New Americans Democracy Project
Participants
- Albany Park Neighborhood Council
- Centro de Informacion
- Chinese American Service League
- Council on American-Islamic Relations
- Erie Neighborhood House
- Family Focus Aurora
- Federacion de Clubes Michoacanos
- Holy Family Church, Waukegan
- Indo-American Center
- Instituto del Progreso Latino
- Interfaith Leadership Project
- Korean American Resource & Cultural Center
- Latino Organization of the Southwest
- McHenry County Latino Coalition
- Mosque Foundation
- Mt. Carmel Church, Joliet
- Northwest Neighborhood Federation
- Scalabrinian Lay Movement - St. Charles Borromeo
- Southwest Organizing Project
- The Resurrection Project
- Young Polish Initiative
What is the New Americans Democracy Project?
NADP is a nonpartisan voter registration, education, and mobilization campaign by and for the immigrant community. It has become a national model for immigrant empowerment through civic participation that seeks to uphold the shared values of immigrants of varied ethnicities and languages.
In the last four years, the New Americans Democracy Project has: Registered over 55,000 new immigrant voters; Assisted over 32,000 immigrants to become U.S. citizens; Trained over 2,000 volunteers to assist LPR's with their citizenship applications; Trained 420 immigrant leaders in electoral campaign management; Produced election materials in 8 languages; Recruited 2,776 volunteers to help get-out-the-vote in two election cycles; Conducted 234,000 immigrant face to face and phone voter contacts; Mobilized 90,000 immigrants to the polls on Election Day.
How Does the Democracy Project Work?
In every target area, ICIRR and its member institutions place a New Americans Democracy Project (NADP) Fellow. The NADP fellow is a young community leader who is interested in participating in a 21-week intensive field and training program that advances their skills in electoral and community organizing. The fellow is trained by ICIRR and supervised by both the Host Organization and ICIRR staff.
Each fellow is responsible for strengthening the work of a host organization and building a base in the community that will help the organization long-term. This is done by registering community members to vote and moving voters to the polls in targeted precincts. More importantly, the fellows must recruit volunteers, develop immigrant leaders, and organize phone-banks, canvasses, visibility events, and an Election Day operation for the host organization.
*Listen to a story about the New Americans Democracy Project on Chicago Public Radio here.