Florida: Final Update

7262 doors

327 voters registered

183 returning citizens registered

It’s July 1, and in the next 16 months we in Common Purpose are going to do all we can to right our capsized democracy. We will fight and push and work and work and work to register voters, mobilize voters, raise and contribute funds, educate and be educated, expand the communities being served and heard and amplified, and strengthen our ties with one another. It’s common purpose time, small C, small P.

We just completed a 21-day push to register returning citizens formerly incarcerated in Florida. Over three weeks, 30 CPers led by Amy Sommers, Maria Abando, Jordan Goldwarg, Bert Greenwood, and Dan Roach, and in partnership with Florida folks, knocked on 7262 doors and either talked with or left materials at almost all of them. In this work, we registered or updated 327 voters – of which 183 were returning citizens, and set in potential motion countless other ripples of impact. This is the essential, hard, hot, tiring, draining, exhausting work of democracy. Real change comes only with real sacrifice, real cost, and real risk. The new poll-tax law adopted by Florida Republicans was scheduled to go into effect today, but I am hopeful that it will get thrown out in the courts as in conflict with the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution. Regardless, we will be back in Florida in future months.

An Update On Our Florida Effort

A message from one of our Florida Team Leads, Jordan Goldwarg(who is also our North Carolina team Captain). Amy Sommers, Maria Abando, Bert Greenwood and Dan Roach are also leads for this Florida effort.

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Hi all,

It was another epic day for team Florida, with 844 doors knocked and 23 voters registered, of whom 17 were returning citizens.

Here are some of the stories from the team that stuck with me:

Marcia, who arrived early in the afternoon and immediately got to work in the field, was able to convince a reluctant man to register to vote when he thought about his kids and the example he was going to set for them. When he finally decided to register, he yelled back to his kids, "Your dad is going to vote!" When Marcia asked if there was anyone else in the house who would like to register, he motioned to his kids and said, "There will be."

AJ knocked on the door of a gentleman who was cooking and said that he wanted to register, but that he was in the middle of cooking and didn't want his food to burn, especially since he was getting ready to leave for work. But he asked her to leave a form with him and come back later in the day to pick it up, and sure enough, he had it ready when AJ returned.

And I want to offer special thanks to Diane and Joanne, who have done a great job of taking photos and getting stories from folks they are registering. Here are some from today:

"Sheila is affiliated with the Friendship Ministry Church. When we asked if we might have a space in the shade outside to talk to churchgoers after services, she said, 'You will come inside where we have air conditioning! Just tell us what you need for table and chairs and we will be ready.' She expounded on the importance of civic rights for all of their parishioners and welcomed us to return this Sunday for the June 30 deadline and future Sundays as needed."

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"This is Troy, owner of two barber shops. He welcomed us, took fliers and sent us to his other barber shop. He cares deeply about this issue as he was arrested and went to trial but was acquitted. He wants to be part of the positive change in community."

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"This is Mr. and Mrs. Hannah. Mrs Hannah opened the door wearing her fine white dress and pearls. When I commented on how lovely she looked, she told me she just came from a funeral. She then listened to my question about registration and said she was all set but not her husband, Herman. She invited me in. I learned Herman had never voted in his 70 years. He filled out the form while his wife picked up the phone to call her son and tell him to get over to her house as 'Miss Diane' is here signing up your father!' Her son didn't come but she and I chatted about all the benefits of voting. After Herman signed I reminded him this was because of his wife, her gift to him to let me come in. We laughed at the idea of an annual debate over political issues to cast a vote each year. When I asked if I might take a picture, Mrs Herman sweetly went over to where her husband sat and joined him. The seriousness of hard times preventing this basic right before was made light as Herman tried not to wince as she sat in his lap waiting for me to snap a picture."

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"Here's a different kind of story. I met this man in front of an auto body shop and he told me he had never voted. He said he had not committed crimes to block him, but never cared, it never matters. We talked for a bit and he eventually said, 'I think I have it'. He pulled out his wallet and pulled out card and paper after paper until he found his voter registration card. We talked about the wage hike amendment and Andrew Gillum's loss by 130K votes. And on... he looked me in the eye and thanked me politely for my time and promised me he would vote. It was humbling..."

