Mobilize the Immigrant Vote

SAVE the DATE: June 16th, 1-4pm
Location: San Francisco Foundation (225 Bush St., Suite 500, 94104)

Electoral Organizing as a Racial Justice Strategy
Bay Area Film Release & Strategic Funder Discussion

Please join us for the Bay Area release of the Mobilize the Immigrant Vote documentary short film, a panelist of speakers, and a rich dialogue among our fellow funders. Many of us are grappling with similar questions, so we wanted to create a space for us to hear from activists in the field of electoral organizing and share our best thinking.

What are community organizations doing in 2009 to engage voters in their public policy campaigns? What are our reflections coming out of the May 19th election? What are local, state and national organizations planning for the 2010 gubernatorial election year and 2012?
What are we as funders considering for our voter engagement grant-making for 2009-2010, particularly with the economic crunch?
What are the lessons learned and challenges/opportunities for using electoral organizing as a tool for racial justice?
 Speakers will include:

Mari Ryono, Coordinating Director, Mobilize the Immigrant Vote
Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont, Executive Director, Oakland Rising
Renee Fazzari, Program Officer of the General Service Foundation, Vice President of the Board of State Voices
More details to come. Please RSVP as soon as possible to Leticia Alcantar at the Akonadi Foundation, Leticia@akonadi.org. The number of participants will determine our final logistics.

Warm regards,

Leticia

Leticia Alcantar
Executive Director
Akonadi Foundation

The Akonadi Foundation

Since 2000, the Akonadi Foundation has been working to support a racial justice movement that can finally put an end to the structural racism that lies at the heart of social inequity in the United States. We do this in the following three ways: by providing grants to racial justice organizations, by communicating about our work and the work of our grant partners, and by nurturing support for racial justice movement building in philanthropy. For more information, visit www.akonadi.org <http://www.akonadi.org> .

The Mobilize the Immigrant Vote (MIV) California Collaborative

MIV is a multi-ethnic coalition of immigrant and anti-poverty organizations across the state who believe in movement-building electoral organizing. This means that we believe in culturally-based electoral organizing that is linked to organizations’ broader missions, that involves and develops all stakeholders, and that is anchored in political education for racial, social and economic justice. MIV seeks to contribute to the broader social change movement by building the capacity of community-based immigrant organizations to register, educate and mobilize their constituents to vote; increasing the participation and power of low-income immigrant communities of color; shaping the debate on immigrant civic participation; and developing models for sustainable alliance-building and collaboration. For more information, visit www.mivcalifornia.org.

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