The Voter Education, Registration, and Action campaign of 2008 (VERA 08) is a non-partisan effort aimed at adult learners and program staff in the New England states. Its goal is to educate adult learners about voting and the topical electoral issues, and mobilize them to vote in the 2008 elections. VERA is sponsored by the New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC) at World Education.

Any interested adult education program in New England can join. Individual teachers can also join VERA, but please check with your program director first. You will receive an email confirmation from NELRC and a follow-up call from one of your state’s VERA organizers.

Join now!

Voting is one of our most basic civil rights and responsibilities. Yet, barely one half of voting age adults participated in the last election. U.S. voting rates are among the lowest of any democracy in the world. Adult learners’ well-being is profoundly affected by the outcomes of elections and of current public policy debates, yet it is sometimes difficult for adult learners to participate in elections and engage in public debates.

Adult educators can play an important role helping to increase voter turn-out and creating avenues for students to explore advocacy and civic participation. The 2008 elections offer a teachable moment with high stakes outcomes for adult learners in the United States.

Joining VERA means making a commitment to

• teach about representative democracy, voting, and topical election issues;
• encourage and help eligible students and staff register to vote, get to the polls, and vote;
• encourage non-eligible students to talk to family members and friends who can vote;
• track how many students voted and how many voted for the first time; and
• submit a brief report to NELRC due November 30, 2008.

We recommend that you devote 3-5 classes to VERA–related topics, but it is up to the program or individual teacher to decide what specific topics, and how many sessions.

• One complementary copy of the March 2008 issue of The Change Agent focused on voting and advocacy for each class signed on to the campaign;
• Workshops on preparing, motivating and assisting people to vote;
• Support from VERA organizers in each New England state to help connect participants with other voter education organizations; and
• Web links to useful resources and organizations

This is our opportunity to show that low-income people with limited education voted and are paying attention to the actions of their elected officials. NELRC will use the VERA reports to compile state-specific and regional data on how many people voted. We will email these reports to each educator and program that signed up with VERA. The overall VERA report will be posted on this website. NELRC will also prepare a press release that you can adapt for us with the local media.

What does the March 2008 issue of The Change Agent on Democracy in Action contain?

Lively articles, student writings, cartoons, graphics, math lessons, and other lessons that are classroom-ready and designed to build student empowerment and engagement, this special issue of The Change Agent.

VERA Contacts

VERA Organizers in New England

Get in touch with your state VERA organizer to get more information about VERA workshops and other activities in your state.

You can help with outreach to your colleagues. Refer them to our Web site to sign up. With your help, we can build a more participatory democracy.

To learn more about the NELRC, our workshops, or about submitting links and materials for this site, contact Steve Quann, Webmaster at (617) 482-9485 or at squann@worlded.org