Low voter turnout is a significant problem within the community surrounding Riis Settlement. Though there are 11,130 eligible voters in New York City Housing Authority’s Queensbridge and Ravenswood housing developments and 79 percent of them are registered, only 43 percent voted in the 2012 Presidential election and just 20 percent voted in the 2009 Mayoral election. Riis Settlement is proud to be working with Community Votes to try to change that. We do not encourage votes for any particular party or endorse any candidate. But we do encourage voting. Over the past year, Community Votes, an organization founded in 2013 and dedicated to helping New York City’s nonprofit sector strengthen Democracy through non-partisan voter mobilization, launched its first pilot project at Riis Settlement to help ensure that the voices of our local community are heard during every election. The initiative is now part of our efforts to engage adults of all ages within the community.
On the ground at Riis Settlement, the voter mobilization effort took many forms. Staff participated in “Train the Trainer” sessions to learn about encouraging voter registration in a non-partisan way — such as walking residents through completing a voter registration form and answering related questions. We also worked to get our young people involved by training high school juniors and seniors from across our Riis Academy campuses in non-partisan voter-mobilization efforts. Our Community Advocate Monique Owens and concerned volunteers also tabled at local health fairs, outside Riis Settlement and at other community-wide events. “If you can get young people involved early, it will become second nature to them as they get older,” Ms. Owens said.
Ms. Maude Askins and a Riis Academy teen mailing voting reminders
In preparation for National Voter Registration Day (Sept. 23, 2014) Riis Settlement worked to get each employee registered to vote. In addition, our Community Votes team gathered over 200 pledge cards and registered 51 new voters. We also held a “mailing party” to mail pledge cards as reminders to vote. At the mailing party, seniors and young people from across Riis Settlement’s programs gathered around a table in our conference room and shared their experiences about voting. Riis Academy youth asked seniors about why voting is important — and shared that their parents didn’t often talk with them about voting. One of our older adults, who has been voting since the civil rights era, spoke about her first voting experiences in the South. Sheirly Rinchere, Program Director for our Riis Academy-InfoTech campus, worked to get her young people involved with the mailing party as a service learning project and has been incorporating voting into various activities, including holding elections for Riis Academy youth council members. Ms. Owens shared that the aim is for voter and civic engagement to become ingrained in all that we do at Riis Settlement so that everyone understands the process, gets to express themselves and cherishes our Democracy. Many thanks to Community Votes founder Louisa Hackett who has provided technical support and trainings to Riis Settlement. To keep up to date with Riis Settlement’s Community Votes activities click here.
Monique Owens (holding sign) and Community Votes supporters outside Riis Settlement.
