Today, KFTC members were busy at three different community festivals - getting out and talking to people in our communities about issues that impact us all, registering voters, and inviting people to get involved in KFTC's work to make our Commonwealth a little better.

One event was Georgetown's Festival Latino, hosted by the Hispanic Initiative.  We registered a few voters, got some valuable time at the microphone to talk to the crowd, and generally became a lot more connected to the Latino community in Scott County.

Representative Charlie Hoffman also spoke at the event, encouraging support for passing national health care, including a public option.  He expressed a lot of appreciation for KFTC's recent activity in the community and to the organizers for the Festival Latino as well. 

Throughout the day, we also tabled at the Roots and Heritage Festival, Kentucky's largest annual African American community festival.  We made valuable connections with other organizations, like the Lexington NAACP, and local census employees that we're building a relationship with to make sure that all Kentuckians are counted - especially in hard to count communities.

On top of all of that, some members in Northern Kentucky today participated in a Recovery Rally, spanning the Purple People Bridge into Ohio, holding hands in solidarity across the state line in support of recovery from substance abuse.

Recovery organizations see civic engagement as being a key part of healing and becoming a part of society again - which is why our members talked to many people about restoration of voting rights for former felons who have served their time.

On the Ohio side of the bridge, former felons already get their voting rights back when they've served their time.  Kentucky and Virginia persist as the only two states in the US that take away voting rights from all former felons unless they get a pardon from the Governor. 

Keep an eye on the KFTC Calendar for similar upcoming outreach events including Berea's Spoon Bread Festival next week, the Floyd County Music Festival, Georgetown's Festival of the Horse in early  October, and Recovery Rallies in Covington, Russell County, and Lexington throughout the month.  Come on out and join us next time!