The stories go on and on. All part of the drama of building a more perfect union.

As for me, I am heading back to Seattle tomorrow, but I will pass the baton to Bert Greenwood before I do, so look for more updates from her! Thank you, Bert, for being here.

Before I sign off, here is one final photo, again courtesy of Diane, of the outside of one of Troy's barber shops:

All the best,

Jordan

An Urgent Note About Florida Action: 6/10/2019 - 6/30/2019

ASK: Join the on-the-ground Florida effort taking place June 10th - June 30th as we race towards a July 1st deadline to register as many Floridians who’ve recently had their voting rights restored before a law takes effect making it much more difficult for many of them. Sign up here: https://forms.gle/3EPeUSeWyKDessdA8

We have an opportunity, a defining chance to make a difference. We are writing to ask us as a community to step forward and act.

Here’s the situation: Last year, one of our most-important outcomes was that we worked to pass Amendment 4 in Florida, which restores voting rights to people formerly incarcerated for felony offenses. Since January 1 thousands of returning citizens have been regaining the right to vote, but the Republican-controlled legislature in Florida just passed a new law that will require all formerly incarcerated folks to ALSO pay all court costs/fines before they can regain the right to vote. It’s a spot-on horrible act of voter suppression. We as an org are all-in to fight these actions. The bad news is that when the law goes into effect July 1 it will become very, very difficult for hundreds of thousands of formerly incarcerated citizens with significant court costs/fines to ever regain their right to vote.

But we have a month until the law takes effect.

Our Florida partners, working with the Florida Rights and Restoration Coalition, have sent us a red-alert bulletin asking us to come and do voter-registration work before July 1. (see a snippet of one of their emails at the end of this message.) Their lawyers believe that everyone registered to vote before July 1 will *not be subject to the new must-pay-all-fees voter suppression law.* Our partners are identifying all of these returning citizens, building a voter-registration strategy that incorporates these citizens but does not uncomfortably target them, and they tell us they need every person possible to do the work.  NOW. NOW. NOW.

On Friday we told our partners that we will do *everything possible* to mobilize Common Purpose volunteers to come to Florida from June 10 through June 30. Specifically, we will work in Pinellas County, which is the Tampa area, where there are at least 1600 returning citizens who are eligible to be registered to vote. We will have at least one Common Purpose leader there for every one of those dates who will be our point persons, so that every CP volunteer coming from Seattle will know where to go, with CP LEADERS making sure we are fully integrated with our partner organizations and working in the CP way to support them.

If there is any way you can be on the ground in Pinellas County between June 10 and June 30, this is a defining chance to make a difference. It’s as concrete of an action in the service of a just and inclusive democracy as we can offer. We can truly change people’s lives. And – although this is not the primary motivation for us to do this – we have every reason to believe that the progressive longterm effects on elections, including the 2020 presidency, will be real.

To pull this off may require changing plans, missing events, spending dollars that are un-planned and be a real stretch.  We will need to walk through ambiguity and uncertainty as we build this on the fly. But our work in 2018 and our already-happening mobilization for 2019-20 assure us that we can do this. And indeed, this is why we do this work. Our Common Purpose leadership is fully mobilized, and we are asking you to join us. If you can’t go, please consider recruiting someone you know who might be interested, and paying their costs.

As a sign of our commitment, we will provide reimbursement costs of up to $500 for any person who signs up, if you wish.

If you are open to doing this, please sign up to join our Florida team right now. Here’s the Florida team page signup:

https://forms.gle/3EPeUSeWyKDessdA8

If we can address questions, please let us know at hello@cpnow.org.

Let’s go. Democracy is a verb. We need to risk and sacrifice if we’re going to bring about real change.

The CP leadership team

CP May Workshop: 2020 Launch Recap

We had a terrific positive workshop this past Saturday. We want to highlight items 3, 4, and 5 as they are the heartbeats of how we go forward over the next 18 months. Please become familiar with our organizational website, cpnow.org. It is the place for information on our WA state civic engagement, our across-the-country state teams, and our educational events. We will be updating this site regularly!

Democracy is a verb. It requires action. We have a lot to do. Start now with the fieldwork options on tap, noted in Session 4 below.

