“At the banquet table of nature, there are no reserved seats. You get what can take and you keep what you can hold. If you can’t take anything, you won’t get anything and if you can’t hold anything you won’t keep anything. And you can’t take anything without organization.”
A. Philip Randolph
Civic Participation is the center of our theory of change that we can’t take and keep power unless we are able to convey to black citizens and voters that participating in all elections in meaningful numbers will ensure that their issues will get addressed.
The Partners of the Ohio Coalition on Black Civic Participation are organized through our collective objectives of ensuring that black citizens of Ohio are increasing our voter registration numbers, by engaging in education of the policies and about the candidates elected or seeking election and by working in collaboration to get the vote out during for local, state and national elections.
Civic Engagement
Civic engagement is a cornerstone to building community power. Since 2012, we have run large-scale, integrated voter engagement programs that have registered more than 390,000 Ohioans to vote and have dramatically increased municipal election turnout.
Through our civic engagement programs, we:
- build power with community members to advance our issue campaigns,
- educate our communities about the importance of participating in the political process,
- develop the community engagement skills of our volunteer leaders, and
- maximize voter registration.
Electoral work is one aspect of a larger strategy. Using an integrated voter engagement model, we combine short-term electoral objectives with long-term goals to build power in communities.
