Arizona's Blue Tiger Democrats encourage civic engagement

In a chat about two months ago with Democratic Candidate for Arizona Senate Donna Gratehouse, I mentioned that one of my desires was to facilitate the development of a community outreach effort promoted by the Democratic Party. Not as another effort to register and mobilize voters, but simply to make use of the infrastructure we develop during the campaign season to do good for the community throughout the rest of the year.

I mentoned that my background in business and in faith-based community development led me to see the unused potential and regret how the infrastructure that our District had developed would be sitting idle at times when it could be doing so much good for people. What if we could use that apparatus as a mechanism for good works between campaign seasons?

That's when Donna told me about the Blue Tiger Democrats, an organization recently formed to do just that. Hey, great minds think alike!

From the Blue Tiger website:

Our Future Is in Our Past

Civic Engagement, once a foundation of the Democratic Party has been long ignored. In between election cycles, Democratic and progressive volunteers drift, with little or no connection to the party and its values.

In the past, the Democratic Party was a living, growing concern that serviced its supporters in their communities, every day, year after year.

The following chapters explore the history of the Democratic Party and its commitment to Civic Engagement and provide a broad historical context from which one can understand Blue Tiger's mission.

This sounded pretty exciting to me, personally. Arizona is part of the pilot program, with Michigan and New York. Currently, Arizona is only running one project, the Senior Citizen Technology Training Program:

The Arizona Democratic Party and Blue Tiger have partnered to close the "digital divide" by training seniors in areas of technology such as email and digital photography.

Project Goals

Digital technology has become an increasingly essential tool for daily living. Computer access and competence are now critical requirements for staying in touch with friends and family, purchasing consumer goods and services, accessing health care and insurance resources and contacting government officials.

Unfortunately, many people remain without basic computer skills or access and must endure inconvenience, social isolation, higher costs and reduced information resources as a result. Senior citizens, who use computers at half the rate of the general population, suffer perhaps the greatest relative disadvantage from this "digital divide," since many of the most serious challenges of aging (limited mobility, isolation, reduced income, and the need for health care information and assistance) are well suited to technology-based solutions, yet seniors are often excluded from these opportunities due to lack of access to technology and training.

Recognizing this significant problem, Blue Tiger has spearheaded an effort to train senior citizens in the field of computer technology.

For more information about this program, you can contact the Arizona Democratic Party Headquarters at
2910 North Central Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85012
Tel: (602) 298-4200

I'm looking forward to seeing this program develop further in Arizona. It sounds like something that could do a lot of people a lot of good, as well as make good use of our party infrastructure to contribute to community service beyond the campaigns. It'l be interesting to see how I can get involved.