When Randy Schubring and several of his colleagues from Tubman Family Alliance attended Camp Sheila Wellstone in St. Paul, Minnesota this spring, they had a hefty goal - increase participation in the political process among people in the anti-domestic violence community. Tubman Family Alliance, a family violence prevention agency, wanted to build the capacity for grassroots advocacy among its staff, volunteers, and clients. "The stronger we are [at advocating for ourselves], the stronger voice we have in bringing up domestic violence as a public issue," Randy says.
After Camp Sheila Wellstone, Tubman staff and volunteers formed a grassroots advocacy team to address these issues. Part of the long-term goal was to engage people in the political process, and there was no better time to start than the current electoral season. Tubman partnered with the Metropolitan Alliance for Community Centers and the Minnesota Participation Project to host a non-partisan Kickoff to GOTV event to help get out the vote among staff, volunteers, clients, and community members.
This was important because, as Randy explains, "Unfortunately, there is an intimidation factor for our clients about registering and voting". Survivors fear having their names exposed in the public record. This fear often keeps victims of family violence out of the polling place. Therefore, a primary goal of the event - that welcomed over 100 people on a Thursday evening - was to ease tensions about voting and political participation by exposing members of the community to information about and experience with the process. Tubman provided mock voting booths where first-time voters could practice filling out ballots, materials for voter registration, and information on each major candidate for the presidential race and their campaigns.
Randy and the rest of the grassroots advocacy team believe they will be successful if staff, volunteers, and clients take the step to vote and get engaged in the political process. Randy says that he hopes voting will just be a first step for this community on a journey of political empowerment and mobilization.