Democracy & Civic Engagement
A stronger democracy starts at home.
GABA's Democracy & Civic Engagement program builds year-round, place-based civic infrastructure across the Black Diaspora in Michigan, rooted in the neighborhoods we have served since 2014. Through voter education, relational organizing, community-informed data, and service, we expand broad participation in local democracy, not just at election time, but every season.
GABA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity. Our Democracy & Civic Engagement work is strictly nonpartisan. We focus on issues, voter education, and civic participation, and we do not support or oppose any candidate or political party.
Black Diaspora voters across Michigan in our outreach
Our Impact
Every conversation counts.
Why it matters
Beyond the election cycle.
Too often, communities only hear from civic groups weeks before an election. That boom-and-bust approach leaves historically underrepresented communities on the outside of the decisions that shape their lives.
GABA is a trusted messenger across the Black Diaspora. We invest in sustained engagement: long-term relationships, local leadership, and the civic infrastructure that makes an inclusive, multiracial democracy work for everyone, including New Americans and families whose voices are often left out.
Our approach is evidence-based. Every conversation we have becomes community-informed data that shapes our programs, our research, and our policy priorities.
Place-based
Rooted in Michigan.
Democracy is built block by block. GABA was founded in Inkster in 2014 and is now based in Livonia, serving the Black Diaspora in 12 Michigan counties, from Detroit to the suburbs and beyond.
Our place-based approach means our volunteers are neighbors, our canvassers knock doors in their own communities, and our service days happen in the places our families live, work, and worship. We focus on local democracy: the city councils, school boards, and local offices where decisions about daily life are made.
Michigan is home to one of the most diverse Black Diaspora populations in the country, including African Americans, African and Caribbean immigrants, refugees, and New Americans. We see that diversity as a strength, and we build community-driven civic power that reflects all of it.
GABAGives
Our civic engagement program.
GABAGives is how we put civic participation into practice, through grassroots organizing, voter education, and community service led by volunteers from our own neighborhoods.
Year-round phone banking
Volunteers call voters across the Black Diaspora throughout the year, providing voter education on how, when, and where to vote, and building relationships that last beyond a single election.
Issue ID
We ask our community which issues matter most and listen at scale. Their answers become community-informed data that guides our research and connects families to GABA programs.
Door-to-door canvassing
Trusted messengers from the community knock doors for face-to-face conversations, the most effective form of voter contact, reaching neighbors where they live.
Community service days
GABAGives volunteers serve alongside partners like Focus: HOPE, building community trust and showing up for our neighborhoods year-round.
Leadership development
Every call includes an invitation to get involved. We grow a leadership pipeline of volunteers, phone bank hosts, and canvass leads from within our own community.
Community voice
We connect neighbors to accountable, responsive local government, including city councils, school boards, and public comment, so civic participation is open to everyone, whether or not they can vote.
Our contact plan
Many touches. One relationship.
Research shows people need several points of contact before a conversation becomes a relationship. A single call or flyer rarely builds trust, but steady, respectful contact from people in their own community does. Our approach combines relational organizing with direct voter contact, so each touch builds on the last and keeps neighbors connected to GABA long after Election Day.
Call
Every relationship starts with a conversation. Volunteers from our community call to introduce GABA, share voter information like how, when, and where to vote, and ask what issues matter most to each household. We listen first, and what we hear shapes what comes next.
Mail
A follow-up in the mailbox reinforces the conversation. Postcards and mailers share practical voter information, highlight GABA programs connected to the issues people raised, and invite neighbors to upcoming community events.
Door
Nothing replaces a face-to-face conversation. Trusted messengers from the neighborhood knock doors to check in, answer questions, and reach neighbors who are hard to reach by phone, building trust one porch at a time.
Text
A quick text keeps the connection going. We share reminders about voting deadlines, invitations to service days and phone banks, and updates on the issues our community cares about most.
Follow-up
Before elections, we reach back out by phone or at the door so neighbors have what they need to participate, from polling locations to early voting dates. Between elections, follow-up means inviting people to take their next step with GABA as a volunteer, a member, or a leader.
Ladder of engagement
From neighbor to leader.
Base-building means meeting people where they are, then offering the next step. Our engagement ladder grows community members into the civic leaders of tomorrow.
Get involved
Build civic power with us.
Make calls, knock doors, serve your neighbors, or grow into a leader. However you show up, you are strengthening democracy for the whole Black Diaspora.