Matt Rowland
Lincoln, NE
Matt is a staff member at The Bay in Lincoln and a political science graduate from the University of Nebraska. Originally from Rapid City, he is passionate about advocacy and community-building in Nebraska.
Matt's Civic Action Plan:
Matt wants to incorporate civic engagement in events from the Bay. One of the things Matt noticed was that some people who came to the Bay’s events were too cool to care about being civically engaged through mainstream organizations. People want to avoid being perceived as cringey and they want to identify with something authentic to them and their friends. We’ve heard time and time again that scanning a QR code and learning more about upcoming elections is “chopped and unc”.
But we know young people want to fight for what they believe in. Keeping the content grounded in what people care about and think is cool is critical to Matt’s plan. So he is working with local artists to debut more lowkey versions of civic engagement. At the Bay’s annual block party events, he’s going to put cool t-shirt ideas in competition and have the people decide what’s best.
Together with a few friends he’s going to provide a scenario where patrons will be motivated to add other “voters” to their network in the face of contesting ideas (t shirt designs). Essentially, patrons who engage with the event/plan are engaging in voting functions. With a voting booth and all, it’s simplified but similar to local and federal level elections and legislative sessions.
The overall goal beyond the Bay’s summer events is to introduce demographics that are not inclined to engage with civic functions to levers of power where they see themselves in what they’re voting for.