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Dartmouth North Community Food Centre’s ‘Speak Up, Show Up’ looks to encourage democratic involvement

Kyle MacKay

Staff at the Dartmouth North Community Food Centre have set their sights on improving the community’s abysmal voter turnout. With a municipal election looming in the fall, the Centre has created a large schedule events to encourage to get out, and get active in local democracy.

“Speak Up, Show Up, is a program we’ve created through past experiences with the community,” said Community Action Coordinator Tammy Shields, who works with the Centre. “It’s based on the feedback we’ve received from the community on the issues they face when it comes to the vote. The community peer advocates presented themselves the challenge of trying to increase the voter turnout in Dartmouth North.

“We’ve found that in this community voter turnout has been very low when compared to other communities within District 6,” she continued. “We asked ourselves why that was, and what we could do to increase that turnout — and Speak Up, Show Up was launched.”

Staff will be holding events weekly into residents all across Nova Scotia hit the polls on October 15 in the newest wave of municipal elections. On the day of the election, there will be a voter party and a parade to the polling station—as an example of the events staff have planned to pump up democracy in District 6.

“We want to make voting accessible, and provide people with the information and support they need to get to the voting station,” explained Shields. “The reason why we specifically chose this municipal election is because we believe the City Council is starting at the community level—they are the people that can influence the other levels of government to make the changes that they want to see in their community.”

The scope of the project is to remind the residents of Dartmouth North that it is they do have the right to vote, have an opinion, and be heard.

“When we first opened our doors last year with the Federal Election, we did a ‘Go with Your Gut’ event,” said Shields. “We had some participation, but really not a whole lot. This is where we first realized that voter turnout was a serious issue in this area. So for this Municipal Election cycle it really came around at the perfect time for us to launch a program like this.”

Already they’ve found success with their program—their Voter Pop Up Party on August 26 saw hundreds attend, with little to no advertising. However the brunt of the work still lies before the organization as they try to promote participation in this current electoral cycle.

“It’s hopefully going to be great and raise awareness in our community about the importance of voting,” concluded Shields. “The people in Dartmouth North can too have a voice; even though they feel they don’t have a voice. That’s the biggest message we’re trying to send with this campaign. They have the opportunity to affect the types of changes they’d like to see within all levels of their government.”

 

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