ABOUT US:

Through year-round nonpartisan voter education & mobilization, leadership development, advocacy events, and collaboration with allied organizations, our initiatives create opportunities for meaningful local civic participation by informing, connecting and activating you to be the ones.

OUR MISSION:

Be The Ones is a nonpartisan grassroots organization building healthier communities, a more equitable democracy, and expanding power by removing barriers to local civic participation across the Southeast.

HOW WE DO IT:

Our work is centered on building for and with communities. In order to remove barriers to local civic participation we have to know what they are.

We go right to the source. We ask, we listen. We keep asking, we keep listening.

Informed by these lived experiences, we co-create solutions that increase civic understanding, motivate engagement and create a culture of accessible, inclusive, sustainable, and joyful participation. We do this by blending community organizing & movement-building with relational strategies, technology, storytelling, art, music, food, and culture to create a sense of place and possibility to do this work.

Recognizing there is no one size fits all approach to solving local civic information and participation gaps, we foster a culture of curiosity, creativity and experimentation by piloting and implementing a wide range of tools, tactics and strategies.

Our work is informed by intersectionality (not siloed demographics) and does not view communities in terms of deficits, rather of unrealized opportunity and potential. While our programming is created with the intention of expanding power among disenfranchised and historically excluded communities - including communities of color, low-wealth individuals, and young people (16-40), we do not exclude folks of other intersecting identities.

We achieve our mission and vision through three key initiative pillars.

OUR INITIATIVES:

BE A LOCAL VOTER

Our electoral work builds power through nonpartisan voter education & mobilization preparing you to participate in local elections & be lifelong voters.
BE THE NOISE

Our advocacy work includes experiences and tools to gain knowledge, develop skills, and build community to champion issues and dismantle structural barriers.
BE AND LEAD

Our leadership work shifts power and broadens leadership by training & supporting a new generation of leaders and movement builders.

LEARN MORE

THE RESULT:

Our communities are strong, resilient & thriving because our systems and structures are built to support equitable access to resources and opportunities. Justice for all is achieved.

17 year-old from Colleton County, SC

“Thank you for coming and talking about voting. No one has ever asked me if I want to vote and why before. I feel like my voice meant something.”

Our Story:

How It Started…

Be The Ones began in 2020 as a volunteer effort born out of two conversations. Beth didn’t see the importance of voting or why she should participate. Anne kept hearing “local elections matter,” but couldn’t figure out why a coroner race was worthy of attention or where to find information on wtf the coroner does. We asked: “what could happen if we tried to help people by providing information they needed to participate, connected the dots to issues they care about, uplifted lived experiences…and built a community that had some fun?”

How It’s Going…

Be The Ones has engaged in 800+ conversations to identify civic pain points, listen to lived experiences and determine what folks really need in order to participate. We’ve engaged with the civically curious, civically engaged, and civically disinterested. We’ve run unique experiments, launched programs that have flopped and ones that have brought new voices into civic spaces. We’ve activated 53,000+ across the Southeast and we’re just getting started.

Will you join us in being the ones?

OUR PURPOSE:

We believe informed and engaged citizens are our greatest assets for solving the most critical problems in our communities.

Our current political and social structures are designed to include, privilege, and prioritize the power of certain groups which results in inequitable representation and policies that disadvantage and harm.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Be The Ones understands the importance and urgency of voting (especially at the local level), and also know healthy communities and advancing racial & social justice requires more than showing up every 4 years to vote for a President. To achieve our mission and vision, we must address the root causes and barriers created and perpetuated by systemic racism, white supremacy, and patriarchy.

We must work together to structurally change it while also participating in it. We’re committed to waking up every day to inform, connect, and activate communities to re-imagine, dismantle, and re-build our political, economic and social structures and shift power to where it belongs.

We are committed to be the ones.