Focus on Renewal is one of 17 area nonprofits chosen by the Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership to participate as cohort of active agencies in the nonpartisan Nonprofit Vote voter engagement program.  Each member agency is committed to getting 250 folks to the polls this November 10th.  So far, Focus On Renewal, led by new Director of Community Engagement & Enterprise, Lydia Morin, is  more than halfway to the goal with 168 registrations/pledges.  

As recently quoted in Next Pittsburgh, “GPNP executive director Samantha Balbier says the program was also a response to the lack of urgency related to the recent nine-month long state budget impasse.

“We noticed that the general public, by and large, was not outraged by the fact that there was no state budget for so long despite the fact that there was a constitutional deadline that was ignored,” says Balbier. “Reflecting on that whole process we asked ourselves, what could we get better at as a nonprofit association?”

The GPNP recognized an opportunity to increase civic engagement among those directly affected by the budget impasse, which prevented essential funding from reaching nonprofits.”

Focus On Renewal and the 8 programs under the FOR umbrella are working hard to get Sto-Rox to the polls, hosting a voter registration table at every Family Fun Night and other special events in Ryan Arts.  So far the largest coordinated effort occurred on Tuesday, September 27th, National Voter Registration Day.  For this day of action, Focus On Renewal had tables and tweets running all day at Renewal Coffee, FOR Sto-Rox Library and the Community Center.   

From now until October 10th, each of these locations will be able to assist with a new registration or an address change, everyone should feel free to update their voter information and check out some of FOR’s great programming!