Rather watch a recap than read one? Check out the video below.

We had a plan for an audio recording of the workshop. It didn't work out. So you're getting this super awesome video instead. Enjoy.

RECAP OF 5-18-2019  WORKSHOP

Kickoff for 2019-20

Session 1: Three key leadership team members – Maria Abando, Larcy Douglas, and Bert Greenwood -- talked briefly about why they are part of Common Purpose and their work for the organization.  Their remarks provided valuable insights into how we are growing as an org.

Session 2: Maria led us through a community session in which participants talked with 3-4 others about “One civic action that you have done for the first time, or the first time in a long time, with Common Purpose.” To start this exercise, on 3x5 cards people chose civic action categories, and then elaborated in writing on the meaning of one of them. They then engaged for a few minutes in small-group discussions. Afterward, people put their first names on cards if they were fine with doing so, and we collected them.  If you were not at the workshop and are willing to take 2-3 minutes to share about your civic actions with CP, please click here:  https://commonpurposenow.org/cpfirsts. Special thanks for CP Community member Douglas Coutts who helped us think through and build this activity!

Session 3: David introduced the community to an overview of our 2019-20 voter fieldwork plan. The “2019-20 plan” is a document we handed out to workshop attendees. This document is intended as a summary to be kept at home in a folder or on a refrigerator. It has the framework (four lanes of action) for our voter fieldwork, a listing of workshop dates, and the states of focus.  Please also see the “WA State 2018-19 Voting Justice Laws” document created by our Washington State Strategist Jamielyn Wheeler, which shows what our progressive pro-democracy work can achieve.  

Here’s a little about our states with upcoming plans for 2019 activity.

Session 4: This was an introduction of the leadership for our key national states over the next 18 months. The attachment “2019-20 states summary” is a document we handed out to workshop attendees. We have two key GOTV states for 2019: Virginia and North Carolina; for these, we spent a few minutes discussing partner orgs and planned dates of travel, in this coming August, September, and October. We will continue our work in Virginia and North Carolina in 2020, along with 11 other states. For all of these we will be engaging in LOTS and LOTS of voter registration over the next 16 months, followed by a 2-month all-in push between Labor Day and Election Day in 2020. Our first voter-registration trips will be in Florida and Maine! Please go to our Fieldwork tab and add your names to states that you might be interested in working in.

David goes in-depth on 2020 focus states, and gives a little motivation as we head into action.

Session 5: This was a final community session, led by AJ Musewe and Audrey Vaughan. The focus was on “risk and sacrifice” – specifically, what are each of us going to risk and/or sacrifice over the next 18 months to help us toward a just and inclusive democracy? Both of the Audreys had powerful words calling us to step forward and up.

CP April Workshop: Recap

WELCOME — Another CP Workshop, another Community Building session led by the Audreys (Audrey Musewe + Audrey Vaughan), this time continuing a theme of personal and mental work each of us navigate when taking civic action: Courage & Risk.

CIVIC MODULE — David Domke put on his favorite “hat”, one of the professor, and walked everyone through a light civic module focusing on voter suppression in America. Amy Sommers tied this to current events, specifically in Florida with the continued disenfranchisement efforts of citizens who’s voting rights have been recently restored. Being Common Purpose, there was also an element of how we’re planning to affect positive change in Florida later this year.

FIELDWORK UPDATES — Charles Douglas III brought us a message about fighting and losing, and fighting again in Wisconsin after the defeat of Lisa Neubauer in the State Supreme Court race. In this imperfect world, even the most noble efforts find failure. And still we persist…. Maggie Rittenhouse was joined by Audrey Musewe to introduce Maggie as a new leader as well as a new more comprehensive approach to our operations and relationships in Virginia.

WASHINGTON ACCOUNTABILITY — Jamielyn Wheeler updated everyone on the progress of efforts here in Washington State, and highlighted a few community members who then spoke about their own individual and team efforts during the recent legislative session.

JOIN US NEXT MONTH FOR THE MAY WORKSHOP! SATURDAY, MAY 18TH AT WASHINGTON HALL!

Democracy Voucher Resources

Common Purpose Seattle City Residents!

