Engaging Voters, Empowering Communities

This year, we’re voting like our children’s future depends on it. Because it really does. 

The presidential race is a big-ticket item, but hundreds of other state and local races will impact critical issues like school funding, child care and early education, nutrition programs, and health care. Every seat in the NC General Assembly is on the ballot, along with the Governor’s race, a US Senate seat, congressional races, and more. It’s important that parents, caregivers, and everyone who cares about kids gets to the polls this year.

Take the Pledge, and Help Others Vote

As a strong child advocate, we know you’re already making plans to vote this fall, either through early voting, mail-in voting, or in-person voting on election day. NC Child is here to help advocates like you ensure that everyone you know who cares about kids is connected to accurate, non-partisan voting resources too. Here’s how:  

First, we invite you to take the #Vote4NCKids pledge, and share with your organization, partners, neighbors, church members, and friends. We’ll send you shareable, accurate, timely, non-partisan updates each week from now until Election Day. The weekly messages are designed to make sure you and everyone you know has the tools and information to vote. 

Next, if you work for a nonprofit serving North Carolina families, we ask that you consider getting involved in our Get Out the Vote effort, to help your clients and community members vote this fall. We know non-profits have lots of questions about how to do this. We offered partners a free webinar on September 8th to train you on how to effectively engage voters in non-partisan Get Out the Vote Techniques through your organization.

How to help your clients and members vote this November: Nonprofit voter engagement webinar
Presenters: J’vanete Skiba, NC Child; Cheryl Ellis, Democracy NC; Caitlin Metzguer, You Can Vote; and Whitney Tucker, NC Child

 

Voter Engagement – Building Power for Kids 

Here’s how our non-partisan, non-profit Get Out the Vote campaign works: 

Using the Nonprofit Vote model, NC Child is partnering with nonprofits working in several North Carolina communities that serve high numbers of “unlikely voters” — meaning folks who don’t always vote in every election. These are voters typically missed by the high volume of voter information put out by political campaigns each election cycle. They are often folks in low-income communities and communities of color, who are most likely to be left out of the political process. We work together with our non-profit partners to focus on voter education, making sure every member of our communities feels heard, valued, and is empowered to vote.

Chester Williams, CEO of A Better Chance A Better Community in Enfield, NC is among the community organizations working with NC Child to help more folks #Vote4NCKids. He’s involved in this work because he says it’s one of the core focus areas of his organization, to lift up the voices of folks who are often marginalized and underserved:

“Our initiative engages and reaches those ‘hard to count’ populations, which also overlay with those that are ignored in the voting process. So [we] use this opportunity to share information to engage them in volunteer opportunities and to provide training opportunities to become ambassadors for the Census and get out the vote.”

When trusted organizations like ABC2 mobilize their communities to vote, they bring more critical voices into our democracy. We’re collaborating with Child Advocacy Network partners like ABC2 to ensure that the folks are most impacted by the issues on the ballot – especially parents and caregivers of North Carolina’s children – get a say.