Down Home members in Craven County, North Carolina, came to celebrate our new chapter!
Over 40 people joined in a family event at the Perrytown Community Center in New Bern. Kids were outside playing games, adults were laughing and hugging under the shade of trees, and everyone came inside to talk about their community and what Craven County needs. The BBQ, which included a fish fry and grilled wings, mac and cheese, and hush puppies, was delicious. But even more nourishing? The conversation and fellowship.
“Something special is really happening here,” said field county organizer Tara Bailey, a local mother of two. “We are here to help the community get its house in order by building power.”
Down Home’s vision is to build political power by helping unite poor and working people in the area with the issues we all care about. . During conversations in Perrytown, adults of all ages talked through their experiences to get at what it means to live a healthy life within a larger community. High schoolers talked about the need for safer, better transportation to school. A prison employee talked about how the system fails people getting out of prison. A lot of people talked about the need to eliminate cash bail and set people in Craven up for success instead of putting them into the school to prison pipeline. And these conversations happened across race, gender, age, and education.
The chapter launch comes on the heels of an extensive and ongoing “deep listening project” where local members and canvassers have been talking to local residents about what concerns them and what they would like to see change in their community.
New Craven County chapter members will next work on creating their local platform, which they will then use to make endorsements for the 2022 election cycle.
If you are interested in becoming a member in Craven County or would like to get involved in the platform creation or endorsement process, please contact Tara at [email protected]county organizer
