Centenary University has announced a new partnership with Healing the Vote, a nonpartisan initiative that seeks to create a new paradigm in which future healthcare providers understand that voting is vital to the health of their communities and democracy, and embrace their role as trusted messengers to promote it in a simple, straightforward, and nonpartisan manner.

Last fall, Healing the Vote recruited, trained, and mobilized over 250 future healthcare providers from more than 10 campuses across New Jersey to help nearly 4,000 New Jerseyans to vote. Through its partnership with Centenary University, Healing the Vote now plans to scale its efforts to reach over 25,000 voters in the year ahead. In doing so, it will be aligned with a growing number of organizations, such as Vot-ER, working at the intersection of civic engagement, voting, and health known as civic health.

An event celebrating Civic Health Month and the partnership will be held on Monday, Aug. 26, at 11 am in the Edward W. Seay Administration Building. Highlights will include the formal signing of a partnership document, as well as the presentation of proclamations from the State of New Jersey honoring Healing the Vote participants for their contributions to registering voters last fall. Media are also invited to attend. The State of New Jersey became the second state in the nation to recognize August as Civic Health Month in legislation signed by Gov. Phil Murphy last August. Healing the Vote played an important role in that effort.

Healing the Vote is inspired by an earlier civic health initiative called Be Jersey Strong. Led by former White House Fellow and physician-advocate Aakash Shah, MD, Be Jersey Strong recruited over 500 future healthcare providers, many of whom spoke a second language, to connect more than 12,000 New Jersey residents with the resources to attain health coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At the time, Be Jersey Strong represented one of the largest and most diverse efforts in the nation to connect the uninsured to coverage and was uplifted by the White House for its impact. Dr. Shah will serve as a visiting scholar at the Centenary University Center for Civic Engagement & Leadership, which is currently under development.

Shining a spotlight on the partnership between the University and Healing the Vote will spur Centenary students and community members to recognize the power of each individual’s vote, Dr. Shah said: “The research is clear—your health is better when you vote. That is why I am thrilled that Centenary University is teaching students and the communities that they will serve to vote like their health depends on it.”

Through the partnership, Centenary University student members of Health Occupations Students of America, an organization for health-related degree majors, will join forces with Healing the Vote to help New Jerseyans vote like their health depends on it. Prominent organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Association of Medical Colleges have acknowledged the link between voting and health, and conversely, that voting obstacles inevitably lead to worse health outcomes.

Centenary University President Dale Caldwell, Ed.D., noted that Centenary is uniquely positioned to lead the national conversation on the importance of voter registration and participation: For the past two years, Centenary was the national winner of the Ballot Bowl Competition, a student-driven initiative to promote voter registration and engagement across college campuses—besting 965 participating campuses across the country.

“This partnership with Healing the Vote is a natural outgrowth of Centenary University’s national reputation for student engagement,” Dr. Caldwell said. “As a university, it is our job to foster responsible discourse that informs voters rather than inflames partisan divides. We may not all agree on issues, but we can all agree on this: America is stronger when every citizen has the opportunity to use their voice and their vote to create positive change.”

ABOUT CENTENARY UNIVERSITY

Centenary University offers extraordinary learning opportunities that empower students to develop intellectually, emotionally, and interculturally—keys to career and personal success. Under the leadership of President Dale Caldwell, Ed.D., the University aspires to advance its reputation as a world class institution offering innovative programs, including the world’s first Master of Arts in Happiness Studies, to lift the future for our students and local communities.

CONTACT

Kristen Volkland
Erbach Communications Group
(201) 960-3102