Everytown
for Gun Safety Action Fund
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2020
EVERYTOWN LAUNCHES $1.5 MILLION, STUDENT-LED EFFORT TO
REGISTER 100,000 YOUNG VOTERS THROUGH VIRTUAL FIELD OFFICES —
MOBILIZING PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE DURING PANDEMIC
Program
Will be Driven by Students Demand Action Volunteers Using
Virtual
Tools to Register People in Their Online Networks, With More than a
Dozen Paid Organizers Helping Lead Organizing Efforts in Key
Battleground States
NEW
YORK —
Everytown
for Gun Safety Action Fund (“Everytown”) and
Students Demand Action, a part of Everytown, today announced the launch
of a new, student volunteer-driven virtual organizing program to
register young voters ahead of the 2020 election. As part of the
program, Everytown and Students Demand Action will register 100,000
young voters, with a focus on key battleground states, including:
Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada,
New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and
Wisconsin.
Everytown is
committing at least $1.5 million to the program, which will include
more than a dozen paid organizers who will help lead efforts across the
battleground states. The organizers will manage virtual field offices
in target states, and will train Students Demand Action volunteers in
new innovative online tools that allow them to register voters on their
college campuses, and within their peer networks, online amid the
coronavirus pandemic. In the fall, organizers will continue with
in-person voter registration efforts on college campuses, where they
will recruit new Students Demand Action volunteers and train volunteers
in effective voter registration tools and tactics.
“Our
lives might have been upended by the coronavirus crisis, but we won’t
let the virus upend our determination to end gun
violence in America,” said Alanna
Miller, a member of the Students Demand Action National Advisory Board,
and a first-year student at Duke University. “I planned
to use my spring semester registering voters on Duke’s campus and the
surrounding communities. Instead, I’m home in Texas, but my drive to
register more voters hasn’t changed. Students Demand Action is
committed to registering young voters and increasing youth turnout in
2020 because we know that lives are on the line — turning
out
more
young
voters
in 2020 could change the course of the election
and the course of gun violence in this
country.”
“Our
nation’s young people are fiercely committed to building a new
generation of gun sense voters, and they won't
let anything — including coronavirus and social distancing — slow them
down,” said John
Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun
Safety. “Students Demand Action volunteers have already
proven their ability to turn online activism into Election Night wins,
and we are proud to invest in their virtual push to register 100,000
voters ahead of a pivotal election for the gun
safety movement.”
Students
Demand Action’s voter registration initiative will include:
- Investing $1.5 million, including hiring at least a dozen paid
organizers focused on registering voters in key battleground states;
- Establishing virtual field offices, where students will gather to
strategize how to meet voter registration goals. Virtual field offices
will have access to cutting edge organizing tools and technology,
including Zoom, Slack, Icebreaker, Hustle, and more, giving volunteers
the tools they need to be successful in virtual voter registration
efforts;
- Extensive training in relational organizing, which involves
leveraging relationships to encourage others to vote. This organizing
method has been proven to be more effective than traditional
canvassing, allowing volunteers to register their friends, family,
classmates, and
acquaintances. Students Demand Action volunteers will deploy this
tactic digitally, while continuing to practice physical distancing;
- Targeting young people with online voter registration ads online.
About
Students Demand Action
Students
Demand Action is a national movement of high school and college-aged
volunteers working to end gun violence.
Students Demand Action volunteers organize within their schools and
communities to educate their peers, register voters, and demand
common-sense solutions to this national crisis. Students Demand Action
has active volunteers in every state and nearly 400 groups across the
country. Students Demand Action is part of Everytown for Gun Safety,
the largest gun
violence prevention organization in the country with nearly six million
supporters and more than 375,000 donors. For more information or to get
involved visit www.studentsdemandaction.org.
About
Everytown for Gun Safety
Everytown
for Gun Safety is the largest gun
violence prevention organization in the country with nearly six million
supporters and more than 375,000 donors including moms, mayors,
survivors, students, and everyday Americans who are fighting for
common-sense gun safety measures that can help
save lives. Learn more at www.everytown.org
and follow us @Everytown.