Civic Participation Strategies

1. Community Organizing and Civic Participation Strategies SCOPE 2008

2. What do we mean by the term "Community Organizing"?

3. Operational Definitions: • COMMUNITY ORGANIZING refers to organizing that: • Is Geographic-specific • Identifies as its Primary Constituency some set of residents and/or community institutions. • Utilizes Issue Campaigns to address specific problems and/or conditions. • Consciously and systematically Develops Grassroots Leaders among the Primary Constituency. • Seeks to Alter Power Relationships to the benefit of the primary constituency. • Builds sustained, ongoing, Independent, Democratic Organization Accountable to the Primary Constituency. CIVIC PARTICIPATION: Strategies that seek to increase politically conscious voter participation and achieve real democracy through the electoral arena: voter registration, education, and turnout.

4. Different Types/Arenas of Power: • Grassroots Lobbying (e.g. letter-writing, delegations with decision-makers, testimony at hearings) • Direct Action (e.g. Civil Disobedience, disrupting traffic or business) • Media/ Communications (e.g. press conferences, Op-Ed’s, paid advertising) • Electoral

5. PROBLEMS-CHALLENGES-LIMITATIONS REASONS TO BE ACTIVE IN ELECTORAL ARENA • Can’t ignore issues directly impacting our communities & are hot topics • Arena controls how money is distributed • Arena is accessible to many people • To make allies. A lot of our allies work in this arena • Possibility of reaching scale • A way to mitigate or stop something • It’s a recognized form of power by decision-makers • It’s motivating to our leaders • It’s a legitimate and important arena where power must be built • Watered down because of where elected and voters are • Can be illegal for C3 • Need huge scale to have impact • Only targeting voters • Leads to more tactical relations with allies • The power of money • Huge drain of resources • Could lose allies (different positions) • Not ideological battle where we are setting agenda • Short, frantic timeline, then over • Less than 10% of people stay involved • Mainly opposing things • Not about Systemic Change

6. Integrating Electoral Work & Community Organizing • Developing ONGOING NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZING STRUCTURES(example: Neighborhood Education Teams) • Training and DEVELOPMENT OF GRASSROOTS LEADERS(e.g. increasing skills & ownership) during NON-election cycles. • Recruiting and EXPANDING MASS MEMBERSHIP/ BASE by focusing on precincts/ groups of voters based on organizing goals. • Using LIVING DATABASE to make ongoing work more strategic and effective (analysis, targeting, tracking, evaluating) • Using other Technologies to make work more strategic and effective (e.g. GIS mapping, barcode scanning)

7. How it works...

8. Different Approaches to Voter Outreach… • MEDIA:TV and Radio ad’s; Press events; Newspaper Advertisements • MAIL: Flyers, brochures, post cards, etc. • FIELD/ ONE-ON-ONE: Precinct Walking; Phonebanks; On-site Outreach, House Meetings • Others: “Robo-Calls”, church announcements, …? What are some Pro's & Con's of each approach?

9. Different Voter Propensities: • “ALWAYS” VOTERS: • Very likely to vote in most elections, based on voting history. • Demographics: Tend to be older, wealthier, lower % of people of color than general electorate. • Focus with these voters is issue persuasion • Occasional Voters are our edge: • the folks who don’t get polled; • higher % of younger, poorer, people of color voters; • if we don’t reach out to these voters, no one else will. • “OCCASIONAL” VOTERS: • Vote in some elections, but not an “Always” voter—e.g. only vote in presidential elections or local races. • Demographics: Higher concentration of young voters, low-income and people of color voters. • Focus is issue education AND energizing them to turn out. • These voters are our edge—pollsters don’t count them and most traditional programs ignore these voters. • “NEW” VOTERS: • Newly eligible voters (new citizens or just turned 18) or recently moved into the area • Like Occasional voters, turnout with these voters tends to be low- around 20-25% in LA County • Focus is issue education AND energizing them to turn out.

