Community Power Building

Building Community Through Civic Engagement

The Vision

Community Spring is building community power to disrupt the cycle of poverty and mass incarceration. We are mobilizing people who have historically been left out of the conversation, particularly those impacted by felony disenfranchisement, to become active leaders and engaged voters in their own communities. We’re meeting people where they are, sharing tools to make democracy work for them, and helping people reclaim their political voice.

A group of people seated in a classroom or seminar room, listening to a speaker. The room has white walls with colorful posters and a window letting in natural light. The attendees are diverse in age and ethnicity, and some are holding pens or notepads.

Why This Work Matters

  • In Florida, nearly one million citizens are unable to vote due to past convictions. Furthermore, voter turnout in lower-income households is significantly lower than in wealthier ones. When the most marginalized by the system are unable to vote, they lose the power to elect officials who advocate for policies addressing poverty, such as housing assistance, job training, and education.

  • Our current system is unresponsive to the needs of our community, leaving people feeling they have no place in it. Disenfranchisement is one of many ways our system pushes people with felony records to the fringes and signals to them that they don't matter. Through community power building, we connect personal experiences of injustice to a larger plan for systemic change, restoring hope that change is possible for those living on the margins.

  • Real change doesn't happen overnight or through a single election. It happens through consistent, honest conversations between neighbors. We leverage credible messengers, resonant messaging, and personal connection to break through echo chambers. Unlike traditional digital outreach, this initiative prioritizes human-to-human dialogue. By hosting conversations led by facilitators with lived experiences in comfortable, familiar spaces like living rooms and community centers, we penetrate social silos and build power in communities historically excluded from the political process.

Our Approach

Monthly Neighborhood Workshops

A man with dreadlocks wearing a black shirt is sitting next to a woman with a bun hairstyle and earrings. They are in an indoor setting with bulletin boards and posters on the wall.

We host workshops in local neighborhoods to provide residents with the tools they need to:

  • Make informed decisions during elections.

  • Advocate for policies that directly benefit their families and communities.

  • Hold elected leaders accountable to the community's needs.

  • Collaborate with neighbors to build a more equitable future.

Cultivating Local Leadership

A network diagram with labeled circles representing relationships among 'YOU,' 'Mom,' 'BFF,' and 'BFF's Bro' connected by lines, with smaller circles indicating connections.

Our program also identifies and trains local leaders to facilitate their own workshops, ensuring that the power to organize remains within the neighborhood.