POWER Bus Tour Report

Goals of the bus tour:

1. Create a new public narrative about faith, democracy and justice in Pennsylvania
2. Inspire people to vote their values this election season
3. Invite people to choose POWER as their spiritual and political home by building new relationships across the state of Pennsylvania
4. Explain the threats of White Christian Nationalism to our communities’ safety, our democracy, and our vision for a thriving Pennsylvania
5. Expose bad actors who are funding or supporting White Christian Nationalism

Highlights:

• Engaged 1,500 people across the state around voting,
• Committed 34 clergy and faith leaders to ride the bus,
• Held 41 actions, trainings, and events,
• Led by 73 faith and lay leaders on planning teams,
• Involved 119 congregations,
• Explored organizing in 7 cities new to POWER,
• Earned 40 radio spots, 6 tv segments, 36 online press hits, see them here,
• Raised $3,967.15 dollars in collections and online donations,
• Partnered with 36 faith and secular organizations across the state,
• Expanded our social media reach
  • Twitter
    • Over 23,000 impressions, a 514% increase from our normal traffic
    • 3,200 profile visits,
    • Over 114 tags in posts
  • Facebook
    • 69 new follows,
    • 2,557 new page visits,
    • Nearly 9,500 people reached
  • Instagram
    • 61 new followers,
    • 421 profile lists
    • 60,000 people reached

Leadership development:

The Freedom Express was successful on many fronts, including contending for public narrative, speaking to over 1,500 people about casting their ballot this election day and having important discussions with faith leaders across the commonwealth about championing democracy and decrying White Christian Nationalism. And the most important measure of success in any organizing endeavor is did we grow and develop leaders? Using a bus tour as a tactic to do this was new, many other organizations that use bus tour tactics use it as a communications tactic and a way to talk to many voters. While our bus tour did both of those things, we set it up so that many leaders across our organization could exercise leadership within the context of the bus tour. The bus tour consisted of a planning team and messaging team that kicked off the tour both made up of faith leaders. Our 41 events each had a planning team made up of leaders and partners. In total, 73 faith and lay leaders led events and many of which took steps in their leadership development. Additionally, while we trained others on the tour, we also received training and deepened our collective analysis of the state and the influence of monied interests in our state capitol, including receiving training from PA Spotlight, Center for Coalfield Justice, and Faith in Action on relational voter work. Lastly, our organizing staff and staff in general had the opportunity to stretch and strengthen their own leadership and organizing skills.

Building power:

One of our goals was to grow or deepen our base and the Freedom Express bus tour created the opportunity for us to do so. In Philadelphia, POWER held our first community meeting at Church of the Crucifixion with about 100 people there and led by Lantix and Indonesian faith leaders in that community. In Philadelphia, the Gun Violence Action and the Ringing the Bell: Multi Faith service in North Philadelphia helped us to continue to build with local congregations and partners around the issues of gun violence and illegal dumping. In Metro, POWER had a refounding convention with over 130 people in attendance and 26 clergy/faith leaders attending. In Lehigh Valley, the Muslim Association of the Lehigh Valley hosted us for prayer, dinner, and an interfaith service with over 100 people attending, opening the doors for future organizing in that community. In Lancaster, 4 new congregations have begun the process to become POWER members by the end of the year. The bus tour allowed us to begin building relationships in 7 cities outside of POWER’s current base and reach. Of those locations, we believe there is real opportunity for POWER to expand into Reading, York, and Harrisburg. Lastly, the Freedom Express bus tour positioned us as leaders at the PAY BAC table and strengthened or initiated relationships with partner organizations across the commonwealth. See below for the most comprehensive list of congregations and partners we organized through the bus tour. These lists are not exhaustive but reflect the information I was able to capture.

White Christian Nationalism

We held a prayer rally in front of the home of Jeffrey Yass, the leading funder of the Commonwealth Foundation, which supports a network of right wing groups. They are major advocates for school privatization and opponents of public schools and teachers' unions. Prior to that we received an in-depth briefing about their work. On our final day of the tour we held a well attended public rally in Harrisburg outside of their offices. One of the broadcast radio interviews that we did focused on their work. We succeeded in having more people know about the danger they pose.

We spoke with local Christian clergy and laity in Bucks County, Pittsburgh, Gettysburg, York, Birdsboro, and Lancaster about the dangers of White Christian Nationalism. In some places this was the first public conversation. Our evening in Birdsboro was particularly effective. A member of a local school board spoke about attacks on the rights transgender people and this was new information for almost everyone in the room. Several people agreed to attend the next meeting. During the bus tour a national survey was published showing that only 5% of Americans knew about WCN. This work is just at the beginning stages, and it gives us opportunities in South Central PA.