The Democracy Voucher Program offers a new way for Seattle residents to participate in local government by supporting campaigns and/or running for office themselves. Beginning February 12, all registered voters, and eligible Seattle residents who applied, will receive four $25 Democracy Vouchers by mail. For more information about the program click here: https://www.seattle.gov/democracyvoucher/about-the-program

Candidates who have qualified for the Democracy Voucher Program thus far:

http://www.seattle.gov/democracyvoucher/i-am-a-seattle-resident/2019-participating-candidates

Learn about the voucher program candidates, get answers to commonly asked questions, replace your vouchers, and more at: https://www.seattle.gov/democracyvoucher

Behind-the-Scenes: Civic Accelerator Update

At my time at Starbucks hq I used to call them “Aha Moments”. Times when I gained a new and catalyzing level of understanding about something I was working on. I’ve had many of them along this journey with Common Purpose, and had an energizing one last week with Civic Accelerator.

Our primary description of Civic Accelerator has been tied to investing in new ideas for civic engagement methods, largely created by the next generation of leaders. Part of the goal is to further develop leaders, but another is to identify, support and grow new ideas of reaching communities and demographics who don’t show up in the civic space as much as others: young people of color, working Millennials, low income people, etc. My work in this space can be more focused on identifying & growing these ideas.

With this in mind, over the next few months I’ll be looking to form relationships with entrepreneurs and startup communities here in Seattle. I’ll be hoping to learn from them, build our network of possible future mentors, and gain insight into possible projects/platforms/products launching in the civic space. When Leadership Lab is ready to graduate a cohort into Civic Accelerator to build their own ideas or support ongoing ones, I’ll be ready.

Keep on…

CD3

Workshop Recap: Our WA work + Adrianne Shropshire

The first of what we hope to be many events held at the Northwest African American Museum brought sunshine, a new level of engagement and two special guests to our community.

A few highlights:

• We: The Audreys (Audrey Musewe and Audrey Vaughan) opened us up with an interactive activity focused on the power of “We” both in our personal experiences and within Common Purpose.

• Accountability: Jamielyn led us through updates on our Washington State Accountability Initiative for the Spring, along with highlights from the Captains who are assisting with the effort.

• Represent: Common Purpose Advisor Kiana Scott welcomed State Rep Gale Tarleton as they closed out the WA-focused Accountability segment by reinforcing the power of contacting our elected officials directly.

• Caucus: Continuing on-the-ground civic fieldwork as our major focus (even in electoral off-cycle years), we held our “mini-caucus” for CPers to speak directly with State Captains leading teams to Virginia, Florida and Wisconsin (sign ups here), as well as WA Accountability Captains and a local 2020 Census expert. All great avenues for individuals to make an impact locally or nationally.

• Organizing: We closed our workshop with a Q&A with Adrianne Shropshire, founder and Executive Director of BlackPAC and friend of Common Purpose. A more candid conversation than her previous visit, Adrianne provided her genuine perspectives on the Presidential race, political upheaval in Virginia, insight on the future of Stacey Abrams as well as very relevant guidance to CP volunteers and leadership.

Be on the lookout for more info from us on upcoming Common Purpose workshops and events!

Begin again...

Common Purpose didn’t start in 2018.

It started with newly heard voices walking the streets of DC in 2017.

…with outstretched hands at an airport in Seattle

…with a pilgrimage to the south

and a university lecture.

It started in the living room of concerned neighbors.

And again after consoling a worried child.

It started with a conversation over dinner, and a promise between friends

…with a determined group of young leaders

…and with unsure feet to unfamiliar pavement, brave hands to waiting doors

Common Purpose didn’t start in 2018. It started again.

This January 2019, it starts yet again in an effort to continue helping people utilize their civic voice, and to help them become multipliers for others to do the same. Because ours is not to finish this fight, but to ready ourselves to continue, now and into the future.

To fall and rise again.

To win and begin again.

Join us.

