Empower Alabama Closing to Form PAC
From Empower Alabama:
Like the Sopranos, vacations, or the glory days of hair metal, all good things must come to an end (unless you’re a 1980s slasher film franchise…seriously, they’re remaking A Nightmare on Elm Street but Robert Englund is not playing the role of Freddy Krueger). Sadly, this sometimes includes non-profit organizations.
After a lot of thought and deliberation among staff, board, donors, and volunteers, Empower Alabama is closing its doors at the end of May. In order to have a more direct impact on the 2010 elections, many of our volunteers have expressed interest in forming a political action committee to employ many of our tested methods of neighbor-to-neighbor voter contact and engagement.
A new, statewide political action committee, Front Door Democracy PAC, has been formed by Empower Alabama supporters to do what our volunteers have done best the last couple of years–empower young people to engage their uninvolved brethren in the political process. Front Door Democracy PAC will take a more politically direct approach to Empower Alabama’s Front Door Democracy program in order to engage youth in next year’s legislative elections. I will be working with Front Door Democracy PAC as a consultant. Many of Empower Alabama’s other programs, including SeniorCitizens and Progressive Pints have been spun off to other organizations. You’ll hear more about these other projects from their new owners.
To all of you who have volunteered, contributed, or just wanted to learn a little something, thank you so much for being a part of our adventure. We’ve registered tons of young people to vote, educated thousands of young people on important public policy issues facing our state, and trained young people and organizations in the finer points of peer-to-peer advocacy and organizing. It’s been a blast.
A special thanks to Blue State Digital, Voter Activation Network, Burcham Creative, the Bus Project, The Rappaport Family Foundation, the Stewart Family Foundation, The Current Committee, Matt Green, Art Richey, Anna Ruth Williams, and our mascots, Justice and Freedom (may they rest in peace).
For those of you who would rather stick with non-profits for your political or advocacy outlet, I hope you’ll go with some of our favorites:
Alabama ARISE, http://alarise.org/
ARISE Citizens Policy Project, http://arisecitizens.org/
Greater Birmingham Ministries, http://gbm.org/
Catalyst, http://hiptobecivic.com/
Alabama Rivers Alliance, http://www.alabamarivers.org/
Conservation Alabama, http://www.conservationalabama.org/
Black Warrior Riverkeeper, http://www.blackwarriorriver.org/
Free the Hops, http://www.freethehops.org/
Alabama Environmental Council, http://www.aeconline.org/
Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, http://constitutionalreform.org/
Alabama Poverty Project, http://www.alabamapoverty.org/Again, thank you all for being a part a part of Empower Alabama. Regardless of where you get plugged in, please help wherever you can to engage, educate, and elect.
Bradley
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