<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2wy9Ih_0vjpgOiA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2wy9Ih_0vjpgOiA00" width="1500" height="1000" ><figcaption>Leaders for Yes on 4, Progress Florida and Planned Parenthood speak to students during an organizational boot camp in support of Amendment 4 Saturday. Luis Xavier De Peña</figcaption></figure>UCF students took to the streets and learned how to organize campaigning efforts Saturday at the Yes on 4 Organizing Bootcamp to teach students how to canvass for political issues ahead of the Nov. 5 election.The event was hosted by People Power For Florida and Yes on 4 at the Mathematical Sciences building at 10 a.m. and was focused on how to canvass in support of Amendment 4. Gabriel Gómez, youth organizing manager for Yes on 4, led the boot camp.The boot camp aimed at educating students on best practices when it comes to setting up any canvassing campaign, how they can apply what they learned into a career and how to create impactful conversation topics when they go out to speak to voters about Amendment 4.If passed, Amendment 4 would limit government interference when it comes to abortion and related reproductive health care topics, according to the amendment text.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3BLYTZ_0vjpgOiA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3BLYTZ_0vjpgOiA00" width="1763" height="1175" ><figcaption>Chastity Nix, senior anthropology major, participates in door-to-door canvassing in support of Amendment 4 Saturday. unknown</figcaption></figure>Following the boot camp, organizers held a call to action for students to walk the surrounding neighborhoods around the UCF campus to canvass. Although many students were unable to participate in the canvassing, Gómez helped students sign up on a survey app called Reach so students can send mass texts about Amendment 4 to contacts in their phone. The organizers split up neighborhood maps and left to speak to neighborhoods surrounding the UCF campus.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2bpmBw_0vjpgOiA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2bpmBw_0vjpgOiA00" width="1763" height="1175" ><figcaption>Chastity Nix, senior anthropology major, places a pamphlet in support of Amendment 4 on a door frame during door-to-door canvassing Saturday. Luis Xavier De Peña</figcaption></figure>Chastity Nix, senior anthropology major, was one of the student volunteers for Yes on 4 reaching out to the participants during the boot camp. Nix said that reaching out to other UCF students through tabling events has been impactful.“I think having their peers just kind of knowing where they're coming from and the best way to reach them is a more effective way of getting that information out there,” Nix said.Nix said it was also important for students to understand how to be organizers for other issues so they can reach out to their peers face-to-face.While the main topic was Amendment 4, the boot camp also held a workshop for students to share what other issues are important to them leading up to the election. Students were then led through a tactics training to break down how they could turn their concerns into canvassing campaigns.The training involved identifying the people who were being affected by the issue, who could be important allies and possible opponents to the cause. The training also helped students develop methods in achieving successful hard-ask questions.Nix said that educating students about amendments on the ballot is equally as important as educating on who the candidates are.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3OYrHp_0vjpgOiA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3OYrHp_0vjpgOiA00" width="1763" height="1175" ><figcaption>Gabriel Gómez , Yes on 4 youth organizing manager (right), addresses students with stories of women who faced hardships from limited abortion access following the overturning of&nbsp; Roe v. Wade (1973) during a Yes on 4 boot camp at UCF Saturday. Luis Xavier De Peña</figcaption></figure>“Amendments become a constitutional thing,” Nix said. “We have assurance in that, confidence that things are actually going to change because we have it in writing in our documents, rather than listening to someone tell you what they're going to do.”Gómez said Yes on 4 is a nonpartisan organization that supports the passing of Amendment 4.Amendment 4 would ensure that no Florida law can prohibit, delay or restrict abortion before viability or to protect the patient's health as determined by a health care provider, according to the amendment text. It would also not change the current requiring of notification to a parent or guardian before a minor receives an abortion. Gómez said the amendment would specifically stop Florida's abortion ban, protect doctors and patients from prosecution and end the mandatory two-physician visit and 24-hour waiting period rule.Florida's current statute prohibits the performance or induction of termination of a pregnancy after a six-week gestation period with exceptions for victims of rape, incest and human trafficking and in the case of fatal fetal abnormalities. Gómez said that reaching young people in their community directly was one important way to get younger voters educated on Amendment 4 before the election.“We should be coming out and hosting these events for them on their campus where they can easily reach us,” Gómez said. “And we should be reaching them through social media, we should be phone banking them and we should be text banking them, right?”Gómez said that because he and the Yes on 4 organization are based out of Orlando, reaching out to the UCF community is important for them.More than that, the organization wants to reach all young people in different campuses across the state, Gómez said. The organization has already held boot camps at the University of South Florida, Florida A&amp;M University and Florida State University before this weekend event at UCF, he said.Diamond Delancy, deputy organizing director for Yes on 4, said that the importance of the boot camp and student organizing comes down to a common understanding.“People who are of your similar experiences and backgrounds exchanging information, they are seen as trusted sources,” Delancy said. “Versus getting the news from the media or third party in which you don't connect, there's already that connectivity there and that connectivity leads to empathy and addressing the issue.”Delancy said that although the boot camp was focused on abortion and health care, there was a larger conversation being had about intersectionality of issues.“When we think about reproductive justice, like the definition of that, the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to parent those children if you decide to have them in healthy and safe environments," Delancy said. “It's a truly intersectional issue in which addresses very like other issues in life, right? If we think about criminal justice or access to food and access to safe and secure jobs, that directly impacts your decision to have children and not have children.”Gómez said that students who were unable to participate in the door-to-door canvassing or the boot camp have not missed an opportunity to get involved.“Every weekend there's going to be something to do for UCF students,” Gómez said. “We’ll have crowd canvassing during the week and tabling during the week, and door knocking on the weekend.” </div></body>

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UCF students attend boot camp to learn what it takes to start an organizational campaign

UCF students took to the streets and learned how to organize campaigning efforts Saturday at the Yes on 4 Organizing Bootcamp to teach students how to canvass for political issues ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The event was hosted by People Power For Florida and Yes on 4 at...