10. 3 phases... Why THREE contacts? • Voter ID/ Education • Precinct walks • Phonebanks • GOTV • Confirm Support • Remind Targeted Voters • Election Day Turnout/ Election Protection • Walk to Targeted Voters • Poll Checking/ Watching

11. Case Study: SCOPE/AGENDA 2006

12. Introduction to S.C.O.P.E. Montana Idaho New York Massachusetts Iowa Nevada Colorado Missouri Kentucky California New Mexico Alabama Mississippi • SCOPE • Multi-Racial Base-Building & Leadership development • Regional Strategic Alliances & Capacity-Building • Strategies to Intervene in the Regional Economy • In-Depth Civic Participation. • ALLERT • Civic Participation to Scale • Ongoing regional Coalition • Living Voter database/ voter base • Indigenous Precinct network • PUSHBACK NETWORK • Anchor Organizations/ Coalition with common programs in 8 states (red/ blue). • Long-term Strategies for progressive shift in States’ Power Equation (base & “swing” constituencies). • Collaborative Capacity-Building. • CA STATE ALLIANCE • Progressive State Electoral Network • Collaborative Progressive State Public Policies Initiatives (Tax & Fiscal, Apollo Alliance, Issue Hubs) • Organizational Capacity-Building in Strategic Regions (20 groups, 6 regions)

13. AGENDA Los Angeles Metro Alliance Research & Training Strategic Initiatives • Training & Strategy Tools to Help Build the Capacity of Social Justice Organizations. • Regional, State, and National Alliance Building • Civic Participation alliances and capacity-building. • Building powerful grassroots organization in South L.A. • Models for multi-ethnic organizing & leadership development • Community-based research for organizing & campaigns • Strategic Research & Analysis (local, state, national, international) • Education & training tools for participatory research • Training & Technical Assistance • Building regional strategic alliances • Building new grassroots organizations across L.A. • Proactive regional issue campaigns • Non-partisan votereducation & participation S C O P E Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education

14. Proposition 187: Made it illegal for undocumented residents to access social service programs. 1994 Proposition 184: One of the first “three strikes you’re out” laws in the nation. Disproportionately impacted people of color. Proposition 209: Eliminated Affirmative Action programs in the state of California. 1996 1998 Proposition 226: Restricted Labor Unions ability to raised political money from it’s members. Proposition 227: Eliminated bilingual education programs. 1998 Snapshot of SCOPE’s Tactical Electoral Work1994-2001 Propositions 21 and 22 “Juvenile Injustice” and Anti-Gay Marriage Proposition 38: School Vouchers. 2000

15. SCOPE's Civic Participation Goals: • Developing Leaders • Organizing Skills • Political Education • Developing/Maintaining Membership Base • Expanding Neighborhood Education Teams • Building a Permanent Network of Power • Building an On-Going Relationship with Voters • Connecting Electoral and Policy Arenas • Educating Public About Campaign Issues • Education/Surveys on key campaign issues • Signing Petitions, Post Cards, etc. • Mobilizing to Campaign Actions

16. Initial Neighborhood Education Team Targeting • NETs • Teams of 2-4 People in a Precinct / Neighborhood • On going education and mobilization of Neighbors • Permanent base and infrastructure of power

17. SCOPE’S 2006 PROGRAM • Test Program to Train NETs in Winter ’06 • Training and Tracking with PDAs • 4 Trainings and 3 Saturday Mobilizations with 60 Leaders • June Voter Education and Mobilization Program Contacting 5,000 Voters • 4 Door-to-Door Mobilizations with 115 Precinct Leaders • A Street Action Team of 10 people for 3 weeks • A three day Get-Out-the-Vote Program which reminded 1,250 • November Voter Education & Mobilization Program Contacting 8,600 Voters • 4 Door-to-Door Mobilizations with 148 Precinct Leaders • A Street Action Team of 17 people for 4 weeks • A three day Get-Out-the-Vote Program which reminded1,030 voters

18. 9000 8000 8,682 7000 6000 5000 4,989 4000 3000 2000 1000 574 0 Winter Spring Fall SCOPE’s Increasing Scale of Contacts in 2006 14,245 Total Voters Contacted: 10,871 Non-Duplicative Contacts:

19. Lessons from AGENDA’s 2006 Work • N.E.T. Recruitment must be an on-going part of our work– not just around election time. • Building an effective, committed coalition is critical to getting to scale. • Scale increases over multiple Election Cycles as skills, experience and commitment increase.