From February 12-14, 2010 six Pushback Network members from California, Nevada and New York visited New Mexico to participate in the SouthWest Organizing Project’s (SWOP) census campaign. Over the weekend our members organizations, Oakland Rising and Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), met with SWOP to discuss strategies and tactics around increasing participation in undercounted communities and participated in field work in Albuquerque’s South Valley and Southwest Mesa. This peer-to-peer exchange fostered honest and authentic dialog about the strategic significance of strengthening local census programs as a strategy for building national electoral power and movement. The goals of this exchange were to 1) deepen staff knowledge and experience about strategies and tactics to conduct an effective census program, 2) provide space for staff from different organizations to discuss how scope and scale are impacting work, and 3) lay the foundation for strong movement building relationships and partnerships. Read More
