Enjoying the Summer Organizing!

This week at Dem NC was quite unforgettable as the past two weeks. On Monday afternoon, Joyce and I took a trip to the Youth Correctional Facility for a special presentation to the teens who are incarcerated. We were not sure what to expect, so we decided to figure an interesting manner to not only deliver positive message to these teens, but also we wanted to engage them in conversation and allow them to find a way to confide in us their views on voting. Joyce found an informative video on YouTube that discouraged citizens from voting. It was used during the 2008 Presidential election and included many of the Hollywood’s famous faces such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Sarah Silverman, to name a few. Throughout the entire presentation, the young teens were engaged and gave us a different point of views on why they don’t vote which was unfortunate because they were so informed, but disappointed with how corrupt government is.

We left the correctional facilities with the intention of returning talk to more of the youth. On a  lighter note, Joyce and I have been meeting with community leaders to discuss ways to engage the community and the youth with help from Pastor Coles. He was able to get us a spot on a local tv station to discuss Democracy NC with references to Summer Interning and Lobby Day which was fantastic. Joyce wasn’t able to join the fun, so I took it upon myself to appear on tv for the 1^st time ALONE. Overall, I was pleased with my interview and my interviewee, Tia Stanley, was the past Eastern NC field organizer for Democracy NC, which also was great. Talk about having support and helping me prepare. I’m hoping to be in touch with Pastor Coles this coming week and provide details on when the video will be available on  internet.

With the beginning of each week, this internship gets better and better. Preparing for Lobby Day is really putting community organization as our first priority. We really are hoping to meet with our senators and representatives. I’m really excited to meet Arthur Williams so we can him on our side in regards to Voter Owned Elections.

Time to get back to organizing!

Ana & Joyce