"Your Vote is Your Voice" Project: Youth use the arts for voter education!

Timeline: May, 2015 - December, 2015
Another change that came out of District 1's 2014 cross-cultural dialogue project was the need to educate Saint Paul residents on local (city and county)  elections.  Community members pointed out that one of the reasons why there is such a low turn out for local elections is that...

1. residents do not know the role of local positions such as the mayor, city council, school board, County commissioners, etc.,
2. do not understand the voting process and
   
3. do not see the importance of voting. 

District 1 applied for a Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA - with the UMN) grant to push this action step forward.  The grant proposed having youth use the arts as a tool for voter education.  In Spring of 2015, ten Saint Paul youth of color were recruited and mentored by Chia Lor and Clara Ware. The youth named themselves: The Voices.

Over the summer, they busied themselves with

• attending voter engagement training,
• participating in performing arts workshops,
• writing their own hip hop and spoken word pieces, 
• creating a hip-hop music video,
• performing at community events, and
• pledging and registering Saint Paul residents to vote.  

By Fall 2015, they have pledged nearly 700 people and registered 80 people to vote!  They also hosted four voter education events including performing at a school board forum.  

​Their hip-hop music video, "Your Vote is Your Voice," was aired 175 times before the local election in November and was featured at the 2015 Saint Paul Neighborhood Honor Roll.