There's an App for That: Civic Engagement and Clean Water

At the headwaters to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed in New York, the Otsego County Conservation Association (OCCA) is working to improve and protect the health of the local air, land, and water. Critical to this effort is encouraging our members to raise their voice through civic engagement.

As a conservation organization, some feel that our place does not lie in civic engagement, but we disagree. For sure, civic engagement includes showing up at the polls and voting for candidates who will push clean water friendly policies. But true engagement is not something that happens only on Election Day. We encourage our OCCA community to engage our lawmakers, keeping them up-to-date on the issues that concern us.

One method that helps us to educate our legislators is using the Powerful Voices app. Built and designed by Leika Hill, a local citizen advocate, this app helps connect citizens to their local elected officials. Says Hill, “Today, this tiny, grassroots application has slowly developed into a vision of a full-fledged foundation to empower Americans to participate in civic and political action and activism. Currently, the newest features in the app give people the ability to register to vote nationally and check voter status and polling places based on location, though these are only currently available in New York State.”

OCCA is excited to use this app to help our community members connect, engage, and inform our leaders about the issues that face rural New York and how their decisions, laws, and funding help or hinder their constituents.

But Hill’s vision for the application is bigger than its current form. She is running a GoFundMe campaign to bring new features to the app. These features will focus on providing tools and resources that will “inspire, train and equip the next leaders of this nation and help the most disadvantaged communities organize their collective voices to make a concrete impact by influencing policies that are just, fair, and equitable.”

She goes on to say, "Empowering grassroots leaders allows us to break down the current system and build it back up, with people who understand that every voice matters.”

As the application grows and changes, we are working with Hill to bring in a portion of the app that organizations can use to rally their communities around pressing environmental matters.

Download the Powerful Voices app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store