Item by Chris Graham
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The Virginia Organizing Project is going to be walking the beat this summer.
The VOP will be knocking on 300,000 doors this summer in one of the more ambitious civic-engagement projects I’ve heard about in recent years.
“We will be asking people throughout the Commonwealth what issues are important to them,” said Janice “Jay” Johnson, chairperson of the Virginia Organizing Project. “We will also ask them how important health care reform is to them, encouraging all the people we meet to contact their state Delegate and state Senator with their ideas on how to reform our broken health care system.”
Hundreds of Project volunteers will be canvassing the Commonwealth this summer – and distributing a voter guide to the 2008 general election in Virginia. The guide contains information about how to register to vote, how to regain voting rights after a felony conviction, and how to cast an absentee ballot. It also includes a summary of a dozen important public policy issues, ranging from climate change to racial profiling to redistricting.
The VOP is working with the Center for Community Change’s Community Voting Project on the summer project, which kicked off this week and will run through July 25. The Center for Community Change, a national organization based in Washington, D.C., is encouraging nonpartisan voter registration and voter education throughout the country.
“We are real people, dealing with real problems, working for real solutions,” Johnson said. “It’s important for all of us to work for the common good, knowing that in the end run, we are all dependent on each other for the success of our communities.”
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