Kentucky Civic Engagement Table Inc

Common Ground Kentucky’s mission is to coordinate resources for grassroots organizations building organized people power and communities of care for a thriving Commonwealth. Its website describes two coordinated programs: Our People Our Vote, a nonpartisan voter education and election protection program, and Welcome Home Kentucky, a coalition focused on statewide housing problems.

The organization’s 2024 filing describes programs in voter engagement, advocacy based on lived experience, the Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky, and general statewide coordination. The filing says its lived-experience project organized and built relationships with Kentuckians affected by incarceration and addiction to promote civic participation. It also describes coordinating voter education and election participation resources and investing in Black Kentuckians through membership development, leadership development, and civic engagement.

The 2024 grants included support for voter education, registration, canvassing, election protection, youth engagement, and base-building. For example, CivicLex received $18,000 for voter education and registration activities, canvassing, a nonpartisan election guide, and community events. CivicLex describes its own mission as strengthening civic health in Lexington by helping residents understand and engage in local issues and connect with neighbors. The Louisville Urban League received $16,500 for canvassing, community events, voter registration events, and get-out-the-vote work; its stated mission is to help African Americans, other minority groups, and disadvantaged people attain social and economic equality and stability through direct services and advocacy.

Other 2024 grantees included the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, which received $17,000 for voter engagement and election protection work; the Kentucky YMCA Youth Association, which received $12,500 for expanding voter registration and youth engagement in schools and colleges; and VOCAL-NY, which received $15,500 for work on behalf of VOCAL-KY. The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky describes its own mission as catalyzing community collaboration and charitable giving in eastern Kentucky. The Kentucky YMCA Youth Association says it develops engaged citizens and servant leaders, while VOCAL-NY says it builds power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness.