Since July 2020 DTLR has been running its Dare To Vote campaign, which was a resource to all our communities that provided education on voter registration, ballot legislations and polling information. The push was to get the youth out to the polls, whether they just turned 18 or were a first time voter.
For the duration of the election season the campaign hosted voter registration drives and movements encouraging residents nationwide to make their voice heard in a season of social injustice and blatant systematic racism.
Stores were lost during lootings, shutdowns re-occurred causing stores to temporarily close, leaving staff jobless, but those things didn't stop the movement.
The campaign would not have been possible without our community partners who threw on their capes and took our DARE.
With the help of TRU Foundation and Bear Strong in Atlanta, we were able to register 80 new voters and verify 250; in Baltimore and the DMV, with the help of Delta Sigma Theta, Bike More Bmore, Neighborhood Hero, 135 new voters were registered with over 200 verifications; Chicago DTLR employees made a push to get young customers registered with 40 new voters registered; Cleveland's own R.A.K.E organization joined the mission and registered 50 new voters and over two dozen verifications; Miami came through in the clutch with 75 new voter registrations and 50 verifications; and to top it all off over 350 DTLR employees either registered for the first time or verified their status. Not to mention the utilization of a QR code placed on screens in stores and printed resources, handed out to communities that allowed them to register at their own will generated over 100 hits.
Needless to say, with the right team of people and a vision we were able to be a part of one of the most historic elections of our lifetime. For us though, it really wasn't about the numbers....we were curating the future narrative of our communities by empowering them!!