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As Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) celebrates and reflects on 20 years of service and engagement with the community, it remains involved with the current needs of the Black Belt. 

“BBCF is committed to raising awareness through voter education and to inspire voter participation as a civic opportunity,” said Chris Spencer, BBCF chief community engagement officer in a media release. 

The BBCF Community Associates utilized their 2024 summer retreat to learn about resources available to Black Belt community members to support the ‘Get Out the Vote’ efforts. Spencer, who led the retreat’s voter engagement workshop, emphasized Black Belt specific voting data, sources for official Alabama voting information, the impact of current Alabama voting legislation and voting related community resources to help Community Associates prepare to serve in their individual counties. 

“BBCF is honored to provide the best facilitation possible so our Community Associates can serve in any needed arena,” according to BBCF president, Felecia Lucky. “Their retreat on civic engagement featured presentations by Alabama judges, state senators and representatives, a local school board member, and county commissioners, to broaden interaction.”

A panel discussion was held on voter engagement at the 2024 Community Associates Mid-Year Retreat in June. Panelists included Marcus Campbell, chairman, Sumter County Commission; Vernetta Perkins, Dallas County District Judge; Curtis L. Travis, Alabama State Representative for District 72; Bobby D. Singleton, Alabama Senate District 24; Albert Turner, Jr., chairman, Perry County Commission and Collins Pettaway, 4th Judicial Circuit Judge.

The BBCF Community Associates and other civic-minded community members have spent months working with the following initiatives in their counties to foster engagement and voter participation:

* Project M.O.V.E. (Making Our Voices Echo) where volunteers participate in phone banking with the ACLU-AL and voters from across the state to find out what our neighbors are experiencing in their communities.

* Black Voters Matter reached out to train BBCF Community Associates in phone calling and texting citizens to raise voter awareness. They also sent a representative to the mid-year Community Associates retreat to speak about the importance of voting.

* Virtual Nonpartisan Poll Monitor and Election Protection Training was provided by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to train local Poll Monitors.

As the ‘Get Out the Vote’ campaign continues through election day, BBCF encourages all citizens to participate, volunteer, and most importantly, vote.