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NCBCP's BYV Celebrated it's 30th Anniversary by Bringing National Youth Leaders to Washington D.C. for Training in Civic Leadership & Organization
August 27, 28 and 29, NCBCP’s Black Youth Vote (BYV) brought together young Black leaders, organizers and emerging civic engagement leaders from across the nation for its 15th Annual Black Youth Vote! National Civic Leadership & Organizing Training Conference at the national headquarters for the National Education Association (NEA) in Washington, DC.
Celebrating more than 30 years of Black Youth Vote! activity and engagement, under the theme of “United We Win. Plug In!!!,” the three-day training conference offered a powerful educational mix of organizing strategy, voter mobilization, coalition building, democracy defense, protest and policy development. Presentations included “What the Data Says: The Reality by the Numbers,” “Transforming Data to Messaging,” “Connecting the Dots: Power of the Ballot, Protest to Policy,” and “Strategies to Hold Elected Officials Accountable.” Guest speakers included NCBCP President & CEO Melanie L. Campbell, political strategist Cora Masters Barry, political scientist Dr. Wes Bellamy, Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Principal, Nouveaux Strategies, civil rights activist and author Rashad Robinson, and Holli Holiday, President of Sisters Lead, Sisters Vote.
The true highlight and “real-time” training experience for the BYV Conference attendees was their actual participation in the 63rd Annual March on Washington on Friday, August 28 where the BYV representatives marched from their Washington, DC hotel to the Lincoln Memorial; listened to a wide variety of high-profile speakers, including their own BYV National Project Coordinator, Darrell Coles; and then marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Martin Luther King Memorial.
Co-Hosts and partners for the conference included NEA, SEIU, APWU, AFT, International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, APRI, RISE, NAN, Children’s Defense Fund, Drum Major Institute, Black Voters Matter, National Urban League, NAACP, NCNW, Legal Defense Fund, Alabama Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Alabama Black Women’s Roundtable, Michigan Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, Ohio Unity Coalition, BMI Georgia, HBCU Green Fund, Florida Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Peoples’ Agenda and Georgia Stand-Up.
