cress i am currently running for seattle city council position eight it's a city wide position i am here with the m m r t eistein we are leading young people into making sure that they are meeting the needs of the community i of civil rights attorney president or vice president of the end of a lazy and each time we have an issue and i'm r t i they're right there on the forefront making sure that our story is told this is something that we want to make sure it stays in the community we want to make sure that it's led by the community we want to make sure that it's being told for the community and i'm r t i there leading young people both on the camera as well as behind the camera they are the leaders in the community and i am so excited to be invited in taking part in this i've words here a few years ago for my run for the senate and marty i was there to help make sure that the voters knew that i was in the race i'm counting on that same base of support to make sure that i'm able to get a seat on city council we are taking over and i am pleased to have  so today we had the opportunity to connect with some youth from ethiopia which is really nice and do we most importantly got in contact with god davis and he gave us really important tips on how to make your dream come true which we as students who can really take that into consideration and put that in our everyday life which is really nice also like the other things we talked about was like different types of nonprofit organization he's been working with and also the mission for does org and she's all about giving people the right treatment for mental illness different what he called prescription and stuff like that so we don't relate to mental illness with different kind of supernatural you know pursue our different kind of goals and dreams about in life or in school and how he can give how we can motivate ourselves in different kind of environments so today we had a chance to  resources that we need and when you look at it from back home in ethiopia they really don't have those type of resources so our main focus is to actually help them and by doing to do that we're collecting laptops anything that could or a kid that's going to hire a college or a university university so anything you can have will be really appreciated so please help us too so as a marty i here we are documenting like different events and one thing that we would like to do is actually go to ethiopia and document different events such as colonel robinson's step whether it's the statue or the like capture the media and we have him here to talk about that yes i'm dr paul jackson and i'm a volunteer at him r t i studios before that though i spent over a decade doing research in virtual reality at boeing and virtual and to reality so about two years ago google came out with this three sixty camera system to simulate virtual reality and use your cell phone to actually do the video but what's amazing is that there are cameras out there at that shoot in three hundred  science technology engineering art and math and so always try and stay on the cutting edge of technology and innovation being and that's the national side blackish nears again keeps me in the forefront of technology so when i heard that cool cool ha force i did so yeah but because of my video background i have been teaching here at the studio both follow cut and some adobe premiere software and how to edit video and so is really cool in the sense facetious yeah i see the connection very simple because we're all black right so we are of afghan diaspora and we're all here and we're all about technology and sciences right so it seems like a beer really perfect match to connect students here and seattle that have after an earthy open dissent and stood to sneak the opiah that are looking for an american connection and so i think it's a perfect nation ok so what has been done so far between ethiopia motivation and then there's a topic that was done from the american consulate in ethiopia and that was about i t and internet security and i did one about three sixty video and the future of course  ah going into reality virtuality one that i did about video conferencing that was at a workshop here open house i would like to to do that one and then we talk about maybe some medical issues you know and with your nonprofit i think is a good one also because the whole mental you know this movement yeah mental health is a global issue and so i think that there's something that could be done that way so are there with ya we're talking about how to become how to make your dream come true can consider myself a conscious square nerd and so in the sense that i like to do things that will uplift my self and my people and keeping it on the technology side and so i actually met a sigh i over ten years ago when he did a workshop called pen pen was after tech and so he invited a bunch of boeing engineers and other people that had their own businesses to come into a free talk about aerospace ecology and i so i mean it's it's you shouldn't be held back by thinking that you can't do anything because there are enough resources out there to learn and if you have the internet if you have a decent computer you can teach yourself pretty much to do anything and so and that behavior in seattle is really a good example because with the wii r n a r there's all these startups that are happening here but people come both an idea and they go get funding and they start a business and before you know it's next something out there as if it's real and so that's that's a that's what alternate reality is and so yeah there's some things like that but back to your question about doing video conferencing and v r yeah so again facebook is doing it and so that's one of things  is right here so we reach out to them and you know test subject so like we said earlier we have a lot of different opportunities and resources and yeah like mit i like we have a studio and variety of different things that students can come in like really learn from earth like get the experience from whereas in ethiopia they really don't have that type of resource and that's where we come into actually help them and help them grow help the students grow just like  that to contribute on anything you'd like to like but it could be financial you could be your labor you could be anything or much i would really appreciate that so due to time differences from ethiopia and here we came here being here for sacrificing his time to do his voluntary help us out and yeah and so we really want to thank you c center and the central district of seattle marmara frag right in the heart of the