Jamal Shaw was working his shift behind the Shaw’s fish counter when someone asked him if he was registered to vote. By the time his lunch break was over, the answer was yes.
On Wednesday afternoon, just inside the entrance to the Whalley Avenue supermarket, representatives from Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven intercepted shoppers on their way to the produce section with a simple question: “Are you registered to vote?” Roger Maldonado, a summer intern with NHS, was on special assignment to target the store’s employees.
Shaw (pictured), who is 23, said he sees politics as relevant to his life for the first time. “It’s starting to make an impact,” he said. “So instead of sitting at home and complaining, I’m going to give 100 percent.” He credits the registration drive with pushing him to make that decision. “If it wasn’t right there, I probably wouldn’t have taken the initiative to call and find out how to vote,” he said.
Neighborhood Housing Services is a non-profit that seeks to strengthen neighborhoods by increasing home ownership. The registration drive is part of NHS’ community building and organizing initiative, which encourages city residents, whether they are homeowners or not, to take an active role in their communities. “Our basic mission is to change neighborhoods,” said B.R. Hassan-Owens (pictured), the community building specialist at NHS. “Neighborhoods that are strongest have people active in those neighborhoods.”
Homeowners tend to be more engaged in their communities than renters, Hassan-Owens said, so promotion of homeownership goes hand in hand with non-partisan drives for voter registration and civic engagement.
“One of the things I like about NHS is that it’s not just about housing, it’s broader, it’s about the community as a whole,” said Hector Guerra, an NHS housing counselor working at the Shaws registration drive.
Shopper Beverly Chevalier is already a registered voter, but she picked up a folder with information about NHS community building initiatives to share with the girl scout troupe she leads. She was looking for an activity for the afternoon and decided a civics lesson would be just the thing. “Even though they can’t vote yet, kids can still engage as active citizens, and they can participate to improve their communities,” she said. “And it’s also about the influence kids have on their parents, even though we’re usually told it’s the other way around.” After seeing how receptive her own eleven-year-old daughter has been to learning about the political process this election cycle, Chevalier is excited to bring that message to other kids. “If they’re engaged at this age, when they get older, just imagine what our communities can look like.”
Judy Ebro (pictured, left), who will be voting for the first time this fall, was motivated to register by her 12-year-old son’s school project about the attempts of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson to become the first female president or the first president of color. “When he started getting into it, that’s when I decided to get involved,” she said.
Voter registration will continue to be an important piece of the NHS agenda beyond this single event. Hammad-Owens plans to bring registration forms to the community meetings she organizes, and to plan more drives like the one at Shaws. NHS is also setting up voter education meetings to take people through the steps of political participation. “We want to prepare people so they won’t have ignorance as the reason they’re not getting involved in this election or any election,” she said.