Jackson, MS – “An accurate census count in 2010 is essential to proper allocation of federal grant dollars to local communities and is critical to the creation of fair political districts to ensure people of color have accountable representation at all levels of government,” notes Echo Director Leroy Johnson as he explains Echo’s 5-year census and redistricting program of work.

In the Spring 2009 Southern Echo:

* Became a census partner with the national Census Bureau and Mississippi state level bureau to ensure effective access to information;
* Created state maps to show where hard-to-count census tracts are and the amount of federal grant dollars allocated to each county;
* Held census training sessions with its partner organizations in the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable;
* Began outreach to grassroots community organizations across Mississippi to establish local Complete Count Committees to ensure the census bureau has accurate address data for every home before the census count is taken, to press for employment of local persons to do the census count who are familiar with community and are trusted by the residents, to monitor the accuracy of the count and file objections where necessary; and
* Will present 2 workshops on census and redistricting at the Pushback Network Convening in Las Vegas at the end of June.

The organizational work to build an effective 2010 census process will lay the foundation for the organizational framework needed to ensure the creation of fair political districts when the census data is released in 2011.

Through this project, PBN will capture the non-partisan, on-the-ground, electoral field programs in two of our states: Mississippi and New Mexico. “The truth is that the electorate is changing,” said Cooper, “and people are getting involved in record numbers not just in voting, but in educating themselves and their neighbors about the issues at stake in their communities. Pushback Network partners drive the ground game locally in eight states across the country. We’re going where history is being made in civic engagement and putting it on the record not just for Election Day, but for what’s next.”

The Project will track Flaherty and Cooper as they traverse the states documenting efforts live through in-person interviews using photo, video, and the latest micro-blogging tools. The days up to, through, and beyond November 2nd will be tracked using PBN’s Tumblr blog, its website, and online social networks.

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“Democracy doesn’t end on Election Day,” said Robby Rodriguez, executive director of South West Organizing Project. “We’ve got to invest in local groups that are doing the work before, during, and after the election season. Pushback understands that the changes we make in New Mexico bubble up to change the country.”

Cooper will be traveling from the Delta through and across Mississippi working with groups like Southern Echo, Parents and Youth United for a Better Webster County, Activists with a Purpose, Action Community Education Reform, Citizens for a Better Greenville, Concerned Citizens for a Better Tunica County, Sunflower County Parent Student Organization, and Fired Up! Flaherty will be traveling through battleground hot-spot of Albuquerque across New Mexico with leading community organizing groups of South West Organizing Project and SAGE Council.

“This system is so often about tearing people down,” said Leroy Johnson, executive director of Southern Echo. “They tell us we’re too poor; that the system is too sophisticated and complicated for us to comprehend. We tell our community that we believe in them. We give them the skills and allow them to do it. From there they can do it better than anyone else.”

PBN has grown in two years to eight states, Alabama, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, and Nevada, by creating opportunities for increased networking, training, funding, and resources to help the best community-based organizing groups grow to the scale needed to do their work better. Organizers and communities around the country have heard PBN’s mission. The Project will show what PBN’s work to fuse community organizing and voter engagement work to mobilize people of color, poor people, and young people looks like in action.

Check back each day to see where we are with preparations, and see the organizing work happen in near-real-time through the post-election wind-up November 7th. Don’t miss the work we’ll be sharing from other state-wide partners who we’ll be keeping up with every day as well to see how integrated voter work builds and strengthens organizations, creates leaders from contacted voters, and shifts public consciousness towards an agenda that supports progressive social values.

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Download the Press Release here.