The Fall Pop-Up focuses on advocacy and power — critical components of system change — to provide you with tangible tools and skills to help get system change underway.
Here’s what you can expect:
1:00 – 1:05 pm ET: Kick-Off
1:05 – 2:05 pm ET: Main Stage Session
Creating a Racially Just Nation Through Systems Change
To achieve an equitable and racially nation, disruption must be at the epicenter of change. Challenging, deconstructing, and reimagining longstanding racist structures demands that we advocate for equitable policies and align our contributions — to and within our own organizations – locally and nationally.
September’s Upswell Pop-Up Main Stage will focus on two key components of scaling systems change: Advocacy and Power.
With the battle to end systemic oppression ahead, and to honor the hard-fought wins of those who came before, changemakers must step into, continue, and scale our work to implement audacious new policies to truly create lasting change where all people thrive.
Don’t miss Darren Isom, Partner at The Bridgespan Group, María Teresa Kumar, CEO of Voto Latino, and Jennifer Blatz, president & CEO of StriveTogether, who will inspire you with how they advocated for and navigated their organizations, coalitions, and movements to leverage political opportunity, challenge the status quo, and change conditions to help inspire systems change.
Facilitator: Darren Isom, Partner, The Bridgespan Group, San Francisco Office
Speaker: Maria Teresa Kumar, CEO of Voto Latino and Jennifer Blatz, President and CEO of StriveTogether!
2:05 – 2:10 pm ET: Transition
2:10 – 3:10 pm ET: Workshops
Workshop #1: Nonprofit VOTE & IS: Voterizing Nonprofits: Serve the Underserved Through Inclusive GOTV Strategies
Good policy makes it easier to register and vote, but voter participation gaps persist even in voter-friendly states, due to who is and is not contacted about voting, along with higher levels of political alienation among historically marginalized voters. The economics of political campaigns help to perpetuate these gaps. Nonprofits, as trusted messengers in their communities, can and should help provide voter engagement services to their constituents.
Because the nonprofit sector employs our nation’s most diverse workforce and serves multicultural communities, we share the responsibility of placing equity at the center of nonpartisan voter engagement. Research conducted by Nonprofit VOTE demonstrates that nonprofits are uniquely effective in reducing participation gaps among historically underrepresented communities.
During this 60-minute workshop, experts will help attendees gain deeper understanding of the unique position nonprofits are in to improve voter engagement rates. Attendees will walk away equipped with tailored GOTV strategies to improve turnout rates and mitigate barriers to participation.
Speakers: Neisha McGee, Manager of Advocacy, Engagement & Mobilization, Independent Sector, Danny Navarro, Partner Engagement Director, Nonprofit VOTE, Angela Lee, Manager of Advocacy Outreach and Engagement of Goodwill Industries International (GII), Rio Fernandes, Director of Civic Engagement National Urban Indian Family Coalition, Lilian Aluri, REV UP Voting Campaign Coordinator at American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), and Talib Hudson, PhD, Director of Research and Innovation at the National Network for Safe Communities.
Workshop #2: The Other Epidemic: Gun Violence Prevention as a Public Health Priority
With over 40,000 Americans dying from guns each year, it is past time for the violence to be addressed for what it is: an epidemic and public health priority. The complexity of the topic, from marginalized communities to mental health, has led many, particularly at-risk and vulnerable populations to feel powerless in the plight. Learn from experts providing the research, remedies, and creative channels for systemic change in this workshop.
This dynamic panel is hosted by John McKenna, Country Director – USA, of the Non-Violence Project (NVP), a global initiative providing impactful educational exercises around the world to manifest positive peace-centered environments where violence is most prevalent. NVP’s “Knotted Gun” is considered the most moving and recognized symbol for gun violence prevention on the planet, the original on permanent exhibition at the entrance to the United Nations. NVP Artist Ambassadors include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the late Muhammad Ali.
Speakers: Chethan Sathya, MD, MSc, a pediatric trauma surgeon and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded firearm injury prevention researcher and serves as Director of Northwell Health’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention; Dr. Stephen Hargarten, Senior Injury and Policy Advisor, Comprehensive Injury Center, Founding Dean, Global Health, Medical College of Wisconsin and has published extensively on injury control and firearms-related trauma, and was instrumental in the development of the National Violent Death Reporting System of the CDC; and Joelle Amie Charles, MA, educator, applied anthropologist and the Lead Facilitator of WHY KNOT NY, a youth-centered initiative in New York City of The Non-Violence Project USA.
3:10 – 3:15 pm ET: Transition
3:15 – 4:25 pm ET: Exchange
The final segment of the Upswell Pop-Up. Tell us about what you heard, what you liked, and what more could have been said.
Facilitator: Dr. Cheryl Hall-Russell, President and Chief Cultural Officer of Black Women Wise Women
Speakers: Francesca Menes, Founder and Chief Community Engager of CommUnity Strategies, LLC and Jackie Smith, Communications Director at Poder Latinx
4:25 – 4:30 pm ET: Closing Remarks
