People’s Forum Manhattan, KS Fundraising

The People’s Forum MHK needs your help!! Organized by several grassroot organizations and concerned local residents, the People’s Forum is a non-endorsing accountability focused session with County Commission candidates. The overarching purposes of an accountability focused candidate forum are to: -Provide local residents the opportunity to become registered voters. -Provide local residents with an opportunity to articulate to candidates specific, collective concerns and issues that directly impact their lives. -Establish a voter-candidate dynamic in which the interests and issues being discussed are framed and curated by voters, candidates are understood as responsible for their knowledgeability of those issues, and candidates are held accountable for their responses and commitments to said voter-raised issues -Create an opportunity for candidates to learn more about a number of issues facing local voters, by engaging those concerned and/or most impacted. -Provide candidates with a platform through which to clarify their positions regarding those identified by voters. -Demonstrate collective power to the County Commission candidates via voter engagement. -Demonstrate the collective agency and will of voters, and their capacity to determine their own interests and needs to both the County Commission, and to themselves. STRUCTURE Participating organizations and concerned local residents have formed a People’s Forum Coalition (PFC) with the expressed intent of building collective momentum around issues facing local residents. The PFC aims to identify the specific policies, issues, and/or principles that future County Commission candidates will be held accountable to if they are elected into office. The PFC seeks to elevate these policies, issues, and/or principles and to organize and promote the People’s Forum. Unlike some candidate forums, the People’s Forum will afford coalition members to present a specific “ask” to the candidates that represents the central issue facing their organization and/or its broader member base; this will be done by each organization selecting a local resident/voter to serve as a speaker at the forum. Said speaker will share a brief personal impact story, followed by the related organizational “ask”; County candidates will have a brief, timed, period to respond directly to each speaker's story and organizational “ask” before moving on to the next organization’s speaker. People’s Forum will be held September 16th from 6:30-8 via Facebook Live. Funds will be used toward social media, printing, mailings. Your support would be greatly appreciated!