Glossary of Terms Political

OF TERMS GLOSSARY

1-on-1 - a meeting scheduled by an organizer to get to know a person better. Usually, at the end of this meeting, the organizer will ask the person to volunteer with the organization/ campaign.

Action - A tool to mobilize people around certain social or political issues. Types of actions include rallies, and protests.

Activist - a person who galvanizes a group of people around a political or social issue to act.

Advocacy - an activity by a person or organization that aims to influence political decisions.

Alinsky Method - Alinsky used symbol construction and nonviolent conflict to create a structured organization with a clearly defined goal that could take direct action against a common enemy. At this point, Alinsky would withdraw from the organization to allow their progress to be powered by the community itself.

Ally - a person or group that provides assistance and support in an ongoing effort https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/ally

Ask - to frame a request for a person to participate with a group or an organization in the future.

Base -the group of people and organizations who are deeply committed to your issue, many times directly impacted by your issue or serve people who are. https://residentactionproject. files.wordpress.com/2017/05/communityorganizing-101-tookit-for-organizing.pdf

Call List - a catalog of phone numbers that staff and volunteers use in phone banking. Canvassing - a systematic approach of getting the word out about a particular campaign. Most times this is done by walking door-to-door in a neighborhood and persuading a resident to participate in the campaign.

Capacity Building - the process of recruiting organizations and people to participate in a social issue or campaign. This process is often referred to as building a base.

Civic Engagement - the process of helping people be active participants in building and strengthening their communities centered around the rights and duties of citizenship.

Coalition Building - a way for organizations to build political power. Organizations can bolster their competence and capacity by forming deliberate partnerships with other organizations that complement their strengths. https://www. communitycatalyst.org/resources/tools/ grassroots/what-is-grassroots-organizing

Community Engagement - a strategic process with the purpose of working with an identified group of people on a specific social or political issue.

Constituent - A person who is represented politically by a designated government official or officeholder. http://webhome. auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/constituent. phtml

County Table - County Tables regularly convene and adopt county-specific political strategies to address political, economic, health, environmental, and educational issues. Advance Carolina supports their County Tables by providing data and strategic talking points that advance the table’s political strategy.

Data - information collected for volunteer recruitment. This information includes name, phone number, email and any other useful information that would be pertinent to the organization to have.

Debrief - a meeting to question someone or a group of people around a completed event.

Digital Advertisement - the use of the Internet to influence political debate and ultimately persuade people to vote for a particular candidate.

Electorate - is a group of people in a country or area who are entitled to vote in an election.

Faith Based Organizing (“Souls to the Polls”)

- a organizing and activist tactic to mobilize African American voters through their church/ faith community.

Fellows - Unpaid or paid staff that are a part of an organization for a limited amount of time that work with full-time staff.

Fundraising - the seeking of financial support for a charity, cause, or other enterprise. -Oxford Dictionary

Gentrification - a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district. When this happens, rent increases as well as property values. This changes the district’s character and culture. http://archive. pov.org/flagwars/what-is-gentrification/

Gerrymandering - Elected officials draw voting districts to be in favor of their party or constituency block. https://www.lexico.com/ en/definition/gerrymander

Get-Out-To-Vote (GOTV) - The process and plan to ensure that people make it to vote on election day. Goal - the aim or desired result for an organization. Usually referred to as the mission/vision statement.

Grassroots Organizing - a way to build political power by involving a constituency in identifying both the problems they share and the solutions to those problems. This is a bottom-up approach to organizing. https:// www.communitycatalyst.org/resources/tools/ grassroots/what-is-grassroots-organizing

Issue Campaigns - an organized action around a social issue or political issue.

Lobbying - any attempt by individuals or private interest groups to influence the decisions of government. https://www. britannica.com/topic/lobbying

Messaging - a set of talking points that campaign staff use to talk about their work to voters and to the media.

Mobilize - activities and/or conversations that are intended to motivate a person to participate in a campaign.

Organizer - a person who unites people around a political or social issue to build capacity.

