Black Community Leaders Assemble for Intensive Training on Voter Protection

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Anticipating the largest voter turnout in history – and ensuing problems at the polls – the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) left no stone unturned during a three-day Operation Big Vote Training Academy held in New Orleans last week to train field organizers on voter registration, mobilization, and voter protection. “Our job is to make sure each voter has an opportunity to cast a ballot that counts on November 4,” executive director of the NCBCP, Melanie L. Campbell, told over 60 community organizers from 14 states.

Lawyers, seasoned organizers, and technology experts conducted training sessions that ranged from best practices in nonpartisan voter education, volunteer recruitment, and voter protection; to integrating new technology tools and minding your health during this rigorous campaign.

“Bringing together an intergenerational mix of some of the hardest working public servants in the country created an opportunity for the seasoned veterans to teach the young people how to mobilize on the ground, while the youth taught veterans how to organize online,” Campbell added.

Sharon Hanshaw, executive director of Costal Women for Change in Biloxi, MS, said she learned a lot from the training and believes the campaign addresses the real concerns of workers on the ground.

Participants in the training represented a number of labor and nonprofit organizations, including several executives from A. Philip Randolph Institute, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and local affiliates of the National Urban League, all major Unity ’08 Black Campaign partners. Other partners include American Urban Radio Networks and UniverSoul Circus.

The NCBCP’s Unity ’08 Black Campaign is a non-partisan civic engagement initiative designed to inoculate, motivate, and mobilize Black voters to participate in the 2008 election.

Founded in 1976, the NCBCP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing African American participation in civil society. Current initiatives of the organization include Operation Big Vote, Black Youth Vote!, Black Women’s Roundtable, and Voices of the Electorate. The NCBCP has trained and engaged African American leaders and community activists in overcoming institutional barriers that have hindered the growth of Black communities politically, socially and economically.

For more information visit http://www.ncbcp.org.

[tags]NCBCP, CEO Melanie L Campbell, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Black Youth Vote[/tags]

About Aria Munro

ABOUT THE EDITOR: Aria C. Munro works in the book publishing industry and has been a content editor for the Neotrope News Network since 2004. Her black video iPod is most often shuffling Invader Zim episode vids and Thomas Dolby or Dead Can Dance tunez.

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