repressing your beliefs for the greater good?

In this last election, while progress was made it was clear in my heart that people I thought had what it took to represent our community and had the right intention to do so. Because we had received a grant, the work that we were doing had to remain non partisan. This meant that we could not endorse a candidate or party, we were strictly out there to get out the vote and increase voter participation. When people asked who to vote for I had to recommend to they look up the candidates and their platforms online, even though I knew who had their best interest.

I found myself torn and confused because I worked so hard and I felt like simply getting out the vote was not enough. Fortunately, the people I thought should win, won and it was fine. I also realized now that the more one is involved in government the less vocal one could be in local politics, especially if you work in the city. There's the Hatchet Act and other rules and regulation that prohibit employees from being involved in local politics. That is understandable, the fact is you're serving and helping people everyday. I just had to learn to keep quiet a bit which is something I struggled with but learned to handle.

The root of our campaign to increase voter participation was heavily volunteer based. There comes a certain point however that the longevity of an organization or campaign must rely heavily on funding and monetary resources. I found it hard to sometimes motivate others and convey my passion to other as much as possible. Unfortunately, on some bad days people did not find that enthusiasm helpful. It's understandable that people need to put food on the table and pay their rent and I myself have been in those positions of sacrificing my needs for a cause. I almost felt a sense of guilt when realizing that there were so many others not even close to the position where I was in that I could have a decent place to live with food in the fridge.

The income gap in this country, in this state is widening and while voting does not directly put food on the table, it's a start. The difficulty is finding ways to empower people to see that and instill in them a sense of hope. I'm just rambling; I hope this makes some sense.

Coaltion building and networking or two great opportunites I found to be very useful in this internship. In collaboration with other organizations, the goals that we each set to reach in having a set number of contacts with voters were actually reached. Instead of having one organzation accomplish one service we had several helping do their part in voter outreach. This is safe to do with one goal but not too many for it may result in burned bridges and conflict.

While there can be some disagreement among the leadership of different organziations, having formed a coalition with defined goals helped in understanding one another and even help each other in some instances whether it be with supplies, people power or brain storm sessions. There are also other organizations that promote social justice at different capacities, whether they be through education, direct action (protests and marches) or through civic engagement. They may not always see eye to eye but the beauty of this community is that amount of support and feedback that we have to not only improve ourselves, but also improve the communities that we serve.

During the internship we had to split up into groups. Each organizer lead a group of teams with their own goals to reach a certain amount of contacts with voters. Instead of having our supervisor talk to us about goals and we had to reach there was more of a significant impact when we split up and came up with our own goals based on our capacity.

The organization still had the same goal but it was not until we factored in the size of the group and the commitment that each group could make. This was different all across the board but only disadvantage was making up numbers for other groups due to their limited capacities in people power. Generally though, everyone was very supportive of one another and accomplished goals that were set.