GoVote NYC is a nonpartisan initiative to strengthen democracy in New York City through civic engagement. It is a platform for community organizations throughout the city to share resources, information, and lessons learned from their Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts. Hester Street has built on its 2020 Census work, along with eight other community-based organizations (Hispanic Federation, MinKwon Center for Community Action, New York City Employment & Training Coalition, New York Civic Engagement Table, New York Immigration Coalition, Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, F.Y.Eye, and all three branches of the New York City public libraries) to work collaboratively and use data to improve voter outreach and turnout, foster collaboration between grantees, and measure the collective impact of GOTV efforts.
As part of the initiative, Hester Street developed a mapping tool to help community-based organizations, civic institutions, and government groups’ GOTV efforts. The interactive GoVote NYC Map contains demographic data, voter registration information (including election turnout data and participation metrics), polling locations, and various neighborhood assets to help organizations identify voters and locate specific geographies to focus their outreach efforts.
Hester Street hosted public training sessions, presented at civic-oriented community events and held convenings with the other GoVote Grantees to train organizers and community members on the tools and to seek input to make the tools more useful. A summary of those convenings can be found below in the “Publications” section of this page. Hester Street also hosted three public webinars on Zoom to showcase the tools and train community-based organizations on how to use the map and data dashboard.
Finally, in 2022, Hester Street published a final report summarizing our work with partners across NYC to inform future community-based voter turnout efforts. Read and download the final report here.
