition, Democracy Defense Coalition, Fair Maps Coalition, WI Working Families, WI Council of Churches, WISDOM, Leaders Igniting Training, and more. Each of these groups (most of whom are non-partisan) are working on multi-tiered efforts to increase civic participation, protect democracy, and engage community members in a positive way, particularly around protecting the safety, fairness, and effectiveness of elections.
Specific election work statewide this year: registration information support, poll observation and poll chaplains, phone calls and texting to voters, canvassing door to door to listen and provide voting information, helping with absentee ballots, holding forums, sharing funding, bilingual support, young voter outreach, and support for using the Voter Database and learning from each other.
Next steps from across WI through WCPT that are planned, are to synthesize election information, debrief with municipal clerks, continued voter education and protecting election safety, work on jail voting rights, advocating for permanent fair maps in WI, recruiting candidates for nonpartisan roles, and strategizing needs for a fair and informed fall election season.
Also at the WCPT table we share information with each other about the issues we work on to increase and deepen our awareness and understanding. We plan to mobilize across the state on public school support, for example.
We share all this so you can see that the biggest part of organizing work is what you never see! Knowing that there are others across the nation working to stand up for the same values demonstrates the power of collective impact! WE ARE NOT ALONE! We are part of something bigger!
There is so much to do and be part of! Just this week, members of our team participated in an event for about 50 civic leaders in Eau Claire on civic health. Contact our Voices United Team to get more updates on WCPT impact or join our task force!