A Movement, Not a Moment, in Pinellas County, Florida

From the start, Common Purpose committed to work alongside local partners wherever our teams deployed.  This meant that finding a Florida organization willing to work with us my first challenge as state captain.  This was back in the spring, during Wave 1. We had no track record, no online presence, no famous names or big pocketbooks behind us.  What we had was a commitment from hundreds of volunteers who promised to be trained and were eager to work toward an inclusive and engaged democracy.  We also had a clear philosophy about cooperating with local partners, with two core tenets: identifying partners who deeply know the communities we aim to serve, and taking a supporting role.  While the local partners lead, we amplify and add capacity to their work. 

Most of the organizations I contacted about working together never responded. Those that did were friendly enough, but didn’t seem to believe the offer of help, our promise to follow their lead, and our commitment to pay our own way. Time was tick-tocking along, but I still hadn’t found a local partner. Finally, Seanna Browder attended an Organizing For Action (OFA) training session, and asked the leader whether OFA might need help in Florida. Seanna’s question turned out to be a critical turning point. 

OFA Florida Volunteer Lead Malanda Schmitz shared our commitment to inclusive democracy, immediately grasped our goals and welcomed Common Purpose to work with OFA. In June, twelve Team Florida volunteers spent a week registering voters in St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, 608 square miles with almost a million residents. Or trying to. In the economically disadvantaged neighborhoods where our team deployed, many of the people we encountered reported they couldn’t vote. All too soon, Common Purpose members learned “I can’t vote” was code for “I committed a felony and am banned from ever voting,” a topic we’ve written about here.

At the end of October, nineteen of us again touched down in Pinellas County.  We spent the final days before midterms getting out the vote in economically disadvantaged communities filled with low-propensity voters.  We canvassed for Andrew Gillum for Governor, Bill Nelson for U.S. Senate and Amendment 4, which would restore voting rights to people convicted of a felony who had served their sentence.

Knowing our goal was to serve under-served communities, ideally in collaboration with people of color, Malanda found the perfect partner for us: a local chapter of a healthcare workers’ union whose members are majority female and African American. 1199SEIU’s Regional Director, Clara Smith, turned out to be a compelling and savvy organizer who had grown up in St. Petersburg and knew how to enlist, train and deploy campaign workers. Team Florida was matched in teams with Local 1199 canvassers and sent out to cover turf that many of the local canvassers knew intimately. It didn’t take long for those in Common Purpose to find ourselves in awe of the talents, commitment and work ethic of those with whom we were knocking on doors.   

•   Steven, a poet/rapper, who at the conclusion of the first day brought a number of us to tears singing an a cappella song he had written about single moms staying strong.

•   Emily, raising 4 kids on her own while working the night shift. After our work ended, she confided her fears that we might feel uncomfortable in our turf because Florida is in the deep South and there are a lot of older White people there who are still racist. She was surprised and pleased that we jumped in and ended up really enjoying the time with us. We were in awe of all that she was managing in her own life!

•   Chuck, currently unemployed and eager to find work to support his wife and kids, won over everyone with his sweet smile and great work ethic. When a couple of Common Purpose members helped him look into job opportunities, the challenges he faces in terms of lack of access to and familiarity with technology brought home the barriers the working poor face.

•   Jerome, an ambassador of sorts in his neighborhood, who everywhere we went seemed to encounter people who knew and liked him. He was relentless in engaging with potential voters about their right to vote. In addition to his talents of persuasion, Jerome was also a terrific source of restaurant recommendations. Over one of our delicious lunches, we asked how he became so aware of the importance of voting. He shared how when he was growing up during the Reagan years, an elementary school teacher had explained just how important voting was, and he had decided that when he grew up, that was something he was going to do. (Shout out to all you educators: your lessons really do matter!)

By the time our four days of canvassing in partnership with OFA and Local 1199 ended, we had collectively knocked on 8,000 doors!  The energy and determination of our partners had inspired us, and exciting ideas for cross-pollination and future collaboration bubbled up amongst OFA, Common Purpose and 1199SEIU leaders. After our week in Pinellas County, what resonates most is a sense of deep admiration for the local people we partnered with there.

The day after the election, Common Purpose General Manager David Domke wrote to Malanda and Clara Smith of 1199SEIU, “We were with you yesterday, and we’re with you today. And we’ll be with you tomorrow.”  The campaign was ending, but as our Team Florida member Bobbi Geiger continued to urge, we are not engaged for a moment, but rather in a movement.

Written by Amy Sommers.

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