Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere Digital Track Ambassador Projects
Our Ambassadors Are Executing High-Impact Digital Campaigns
Through the Andrew Goodman Vote Everywhere program's Digital Track and with the support of our extensive mentorship and injection of resources, our Ambassadors are planning and implementing digital projects that are making an impact on their communities.
Beom Joon Baek, "NYC Immigrant Voices"
On January 8th, 2022, New York City Mayor Eric Adams enacted the "Our City, Our Vote" legislation, extending the right to vote to non-citizens in municipal elections. This legislation is the widest expansion of municipal voting rights for non-citizens in the United States, giving 800,000 immigrants in New York the right to vote.
Extending voting rights to immigrants is not only an act of strengthening voting rights, but also a measure for good governance. After all, issues such as local taxes, policing, housing policies, and emergency services equally matter to citizens and non-citizens. In an increasingly globalized world, giving immigrants the right to vote is a bold new view of civic participation that strengthens the political mandate of local governments.
To ensure that the immigrants take advantage of this new legislation and voice their opinions through votes, Beom Joon Baek proposes a community-focused organization, NYC Immigrant Voices, that centers on immigrant voting. This project will be part community engagement, part digital outreach. Beom Joon Baek will build an interactive website that helps new immigrant voters register to vote in municipal elections, as well as host various events and programs around the city to raise awareness about this legislation. A robust social media campaign will occur in tandem with these initiatives. Beom Joon Baek will partner with academic institutions, immigrant organizations, and the local community to create educational and informational resources for immigrants. Those resources will dispel misinformation and misconceptions about immigrant voting.
Through the project, Beom Joon Baek hopes that this initiative will enable immigrants to be more engaged in New York local elections and politics and inspire other municipalities to discuss passing resolutions allowing immigrants to vote in local elections.
Kesi Felton, "State of the Young Black Advocate"
The "State of the Young Black Advocate" is a community outreach and narrative power-building campaign that will seek out the perspectives of young Black leaders to inform peer-driven community programming in 2022 and build narrative power among Black youth and young adults. Kesi Felton's project will include "Freedom Summer," a mini-activation from July-October that will pay homage to the Freedom Summer of 1964 and continue its legacy by organizing Black youth and young adults, aged 18-30, to register our peers and our communities to vote for the 2022 Midterm Elections. This campaign will also offer political education to get more Black youth and young adults civically engaged and connected with organizations and networks who are or have been building long-term infrastructure for voting and community engagement beyond election cycles.
Mai Tran, "Food Security in Kips Bay"
Through this project, Mai Tran will construct a free store in the neighborhood of Kips Bay, where people can drop off items they do not need and pick up items they do need. The free store will not only act as a hub for material resources, but also as a place where people can access events and educational materials, such as The Andrew Goodman Foundation's resources for voter registration and a voter registration and voter how-to texting line. In the long-term, Mai Train will organize community pop-up events. The project's goal is to establish more mutual aid hubs and political education and action opportunities in Kips Bay and create a bridge between neighbors who do not normally interact with each other.