Creating A Voting Environment in Oregon

By Tami Native Vote Native Youth News UNITY News Youth Councils of Note October 19, 2020

Creating A Voting Environment – Native American Youth and Family Center

For the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), one of the biggest focuses for their Get Out the Vote plan is making sure people can focus on voting. This means understanding that getting people to vote is more than just registering voters, it’s about making sure their community has everything they need to prosper in all areas of life.

As a trusted community institution, NAYA serves over 2,000 individual Native American youth, adults, and elders and impacts more than 10,000 Indians living in the Portland area. As a service provider, NAYA knows that for people to feel engaged in a political process, individuals need to live in balance mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. This is referred to as the relational worldview and guides NAYA’s projects around educational, asset-building, and self-sufficiency programs for their community. They’ve also worked tirelessly to lobby and speak with lawmakers, to make sure they have a seat at the table and are advocating for this vision.

After making sure NAYA’s community is prosperous, it can then move onto their GOTV work with tried and true outreach methods. This includes setting up voter registration drives, providing ballot education, hosting candidate forums with local and statewide candidates, and serving as a ballot drop-off location. These efforts are made more successful because of NAYA’s deep roots in the community and the more than 40 years of showing people that they care about their wellbeing and who they are.

“NAYA Family Center understands the needs, issues, and concerns within our community,” says William Miller, NAYA’s Community Development Manager. “Despite a global pandemic, we are actively addressing these issues, working to engage community through our electoral process, and creating platforms which will progress civic engagement for years to come.”

What is the Democracy is Indigenous Newsletter?

With the most consequential election of our lives 25 days away, the NUIFC wants to take some time each week to share the work our Cohort is doing to make history. This newsletter will be a space to uplift the grassroots work our partner organizations are doing during the most ambitious Urban Indian Get Out the Vote campaign in history. We look forward to bringing this inspiring work right to your inbox every week.

The Native Vote Can Define The Future