With a 27-year track record of engaging community stakeholders, the Cobb Collaborative is a proud partner of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s Vote Your Voice program. The purpose of the program is to build capacity and scale our voter outreach and civic engagement efforts. We regularly convene community stakeholders to address critical issues, equipping them with data, capacity-building tools, and resources and serving as the backbone agency for collective impact projects.
Why do we engage in community-building activities and empower civic engagement?
Research tells us that high levels of civic health correspond to lower crime rates, better public health outcomes, and greater economic resilience, particularly during economic downturns. Civic health includes political action, but it also includes other important measures like community involvement, social connectedness and confidence in institutions.
As we reflect on these tenets, we realize that it makes sense. The more connected we feel to a place and to the people who live there, the more likely we are to be engaged in order to make our community as healthy as possible. Our year-round work is designed to support and expand this. The Collaborative hosts a variety of capacity-building programs, services and activities for all child and family-serving stakeholders in Cobb and beyond.
In the 2024 general election — 78 percent of registered voters in Cobb County turned out to cast their ballots — a remarkable engagement compared to past elections. However, this means that nearly a quarter of registered voters in the county and over 2 million active registered voters statewide chose not to participate. Democracy is built on participation, and every vote contributes to shaping the future. When citizens choose to sit on the sidelines, they relinquish their influence over decisions that affect their communities, families, and lives. We want every voice to be heard!
How do we leverage our impact?
While we are a small organization, we have a robust partner network and leverage that to connect with thousands of our fellow Cobb County residents. During the 2024 election cycle, we built upon the voter engagement foundation work that we built during the past two election cycles. We partner with a number of local groups to further our work including the League of Women Voters — Marietta Cobb, GALEO, Cobb NAACP, Riverside EpiCenter, Senior Citizen Council of Cobb County, Alpha Kappa Alpha Marietta chapter, Marietta-Roswell Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Mableton Men Vote, various faith-based communities, and individuals. This collaborative work is grounded in three areas:
- Voter Registration: Focused on historically disenfranchised populations and first-time voters.
- Voter Education: Engaging with thousands of Cobb residents through community events and digital channels to share information about methods of voting, ballot issues, nonpartisan candidate resources, ID requirements and important dates. We host candidate forums, panel presentations, and design social media campaigns. We have a passion to equip voters with non-artisan information so they can be “high information”. We stress the importance of down-ballot voting, encouraging everyone to understand the importance of local races and local issues, and knowing their various legislative districts.
- Voter Mobilization: At various times, we canvass, mail postcards, distribute fliers and blast information to help individuals make their plan to vote. During the annual Georgia General Assembly session, we track key legislation, share information with our community, encouraging them to be informed, be engaged and make their voices heard about policy areas.
Currently, we are keenly focused on the special election for two Cobb County Board of Commissioner seats in Districts 2 and 4. This came about due to a lengthy legal process that challenged electoral maps that were redrawn by the Georgia General Assembly which resulted in the November 2024 election results being tossed out. The primaries were held in January, and there is a runoff in the Democratic primary for District 2 on March 11. The Special Election will be held on April 29.
How do you get civically engaged?
- Get connected! Neighborhood associations, civic groups, faith communities, local schools, nonprofits – there are many ways to be involved and build community!
- Know who represents you at the local, state, and federal levels! Click here to see if there are opportunities to be a part of a “citizen academy” to learn more about local government.
- Follow Cobb Collaborative on social media (Vote Your Voice — Cobb County) and their website.
- Democracy is built on participation, and every vote contributes to shaping the future.
About the author:
Irene Barton was named the Executive Director of the Cobb Collaborative in September 2018 after serving as the organization’s Resource Manager since July 2017. Using the collective impact model, the Collaborative convenes community stakeholders to improve outcomes for children and families in Cobb County and is the local presence for the Georgia Family Connection Partnership.
The Collaborative focuses on three priorities:
- Third Grade Reading Proficiency as the local contact for the Get GA Reading Campaign
- Mental Health through its Mind Your Mind (Cuida tu Mente) work
- Civic Engagement: Voting and engagement at the grassroots level
