#CloseTheGap: NOYN joins city-wide voter registration initiative

Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN) is one of 14 organizations joining Project Ready’s #CloseTheGap campaign to register 2,500 unregistered voters in Newark. The official kick off begins Tuesday, November 5 at the Project Ready Office.

“Proactive citizenship is an overarching goal of all of our programs and initiatives. It’s vital  - not only in our community but in all communities - to empower young people with the knowledge and the know-how to use systems to drive the change they want to see. With all the power within our community, there’s no reason we shouldn’t meet this challenge and exceed it,” said Robert Clark, Chief Executive Officer of NOYN.

There are about 25,000 eligible, unregistered voters in Newark whose non-voter history has left them overlooked and apathetic to the election process. Together, with local organizations like NOYN, #CloseTheGap is seeking to close the registration gap between traditionally underserved communities and more affluent neighboring communities by 10 percent. Over the next five months,  each organization is tasked to register 250 eligible voters before March 2020. And by engaging young people, Project Ready and NOYN are seeking to turn eligible voters into active voters - specifically young people - and invigorate another generation of civically engaged Newarkers. 

Shennell McCloud, Executive Director of Project Ready said, “Project Ready sees a world where no community is left voiceless, where every parent, guardian and student is civically educated and empowered to overhaul systems and policies that limit their educational opportunities. We know that the way to build long term power is to identify the core constituency of Newark voters and foster a strong culture of voting that makes them far more likely to vote in low turnout elections and start to close the turnout gap.”