By Stephanie Ali, New American Pathways Communications and Policy Coordinator:
Here in Georgia, this election season has been incredibly exciting with the rising electorate – women, minorities and voters under 25. At the same time, our organization, the local CWS affiliate, has merged with one of our long-time community partners to become New American Pathways.
This merger has allowed us the opportunity to expand our work into areas we’ve only been able to touch upon in the past, one of which is community engagement. I knew immediately that one project I wanted to start was voter registration and education. I knew that registering voters was not just personally rewarding, but could make a huge impact for those we reached and for our state. And as the wife of a new American – who would be voting for the first time in this election – my passion for voter engagement was ignited.
Our first steps have been to work with our local partners to help register voters at USCIS naturalization ceremonies, where we see many former refugees become citizens. We’ll work anywhere from one to four ceremonies per week, and at each ceremony we help register 80-110 new citizens with our partners. These are some of the most excited new voters you’ll ever meet! You’ll never have to beg or plead with them to sign up.
Read the rest online at our national affiliate, CWS: http://www.cwsglobal.org/blog/empowering-new-americans-to-vote.html