Stand for Children fellows and volunteers held an action to celebrate Rosa Parks’ birthday and honor her legacy of advocacy and action for transportation equity. Through the work of the Moral Budget Coalition, we created a deep canvass designed to begin having conversations with people about the need for a community centered budgeting process, and how it could benefit public services like our public transportation system.
On Saturday, Feb. 4th, we went out to the Benjamin Hooks Library for our first deep canvass to give out hand warmers, talk to bus riders about their experience with MATA, and share our vision for a better transit system. This was many of our fellows’ first time participating in any type of canvass, and they were able to practice their skills and have deep conversations with riders. We captured some powerful stories about the hardships people face using our current public transit system. One of those stories, told by a local rider named Tim has been included below.
We look forward to continuing to have these conversations with people about their lived experiences, and we hope that these stories will compel our elected leaders to provide better funding and transparency that will make our vision for a better public transportation system possible.
