Laura Dobbs

The Project

Laura built a multi-state network of grassroots community organizations and voting rights advocates dedicated to sharing strategies, resources, and support in the contemporary struggle to protect voting rights.

The Southern Leadership for Voter Engagement is a multi-state network of grassroots community organizations and voting rights advocates dedicated to sharing strategies and resources in the contemporary struggle to protect voting rights. Ignited by the Shelby County decision striking down a key enforcement provision of the Voting Rights Act, activists and advocates across the south formed S.O.L.V.E. to stand as the bulwark against repressive voting practices. Over the past two years, Laura has helped foster state and regional strategies for protecting voting rights in a post-Shelby world.

Fellowship Highlights

In the past two years, Laura has:

• Grown the multi-state network to over 80 member organizations
• Distributed over $100,000 in funds to support grassroots efforts
• Distributed 12 different toolkits designed to protect voting rights to more than 9,000 people
• Participated in 3 impact litigation cases and wrote amicus briefs to advocate for more opportunities for African American voters to elect their candidate of choice, put a stop to a precinct map overhaul that would have led to mass voter confusion, and helped lift up the voices of those who would have been impacted by a new photo voter ID requirements to support a preliminary injunction motion

What’s Next

Laura will be joining the Virginia Poverty Law Center and five other fellows as part of a new Housing Justice project. She will serve the greater Richmond area where she will use a community lawyering model to assess the greatest housing needs in the community and then bring impact litigation.

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