The Dunn County Democrats will be co-hosting a virtual deep canvassing training with the Leadership LAB and other grassroots groups from around Wisconsin. Deep canvassing is an approach to having conversations with voters rooted in personal experiences and shared values; it has shown to be a powerful way to connect with infrequent voters. If you're curious about deep canvassing, here's a quick video to learn more.
Dave Fleischer, Director at the Leadership LAB and the pioneer of deep canvassing, describes it in this way:
In a conventional canvass, campaigns [send] volunteers out with a script to recite exactly as written. There’s this belief that if we just say the right words, the voter’s going to change their mind. With a deep canvass, we want to figure out what’s relevant to voters. There’s still a script, but it’s designed to help the canvasser build a good rapport with a voter... You take a lot more time to talk to voters and have a bona fide two-way conversation about real experiences that shape their thinking... Instead of a script that lasts 60 seconds, volunteers spend 10 or 20 minutes talking with each voter.
The training will be in two parts and here's how it will work:
Story Workshop - Wednesday, May 27 from 6-9pm or Thursday, May 28 from 12-3pm (you can choose which works best for your schedule). You'll hear directly from Dave and his colleagues, learn about our experiences trying out deep canvassing in Milwaukee in early March, and then we'll dive into a training where you'll learn the fundamentals of connecting with voters through personal stories.
Deep Canvass Action - Saturday May 30 from 12-3pm. We will put our newfound skills to work and deep canvass via phone from the comfort and safety of our homes.
This training will be adapted for deep canvassing via phone but, ultimately, once it's safe to do so, we'll be knocking on doors to connect face-to-face.
You can find more information on the training and register here.
PS. If you're interested to learn more, here is video featuring Dave Fleischer talking about deep canvassing: https://youtu.be/hmlfnr151rI