As part of a coordinated, intensive effort to build skills, connections, and  structure for our Voter Empowerment campaign,  160  activists from ten states gatheres in Louisville this weekend for the first annual PUSHBACK Conference.  KFTC was well-represented by 15 members. 

The PUSHBACK Network is a national collaboration of indigenous, grassroots organizations (like Kentuckians For The Commonwealth) and networks committed to building bottom-up, state-based alliances that change both the composition and levels of participation of the electorate.We emphasize strategies to empower underrepresented constituencies: people of color, poor, and working class communities and young people.

Currently, PUSHBACK is made up of groups from Kentucky, Alabama, California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and New York.  KFTC's partner organization in Kentucky is Kentucky Jobs with Justice.

Participants in this weekend's activities planned future voter empowerment efforts and learned a lot from eachother while forging lasting connections and having a lot of fun doing it. KFTC will continue to develop its own Voter Empowerment strategies in communities across the state in the coming months and will lead a major effort to register, educate, and mobilize voters leading up to the 2007 Elections on November 6th.