#ChalkTheVote with ParentsTogether—Event Host Toolkit

The weekend of October 29-30, 2022, parents and kids across the country will fill their driveways, sidewalks, and community public spaces with chalk art designed to inspire folks to get out and VOTE on Tuesday, November 8. Join them!

These family-friendly events will get your community involved in the election, and spread a message about the importance of voting!

Getting started

Here’s the most important information you need to get started on your very own #ChalkTheVote event—

  • Choose a location: It could be your driveway, a local school or park, or a public hotspot with lots of foot traffic.
  • Pick a time: You’re most likely to do anything (including vote, by the way!) when you make a plan of when you’ll do it. In between naps? After lunch on Saturday? You can make it a whole afternoon adventure or just carve out 15 minutes.
  • Get a few supplies: It doesn’t take a lot! Grab some chalk and maybe some coffee and snacks if you want to go the extra mile. 
  • Get inspired: Check out our article about ParentsTogether’s national #ChalkTheVote effort to find some ideas for pro-voting messages and chalk art ideas!

Recruiting participants

Spread the word about your event to get folks to participate! 

  • Start with your own social media accounts: Post a little video inviting people to join you, create a Facebook event, or even make a little graphic if you’re creative! 
  • Post to online parenting groups: There are tons of online networks for parents, both on a local and national level. Lots of these can be found on Facebook—but you can also check out local parenting groups on Nextdoor or Meetup.
  • An old-fashioned email blast: Email your parent friends the details and ask people to forward your email to anyone else who might be interested! Here’s a sample recruitment email you can use if it’s helpful—

Hello (name),

I’m hosting a fun event and I hope you can come! On (date) I’ll be Chalking the Vote! During our event, families from our community will come together at (location) at (time) to create non-partisan chalk art that will inspire folks to get out and VOTE on Tuesday, November 8!

Bring your kids and we’ll show our neighbors that we value voting, and encourage everyone to reflect on why voting matters to their own families and community. If you’d like to learn more, check out this article from ParentsTogether—the organization coordinating the national #ChalkTheVote effort!

Kids, friends, and neighbors are more than welcome to join in the fun! 

If you have any sidewalk chalk or other supplies you’d like to contribute, let me know! You can also help spread the word about #ChalkTheVote by forwarding this email to people who may be interested in participating.

I hope to see you there!

All the best,

(host name)

  • Get school/daycare/work involved: If these places are open to hosting or participating in events like #ChalkTheVote—invite them to participate! They can help out by providing space, materials, photography, or even more hands to create chalk art.
  • Think about who else you can involve: Do you know a local artist or photographer? Maybe you work with someone who’s well connected in the community and has a large social media following. Think about who in your network has skills that would be helpful for #ChalkTheVote and reach out to them! 

Social media guide

Through social media you can reach across the whole country–and beyond! Make sure you get great photos to share of your art—

  • Stand back for the full image: Sometimes images can get cropped on social media, so make sure you stand back far enough to get the full image in the frame, with a little room to spare if possible. 
  • Capture art in action: In addition to your completed works of art, the world wants to see them being created! (Note: Get permission before sharing images of people publicly, and get permission from the parents of anyone under 18 to appear in shared photos or videos.)
  • Avoid political parties and candidate names in your art: We all feel strongly about our candidates, but this is a non-partisan effort to get out the vote. 
  • Tag us on social media: You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok  @ParentsTogether. Follow us and encourage the folks at your event to do the same! Tag us in photos and videos from your event when you post them on social media, and include the hashtags #FamilyVote and #ChalkTheVote in your caption. Make sure your posts are set to “public” so we can see it! We will repost some of our favorites! If you’re not on social media, send us photos at [email protected]

After your event

There are a few things you can do after your #ChalkTheVote event to keep people engaged through Election Day! Once your event has concluded, you can follow-up with ParentsTogether and your event participants in the following ways—

  • Let us know how it went: We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to share any additional content that wasn’t already shared with us on social media. We’d also love to hear how many people showed up, and any other interesting details about your event! Hear any compelling quotes or helpful criticisms from friends, volunteers, or passersby? Feel free to share those with us as well! You can contact us directly at [email protected]
  • Reshare ParentsTogether’s #ChalkTheVote content: We’ll be sharing plenty of great #ChalkTheVote content through Election Day, so be sure to repost it to your own social media networks and ask your volunteers to do the same. The more we spread the word about #ChalkTheVote, the more voters we’ll turn out on Election Day!
  • Send a “thank you” message to people who came: Send a kind message of thanks to your #ChalkTheVote participants. Here’s a sample “thank you” email—

Hello!

Thank you for coming to the #ChalkTheVote event! We joined together and inspired potential voters in our community—and I’m so grateful for the effort you put in to make it all possible!

Here are a few more things you can do to make sure all your people vote! 

  1. Follow @ParentsTogether on Instagram & TikTok and look out for their reposts of photos and videos from our events and others like it! (And share to get out the word)
  2. When you share images or videos from our event on social media tag @ParentsTogether and use #ChalkTheVote and #FamilyVote in your caption so they reach lots of people. 
  3. Check out the ParentsTogether voter toolkit for parents – it’s full of good voting information – and share it with your friends and family. 
  4. On Election Day (or whenever you vote!) make sure you post your voting selfie on Instagram and use the hashtag #FamilyVote to spread the words that families matter and we vote.  

Thanks again for all of your enthusiasm during our #ChalkTheVote event!

All the best!

[Your name]