- Julius Irving leads Community Spring’s Community Power Building initiative to educate residents on local government and civic engagement beyond voting.
- Community Spring focuses on empowering disenfranchised people, especially those affected by the justice system, to advocate for local changes.
- The nonprofit plans a webinar featuring civic rights leaders to promote education and leadership in community-driven policy reforms.
Julius Irving helped register around 8,000 Floridians ahead of elections in 2019, but he realized civic engagement means more than voting. Those in his community needed education on how local governments work and how individuals can get involved on the other 364 days outside of Election Day.
Irving is an outreach coordinator with Community Spring, a Gainesville economic justice organization, and he’s spearheading the nonprofit’s new Community Power Building initiative.
The goal is to use existing relationships to learn and to push for change at the community, city and county level. Mobilize change on what? Well, that’s up to the network of friends, family and acquaintances that Irving ties together, with each person involved pulling in more relationships…