Parachute Organizing - a method of organizing that temporarily moves organizers to a community to work for a campaign. Once the campaign is done, the organizer leaves.

Party to the Polls - is an event to encourage people to vote in an election. The event is usually centered around food, music, and voting information so voters have everything they need to vote.

Persuasion - the attempt to influence a person’s choice on a social issue or who to vote for in an election.

Phone Banking - a way to reach out to voters via phone to share information about a specific campaign.

Pledge Cards/Commitment Cards - a piece of campaign literature that asks voters to commit to voting for a candidate or a particular issue. There is often a space to encourage the voter to also volunteer for the organization. https://changemediagroup. com/value-pledge-cards-brief-overview/

Political Campaign - an organized action around a person running for political office

Protest - An action used by a mass group of people to voice their disapproval of a cause of concern.

Rally - an organized gathering of people of similar beliefs that is focused around raising morale and support towards a social issue or political candidate. https://www. davemanuel.com/investor-dictionary/ political-rally/

Redistricting - the process of redrawing legislative districts. The Uniform Congressional District Act (enacted in 1967) requires that representatives be elected from singlemember districts. When a state has a single representative, that district will be statewide.

Redlining - refusal to rent or sell (a loan or insurance) to someone because they live in an area deemed to be a poor financial risk. -oxford dictionary

Relational Voter Program (RVP)/Crucial

Conversations - is a tactic to communicate with voters. This program uses an individual’s personal contacts as a list of people to reach out to, encourage to vote, and to get involved in elections. Stakeholder - a person or group who has an interest or a stake in an organization. https://www.stakeholdermap.com/politicalstakeholders.html

Storytelling- a personal story that an organizer or activist uses to persuade people to participate in their campaign.

Strategic Planning - a process to set priorities and common goals for an organization to ensure that staff have a clear focus.

Strategy - the overall campaign plan of an organization.

Tactic- carefully planned action used to attain a specific objective.

Targeting - determined focus of resources, time, and money towards a specific group of people that is tied to the political strategy of the community.

Volunteer Recruitment- Asking a person to work for a campaign without pay. People are often recruited to volunteer through phone banking and canvassing.

Voter Action Network (VAN) - a voter database that includes the voter files for all registered individuals in a state.

Voter Intimidation - tactics and strategies to put pressure and stress on marginalized communities to deter them from voting.

Voter Suppression - a strategy used to discourage marginalized communities from participating in elections.

Voter Turnout- the percentage of voters who cast a ballot in an election.

Win - a success or victory in accomplishing a goal.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Air Pollution - type of environmental pollution that contaminates the air, usually harmful smoke or other poisonous gases.

Climate Disasters - This is a term used for hurricanes and other natural disasters made worse by climate change and pollution created by major corporations.

Climate Justice - Climate justice is a term used to frame global warming as an ethical and political issue, rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature.

Coal Ash - the toxic remains of coal burning in power plants, is full of chemicals that cause cancer, developmental disorders and reproductive problems. It poisons our air and water, and kills fish and wildlife.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

(CAFOs) - A large farm or corporate farm that has over 1000 animals confined for 45 days a year.

Disaster Capitalism - The action of exploiting national crisis, this includes climate disasters: hurricanes and major storm systems. To create and establish controversial and questionable policies that hurt Black and Brown communities. Examples are gentrification (to take housing and land from original tenants) following a hurricane.

Environmental Justice - the action of centering people, specifically people-ofcolor in environmental laws and policy.

Environmental

JUSTICE

Advance North Carolina works to improve the conditions of Black North Carolinians and address environmental discrimination that is ongoing in our state.

Protecting communities from toxic waste and other sources of pollution. Focusing on the people and the environment they live in.

Environmental Racism - The practice of corporations using Black, Indigenous and LatinX communities as dumping grounds. The term is used to define environmental injustice that occurs within a racialized way in both policy (laws) and practice.

Food Deserts - a community, neighborhood or area that has limited access to fresh healthy foods. Limited access to grocery stores or supermarkets. Also called a food oasis.