Next steps:

Every organizer is debriefing the bus tour events with their planning team and doing a set of follow up one to ones with planning team members and leaders who attended events.

There is a formal debrief for clergy and faith leaders who rode the bus and members of the planning and messaging team on Wednesday, November 16 at 1pm-2:15pm. If you are interested in attending the debrief please contact Sara Melton at [email protected]

Opportunity for statewide expansion in Harrisburg, York, and Reading.

Congregations:

Philadelphia

Mishkan Shalom

Masjidullah

Germantown Jewish Centre

Dare 2 Imagine Church

UUs Mount Airy

Unitarian Society of Germantown

Faith Chapel Church

St. Vincent’s

P’nai Or

St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church

Old First Reformed UCC

Society Hill Synagogue

St. Luke and the Epiphany

Saturday Free School

Church of the Crucifixion

Philadelphia Praise Center

Masjid Al-Falah

Mosaic Mennonite Conference

House of Faith

Truth Baptist Church

Living Water UCC

Mishkan Shalom

Calvary St. Augustine

Kol Tzedek Synagogue

People’s Baptist Church

Tikkun Olam Chavurah

Beacon Church

Love Zion Baptist Church

Muslim Youth Center

Metro

Ascension UCC

Bally Mennonite

Baptist Church of West Chester

Beth David (Gladwyne)

Beth Israel (Chester Springs)

Bethany AME (Parkesburg)

Bethel Community Church of Pottstown

Bethlehem AME (Langhorne)

Bible Way Baptist

Birmingham Friends Meeting

Christian Science Church of Berwyn

Downingtown Friends Meeting

Ebenezer AME (Glenolden)

Emanuel Lutheran (Pottstown)

First Baptist (Pottstown)

Gladwyne Presbyterian

Good Shepherd Lutheran (Southampton)

Hopewell UMC

Islamic Society of Chester County

Lower Merion Baha’i

Lower Merion Baptist

Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd (Coatesville)

Narberth Havurah

Open Table UCC (Pottstown)

Or Zarua

People’s Baptist

Renew Community (Lansdale)

Second Baptist (Wayne)

Second Presbyterian (West Chester)

St. David’s Episcopal Church (Wayne)

St. James Evangelical Lutheran (Pottstown)

St. John’s Lutheran

St. Matthew’s Lutheran (Chester Springs)

St. Paul’s Baptist (West Chester)

St. Paul’s UCC (Birdsboro)

St. Paul’s UCC (Exton)

Temple Sholom (Broomall)

Thomas Paine UU Fellowship (Pottstown)

UCC Levittown

UCC of Valley Forge

Unitarian Congregation of West Chester

Wellsprings UU (Chester Springs)

Westminster Presbyterian (West Chester)

Bucks

UCC Levittown

BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

St. Mark AME Zion Church

Bethlehem AME

Kol Emet

The Peace Center

People's Baptist

Friends Meeting

Little Shul on the River

Lehigh Valley

Resurrected Life Community Church

Muslim Association of the Lehigh Valley

York, PA

Heidelberg United Church of Christ in York

Lancaster (list not complete, total of 22 congregations)

Grandview Church

Faith UMC,

Community UMC

Shaarai Shomayim

Ebenezer Baptist

St. Thomas Episcopal

First Reformed UCC

Global United Fellowship

Akron Mennonite

Ebenezer Baptist Church

Bethel AME

Lancaster Unitarian Universalists church

Islamic Community Center of Lancaster

Harrisburg

Camp Hill Presbyterian

The Journey Church

Grace United Methodist

St Paul's Episcopal

Macedonia Missionary Baptist

St Paul's UCC

First Church of the Brethren

Wesley Union AME Zion

Grantham Church

Monumental AME Church

Mt Calvary Episcopal

Temple Beth Shalom, Mechanicsburg

Partners:

Philly Thrive,

United Lutheran Seminary,

YWCA,

NETWORK,

Scranton Interfaith,

Marywood University,

Center for Coalfield Justice,

1hood,

PIIN,

Make the Road,

Shut Down Berks,

Berks Stands Up,

PA Stands Up,

Lil Sis,

PA Spotlight.

EMIR Healing Center

Men Who Care

Frontline Dads

JED III

Dare 2 Imagine

Sunrise Movement,

Resurrected Community Development Corporation,

Resurrected Life Children’s Academy,

Lehigh Valley Stands Up,

Working Families Party

Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley

Council on American and Islamic Relations,

Muslim Assocaition of the Lehigh Valley,

Penn Northeast Conference UCC

Kenneth Israel,

Islamic Society of Lehigh Valley

AllVotingislocal.org

THRIVING TOGETHER,

Messiah University