People Power for a New Civic and Political Culture.
Dear Friends, Family, and Funders,
At Chicago Votes creatives are building People Power through cultural organizing.?
Chicago Votes runs programs to engage young people?from all walks of life, where they are; from students in middle schools,?high schools, and college, to young people in their neighborhoods. We curate programs to engage youth in ways that are accessible, engaging, and authentic. One of the communities of young people we build power with is local creatives through the Give A Sh*t Initiative. We understand that the civic and political culture of Chicago does not accurately represent?the ideals and lived realities of young Black and Brown Chicagoana. The Give A Sh*t Initiative addresses this by intentionally working with creatives to dream up new and creative ways to civically participate in order to shift civic and political culture in Chicago to be more reflective of the lived experience and perspective of young Black and Brown leaders.?
The Give A Sh*t Creative Collective
Collective of over 80 Black and Brown Chicago creatives collaborating to build innovative programming, support Chicago Votes' mission, and use their individual and collective voices to fight for change.
Housed within the Give A Sh*t Initiative is the Give A Sh*t Creative Collective. This collective of over 80 Black and Brown Chicago creatives collaborate to build innovative programming, support Chicago Votes mission, and use their individual and collective voices to fight for change. The Collective supports all Give A Sh*t programming including events, storytelling, and mutual aid, as well as, overall Chicago Votes programming like youth voter engagement, and advocacy for voting in prison. Collective members hold monthly meetings and creative spaces to build together and they help establish the voice of Chicago Votes through photo and video journalism, blog writing, djing at polling locations, setting up art installations in the State Capitol, and much, much more!
Give A Sh*t Events
Fun and engaging spaces for young creatives to be in community together, learn about important issues, and take action.
Give A Sh*t Happy Hours have been a tactic for engaging young people at Chicago Votes for nearly a decade. These Happy Hours aim to hold fun and engaging spaces for young creatives to be in community together, learn about important issues, and take action. Every Happy Hour has a different theme and purpose. We have held open mic nights about divesting from the police and investing in education, trivia nights to prepare people for elections, and bar bq's?to discuss how we can reimagine our democracy. Around elections we have hosted several Get Out the Vote Give A Sh*t Weekends with art instalations, fashion shows, and pop up shops for creatives.?
Sh*t Talks and Youth Journalism
Space for young Black and Brown Chicagoans to share and tell their own stories.
Another way in which we leverage cultural organizing as a power building tactic is by creating space for creatives to tell their stories, help us tell stories, and uplift a new, diverse and relevant civic voice is Chicago's political landscape. We host a blog on line called Sh*t Talking Central where young writers can be published and paid for their work, we produce a video and audio podcast called Sh*t Talks where young Chicagaons hold dialogue about a range of topics from the significances of one's family heritage and how it intersects with movement work to the importance of holding judges accountable. Chicago Votes also produced a documentary to highlight our efforts to restore the right to vote to people in prison. We are creating space for young Black and Brown Chicagoans to share and tell their own stories as opposed to mainstream media telling stories about them.?
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The Sh*t Talks Podcast is looking for sponsors, read more here: Sh*t Talks Sponsorship
Give A Sh*t Gives Back
Increasing civic participation through supporting communities in need.
Several years ago, the creative collective decided?to begin running mutual aid programs to address the fact that many Black and Brown Chicagoans do not participate in the civic process because they are busy trying to get their basic needs met. Together the collective began hosting citywide clean up drives, hosting back to school resource distribution, and feeding young people in Juvenile Detention Centers on Thanksgiving. Out of these efforts several organizations were created, including: Project Hardknocks?and the Clean Up Coalition. This is an area of work Chicago Votes would like to expand and bring more people from our community into.?
Heading into 2024, there is a lot more we want to accomplish as a creative community. We are working to reshape what civics and political participation looks like for this generation and generations to come by collaborating with each other, having fun, telling our own stories, giving back to our people, and Giving A Shit!?
Peace,?
Stevie Valles