Food Insecurity - The measurement used to evaluate a person’s access to healthy foods.

Fracking - To inject a poisonous liquid at high pressure into rocks in order to force the earth to open in order to pull out gas

Frontline Communities - The communities who are hit first and the hardest by natural disasters, environmental corporations. The communities are majority communities-ofcolor and low-wealth communities.

Just Recovery - Supporting frontline communities in their full economic recovery and building of political power to rebuild and shape their communities following disasters. This includes healthy jobs, restored homes without contaminants such as mold, clean air, clean water and clean land.

OF TERMS GLOSSARY

Offshore Drilling - To drill into the earth underneath the ocean to extract petroleum and natural gas.

Onshore Drilling - To drill deep holes into the earth’s surface to extract oil and gas

Runoff - how toxins are spilled into the water supply of communities. Toxins can include: sewage, medical waste, animal waste, fertilizers, petroleum, litter and other chemicals.

PFAS - a man-made chemical, called forever chemicals, because they can not be boiled, killed or eliminated. This chemical has been known to cause increased rates of cancer, lung and bronchial diseases and childhood diseases. Urban Heat Island - An urban area with more concrete/asphalt than grass. These concrete areas retain the sun’s heat and increases in temperature. The hot temperatures can elevate community members’ body temperature, increase high blood pressure, and hyper-tension.

Vulnerable Communities - are groups and communities at a higher risk for poor health as a result of the barriers they experience to social, economic, political and environmental resources, as well as limitations due to illness or disability.

DID YOU KNOW?

56%of residents living within a 2-mine radius of toxic waste facilities are people of color. 79%of Black Americans are more likely than whites to live where industrial pollution poses the greatest risk.

Black American in 19 states

are more than TWICE as likely as Whites to live in neighborhoods with high pollution levels, compared to Hispanics in 12 states and Whites in 7 states. Harmful environmental corporations and impacts are mapped closely with Jim

Crow housing segregation

and discriminatory zoning and land use practices.

Equitable Policy - Knowledge and understanding of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in policy making, analysis, and implementation with a focus on equity impact. Common Health Action.

Laws - the system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties. (Find Source Here)

Public Policy - public policy is simply what the government (any public official who influences or determines public policy, including school officials, city council members, county supervisors, etc.) does or does not do about a problem that comes before them for consideration and possible action. (Find source here)

VOTER EDUCATION TERMS

General Election - an election in which candidates are elected to offices. This is in contrast to a primary election, which is used either to narrow the field of candidates for a given elective office or to determine the nominees for political parties in advance of a general election. (Find source here)

Gerrymandering- manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class to achieve (a result) by manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency.

Primary Election- are the process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party’s candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the country and administrative divisions within the country, voters might consist of the general public in what is called an open primary, or solely the members of a political party in what is called a closed primary. In addition to these, there are other variants on primaries (which are discussed below) that are used by many countries holding elections throughout the world.(Find source here)

Absentee Ballot - In North Carolina an absentee ballot is a ballot that is requested by a voter who is not able to vote in-person at a voting precinct.

Ballot Harvesting - This is an action where absentee ballots were stolen which forced a given outcome in a political race. This happened most notably in District 9, a district that was heavy in Black and Brown voters and disenfranchisement.

Curbside Voting - In any election, if any voter is able to travel to the voting place, but because of age or physical disability and physical barriers encountered at the voting place is unable to enter the voting enclosure to vote in person without physical assistance, that voter will be allowed to vote in the vehicle conveying that voter. (Find Source Here) Mid-Term Election: (Blue Moon Election)- refers to a type of election where the people can elect their representatives and other subnational officeholders (e.g. governor, members of local council) in the middle of the term of the executive. This is usually used to describe elections to a governmental body (generally a legislature) that are staggered so that the number of offices of that body would not be up for election at the same time. (Find Source Here)

Voting - a formal expression of opinion or choice, either positive or negative, made by an individual or body of individuals. The means by which such expression is made, as a ballot, ticket, etc.