Sometimes, food for thought includes food for lunch. Cabrillo College is teaming up with Santa Cruz Local and VotingMatters to host a Voter Information Forum on October 15th from 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM in Horticulture room 5055. Free food will be provided to those who RSVP before October 14th.

The event will provide non-partisan information about the upcoming election, covering state and local propositions in a compact, digestible format. Students weary from a day of lectures don’t need to fear: the forum will feature a discussion between students and peers about what civic issues they are interested in and affected by.

“The goal is to create a more civically engaged community,” said Kara Meyberg Guzman, CEO of Santa Cruz Local.

“When you look at young people – 18 to 29-year-olds – they are much less likely to be registered to vote and participate in local elections,” said Guzman.

“The goal of Santa Cruz Local is to create a more civically engaged community. To do that, we need more parts of our community to be involved.”

Earlier this year, Santa Cruz Local conducted interviews with 30 Cabrillo College students about their involvement with state and local politics. The trend was that students did care about the issues but felt like they didn’t have enough information about them, according to Guzman. When Santa Cruz Local was approached for the VotingMatters project, it was a perfect fit.

“The gap that we fill in our local media ecosystem is civic news,” said Guzman.

Santa Cruz Local already produces its own local election guide and has recently expanded to provide news in Spanish through Noticias Watsonville. The goal is to increase civic awareness in Southern Santa Cruz County. According to a report produced by the outlet, 71% of the population in South County speak Spanish as their first language.

For more information or to RSVP, please visit this link: https://airtable.com/appuQNCAYkSCwiYIm/shrOlOIOyvLJoqO9d