Tips On Community Organizing From Tamieka Atkins, Executive Director Of ProGeorgia

Ground Game: Georgia is a podcast miniseries that tells first-person stories from inside the organizations on the ground that are registering voters, getting them to the polls, and fighting voter suppression during the Senate runoff elections.

The voting process in Georgia is littered with obstacles meant to make it harder for Americans to cast their ballots. This is not news to anyone who has followed the news over the past four years. The daunting voter registration process, exhaustingly long lines, and severely shortened ballot drop box hours are just some of the hurdles many Americans have to face just to get their votes counted. And beyond that, getting elected officials to make good on stump speech promises is an even steeper uphill battle.

Luckily, there are organizations like ProGeorgia, steered by longtime community organizers like Tamieka Atkins (@TamiekaAtkinsGA), that offer a lighthouse kind of shine to provide direction on just how to organize beyond those initial hurdles, and get whole communities — those most adversely affected by the political process — activated and engaged beyond voter registration. As executive director, Atkins coordinates and promotes the civic engagement and voter registration plans of ProGeorgia’s member organizations, or “table partners,” as they engage people on the ground and in spaces where they work, learn, and live. The ballot box is only part of a multi-pronged approach.

“We, as table partners, don’t show up in September to register people to vote and then walk away,” Atkins recently told Ground Game: Georgia hosts Holly Anderson and Marcus Ellsworth. “We believe that voting is part of an overall power-building strategy, but not the singular answer to improving the quality and conditions of life for Black and Brown people in Georgia.”

So what does it take to really build power and improve life for the most affected communities? Here are just a few snippets from Tamieka’s eye-opening interview:

AN ORGANIZING MINDSET CONSIDERS EVERYONE WHO IS DOING THE WORK

It’s not enough to be heard by politicians. How can organizers afford to keep their elected officials accountable while supporting themselves and their families?

“At ProGeorgia we look at the folks who are doing this work, because we intentionally have leadership from Black and Brown communities, and what does it mean to advocate and support all of our table partners to be able to pay their canvassers $15 an hour? That’s a part of the voter registration and civic engagement work. That the people who are doing this work are also good and healthy and whole.”

NOT WHAT BUT WHO ARE YOU CENTERING?

Centering the most marginalized will lead you to the right issues.

“I worked at the National Domestic Workers Alliance. I created and built out their Atlanta chapter, and when I left we had over 1,500 members — nannies, housekeepers, and homecare workers, primarily Black and African Diaspora — organizing for rights and dignity and safety, frankly, in the workplace. And that’s how I got involved with voter registration and civic engagement. What would it look like for domestic workers to be a powerful voting base?”

IT’S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT OUTCOMES

Organizing for impact will yield inspiration as well as results.

“We found in 2019 — as we were doing outreach from municipal elections and the census and knocking on doors — that Georgians were invigorated. That, for me, has been very inspirational and very motivating. We have seen nothing but record early voting from Black and Brown communities. And so, to me, no matter the outcomes — because that’s not what I’m here for — I am here to reduce barriers to the ballot, and as we keep seeing these voting numbers and the voter registration gap between whites and people of color in Georgia close, I always feel inspired by that.”

To learn more about how Tamieka Atkins and ProGeorgia are engaging communities in the political process and how you can get involved, listen to this episode of Ground Game: Georgia wherever you get your podcasts, and visit www.progeorgia.org.