Partner Spotlight:
Repair the World
A Jewish Organization Builds “Democracy Ballots”
Repair the World mobilizes Jews in their communities to complete acts of service in support of local needs. With 12 chapters across the country, the organization has set the audacious goal to mobilize 1 million volunteers by 2026.
For their commitment to the Jewish Partnership for Democracy, Repair the World is working on an initiative that provides a menu of options for volunteers who are interested in expanding their civic engagement. The interactive online media tool will help people engage in civic actions between and now and the 2024 general election.
“The inspiration for this specific action came from a panel that A More Perfect Union hosted a few months ago, when a panelist said that we need to build a ladder of civic engagement for everybody so they can see their starting point and a clear way forward,” said Eli Greenstein Jacober, Senior Director of National Service Campaigns at Repair the World. “Our intention is to frame that ladder of engagement.”
Strategic Priorities: Civic Learning; Free, Fair, Safe, and Accessible Elections
Network Commitment: Repair the World commits to creating a "democracy ballot" to engage volunteers in a range of pro-democracy activities through election season.
Partner since: 2022
Repair the World’s project will offer a series of escalating possibilities for civic engagement, helpfully scaled so that users can choose their desired level of involvement.
Opportunities range from celebrating civic holidays, to becoming a social media monitor who combats misinformation, to serving as a poll worker on election day. The idea is to make civic action more accessible, and also help individuals and groups take the next steps from their current level of engagement to one that is deeper and more active.
“Repair the World focuses our service on core issue areas related to housing access, food justice, education, and access to medical resources,” said Greenstein Jacober. “But civic engagement and democracy work – all of that folds up into it. Without a strong democracy, all the other issue areas we care about will not progress.”
In deciding on their commitment, Repair the World worked to connect their own strengths to the broader Jewish network – and by partnering with A More Perfect Union, they were able to create an expansive program that can be used across the country.
“We’re not experts in democracy, but our expertise lies in creating and facilitating volunteer experiences,” said Greenstein Jacober. “With A More Perfect Union’s expertise and network, we can provide meaningful, vetted democracy-centric opportunities.”
For information about how your organization can work with A More Perfect Union, contact us at commitments@jewishdemocracy.org.
Dig into our argument for democracy.
To help you understand our argument, approach, and evidence, we’ve published this brief white paper on the Jewish Imperative to Protect and Strengthen American Democracy.
What is transpartisanship?
We believe that protecting and strengthening American democracy is not a partisan issue.
That's why we pursue our work in a spirit of transpartisanship, which rejects the "us vs. them" mindset that characterizes so many political conversations.
We believe that whatever issues we care about individually – from religious freedom to climate change to fair elections – we all have a stake in American self-governance. Engaging effectively in self-governance requires respect and compromise, and we can only exercise these muscles when we focus on what brings us together rather than what sets us apart.
Ultimately, transpartisanship is both an approach and a commitment – to ourselves, to each other, and to future generations.