central district twenty third in jackson i do love this experience it's a great experience i even though i'm the one being interview  i notice the kind of enthusiasm from all of the students who are here i notice as well all the students are being trained for great work they're being trained for the media and the media is extremely important i try to do what it can in terms of african american history in terms of writing african american history but it's really up to the media to try to spread that story and so that's why i think what you guys are doing is so vitally important in terms of the future of black people here and across the globe as well as all of the people in seattle and all the people in the u training and i'm here with wayne barnett and we're from the democracy voucher program and that's within the city of seattle's ethics and elections come and we're here today to answer some questions about what the democracy  program is and how to use the program and how to be more engaged in the government overall so when we're not so what is the democracy voucher program and how does it start the democracy voucher program started in tw fifteen when voters passed i one twenty two that was the city initiative that that started the democracy voucher program the voucher program just went into effect in two thousand and seventeen this is the very first election being under democracy vouchers and the way it works is that candidates can agree to qualify can agree to participate in the program and when they do they have the opportunity to collect  four for twenty five dollars vouchers up to four twenty five dollars vouchers from any resident in the city who applies for receives the the vouchers the goal here was to make sure that more people were involved in the in our in our elections earlier you know one of the in addition to voting most campaigns have to raise money to to get their message out and this is a way to give kind of regular people an opportunity to participate in elections in a way they just haven't been able to in the past so you have to be a registered voter to participate in the democracy voucher program no you don't any to participate in the democracy your program you need to be over eighteen you have to have been a resident of seattle for more than thirty days in the it cannot either be a resident a us national or even a green card holder so the goal here was to make this process is open and equitable and available to as many people here in our city as possible that's excellent so provides a new way for people who are not registered to vote to participate in the elections process it sounds like   if you get them in the mail you're going to get a on the local postage paid address to our office and you can just put them in the envelope and mail them to us that's one way in which we've seen a lot of yours coming back to us another way is for you to give them to a campaign candidate or a campaign representative might come to your door and knock on your door and ask if you could if they can have your vouchers and if they persuade you that  seattle dot gov slash democracy voucher that list is there and but if you don't have access to a computer handy you can also call the number i believe is seven to seven eight eight five five and i believe if you press one you can get a list of all the participating candidates and democracy about your program i should also maybe point out here that that list is now set the list of candidates who are participating in the program candidates had until june second to to pledge to participate in the program so the thirteen candidates who have pledged to participate they are all they are all on our website and available on our  great so i know that the mayor's race is happening this year can you give democracy vouchers to mayoral candidate no this year is only the two at large city council candidates and the city attorney's race eligible to participate in the democracy voucher program that's excellent so if i wanted to apply is it too late to apply for to democracy vouchers it is not know you can apply for democracy vouchers up until the fall and that's and where and once you apply we're going to get those to you i think if you request electronically we can get them to you literally the same day three so it sounds like it's easy to get them and if i received my vouchers  wary and i somehow lost them or misplaced and i just can't find them can i get replacement archer's yes you can replace but vouchers we've made that process just as easy as possible either you can get in touch with us and we will send them to you or if a candidate ken is it representative comes to your door and has fear vouchers and you can't find them they should have a form at the ready for you to fill out which where you would acknowledge you'd lost them and say that you want to use them for that candidate kerry and so if i wanted my vouchers maybe in a different language is that something that your office can help me with yes yes the key program materials are available in fifteen languages so that was one of the again that goes to one of the big pushes in this initiative was to make this program as open and equitable and as available to as many people as possible so fifteen languages spoken here in seattle are we will translate your materials into those if they aren't translated already so is this a new way for communities of color or lawful permanent residents to participate in the program and be more engaged in government yes it is i believe that was one of the one of the motivations behind the people who put this initiative to the voters was we need to find a way to involve more of our residents in city government and residents who have because many of them are not yet citizens and able to vote one of the key groups that the initiative was meant to reach out and get involved in the process are new immigrants so that was that is really this program is designed for immigrants to help get them engaged in the process in a way that they just haven't been before so one one question of the program how is this program funded where does the money come from to support a program like this this program is funded with a three million dollars a year property tax collects three million dollars from property owners here in the city of seattle  so each election cycle which is two years will collect six million dollars to support the program gary thank you very much thank you randi so thank you very much  then r t i for allowing us to be here today to help answer some questions about the democracy that you're program and spread the word to get our communities involved in the government