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Redistricting Community College

CHARGE has held a number of trainings to prepare people and communities who have traditionally been excluded from voting and electoral politics to participate in the redistricting process.

If you're learning about redistricting for the first time, start with the Redistricting Community College Series.

Once you have a foundation of knowledge, check out our Advanced Courses to delve deeper into specific redistricting topics and advocacy skills.

Redistricting Community College Series

This 5-part series is designed to give newcomers the knowledge they need to actively engage their communities in the 2021-2022 redistricting process – at every level of government – from school board to congressional redistricting.

Part 1. Introduction to Redistricting

What is Redistricting? How does it work? Why should we care?

Part 2. Voting Rights Act

What is the Voting Rights Act? How does it protect minority communities?

Part 3. Community Mapping - Training for Trainers

Why is community mapping important? How do we define our community? What stories are we looking for? What data would help?

Part 4. Redistricting Timeline and Rules

How can redistricting processes vary from state to state?

Part 5. Redistricting Advocacy: Improving Transparency and Providing Testimony

How do we advocate, in virtual and in-person settings, for more transparent and inclusive procedures? How do we give effective testimony?

Seminario Sobre La Redistribución de los Distritos

A condensed version of the Redistricting Community College presented entirely in Spanish. Translated: Una versión condensada de Redistricting Community College, pero se presenta completamente en español. En este seminario, cubriremos una introducción a la redistribución de distritos, el mapeo comunitario y el activismo comunitario.

Advanced Courses

These trainings delve deeper into specific topics and skills that are helpful for redistricting advocates to know.

How Redistricting Organizers Can Lay the Groundwork for Litigation

This training covers topics such as how the redistricting litigation process works, best practices for building a record of evidence that’s helpful in litigation, and discussion on how litigators and organizers can effectively collaborate.

Representable Deep Dive

DistrictR Deep Dive

Let’s End Prison-Based Gerrymandering

This training discusses how activists can plug into prison gerrymandering reforms at the state and local level. There are many states that have enacted reform at the state level, and will be implementing them for the first time - we share lessons learned from New York and Maryland in their reallocations of incarcerated people in 2010.

Organizing Conversations for Community Districting

The two-part training includes a short presentation about building community power through organizing and the effective components of organizing conversations in relational organizing.

Part 1

Part 2

Map Analysis - Evaluating District Map Proposals

A webinar to deepen community leaders' knowledge of how to evaluate and analyze those maps, including learning how to evaluate for Voting Rights Act compliance and other criteria and learning how to use open-access redistricting software. The goal is to prepare community leaders to effectively evaluate proposed district maps to advocate effectively for their communities.

C3/C4 Rules of the Road

An overview of the Rules of the Road for c3/c4 organizations, how to manage various legal scenarios while you advocate for fair and equitable maps and answer questions specific to your campaign.

Media & Communications Training

This training contains messaginhttps://www.redistrictinghub.com/admin/#/collections/pagesg guidance for talking about redistricting, advice for creating a communications plan customized to your state and needs, and a brief discussion of recent message testing results on how to engage Black communities in the South in redistricting.

Gerrymandering the States: Partisanship, Race, and the Transformation of American Federalism

A discussion about the policy and social consequences of unfair maps featuring the authors of Gerrymandering the States: Partisanship, Race, and the Transformation of American Federalism.

Behind the Scenes on Redistricting

On Thursday, July 21st at 7:00PM EST, APIAVote, Common Cause, and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) provided a sneak peek of what happens behind-the-scenes in the redistricting process in our webinar, entitled “Behind the Scenes: Redistricting Advocacy.” Participants learned best practices around oral and written testimony from former redistricting commissioners and state legislators.

Youth Redistricting Panel

On Monday, October 26th at 5:00 PM PST, APIAVote, Common Cause, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and a host of interns from the previously mentioned grouped provided an informative presentation to Youth across the country on what Redistricting is and the importance of them getting involved. Our panel then answered questions from the audience and explained ways that anyone can get involved with their local process.

Digital Redistricting Organizing During COVID

Fair Count CEO Rebecca DeHart and CHARGE's Tim Lim discuss staying nimble, adaptive, and effective through changing environments, and applying lessons learned from organizing throughout the pandemic to ongoing redistricting efforts.