In 2023, Down Home launched a Deep Canvass Academy to help train and prepare volunteers and partner organizations across the state for our work ahead. One volunteer, Carol, described deep canvassing as “clear, honest, and extremely human.”
We couldn’t agree more.
North Carolinians are looking to make sense of the chaos and confusion being fomented by the far-right, and are looking for connection and community to do that.
To build in the rural South, we need a long-term movement strategy that reaches across divides and brings folks together across race, class, gender, and region. That’s why we are investing so heavily in the transformative vision of deep canvassing at Down Home, where we can cut through the culture war rhetoric and get to the heart of our home state.
Above: Learn more about our Deep Canvass program and what it’s all about.
Volunteer to Deep Canvass
In 2024, we are going to be reaching out to our neighbors across 20 rural counties in North Carolina. Can you help?
Contact BonnieWe were looking to overcome our anxieties and silos to find ways to connect with our neighbors with whom we no longer discuss policies or issues. What we learned, from their excellent training and examples, was that we can change the way we approach our common concerns to find common ground.”
"They are trying to weaponize gender"
The easiest way to win in North Carolina politics is to pit people against each other— and we aren’t having any of that. Historically, since Reconstruction and throughout Jim Crow and, later, the Southern Strategy, working-class voters have been purposefully encouraged to vote against each other’s needs and interests.
In 2023, Down Home’s deep canvass team worked with the New Conversations Initiative and the Transgender Law Center to better understand how transphobia is being used as a wedge issue in North Carolina and how we can help voters understand how fear and anxiety over gender issues are being used as a political tool. “This year was all about learning; about listening without an agenda,” explained Bonnie Dobson, our Deep Canvass manager. “People need to know that we are willing to listen and engage especially when we don’t agree. I think that’s what we all are craving and people seem grateful for that.”
People need to know that we are willing to listen and engage especially when we don't agree. I think that's what we all are craving and people seem grateful for that.
