HomeOur CommunityBlogA huge weekend of conversations in Prahran

A huge weekend of conversations in Prahran

“Grassroots Paticipatory Democracy.” If you have spent any time volunteering in and around the Greens you will have heard this or similar terms mentioned. What exactly is it? Grassroots Participatory Democracy is one of our four founding pillars. As a party, we believe “Real progress comes when enough people believe it is possible to make a difference and decide to do something about it.” It means that the members and volunteers are what make our party thrive and succeed as it is today. If it wasn’t for our thousands of supporters (members and non-members), we wouldn’t exist today.

Angelica Di Camillo, candidate for Prahran, standing in the middle of a group of community volunteers, smiling before a doorknock

The Prahran Weekend of Action is a prime example of that. Over 40 amazing and dedicated volunteers donated their time and energy across eight different doorknocks over three days in the campaign’s first Weekend of Action. We even hugged some trees! Looks like we can’t escape the tree hugger allegations just yet.

What sets us apart from the other parties, is the fact that we are out there talking and listening to the community about what matters to them. We’re seeing the same concerns coming up time and time again, with the biggest being housing, climate change, economic justice, cost of living, and planning and development.

Angelica Di Camillo the candidate for Prahran smiling with 6 volunteers at a pub after a doorknock

These are the areas that the major parties are continuing to fail to deliver in. As we talk to people more and more of them are becoming disillusioned with Labor and Liberal and their lack of action in this regard, especially in relation to the housing and cost of living crises that we are currently facing. 

This means that more and more people are looking for alternatives to them when it comes to voting in elections.

Volunteers with the Angelica Di Camillo for Prahran campaign cheering in a park after a doorknock

It’s been proven repeatedly that having conversations is the magic ingredient that connects voters to our inspiring policies for change. It only takes three conversations with someone to swing their vote to the Greens – this is why we need to get as many volunteers out on the doors and talk to people as often as possible.

This weekend we did an amazing 833 conversations, out of 2,135 doors knocked across the eight different doorknocks. 

Volunteers sitting at a cafe and smiling after a doorknock

What’s even more important is the number of meaningful conversations that we have with people, which are conversations where we determine their voting intention. Out of all those conversations, we managed an amazing 445 meaningful interactions! We’re aiming to have over 2,500 meaningful conversations across the entire campaign so there’s still a lot more to go! Want to help us achieve our target? You can sign up to volunteer here

Volunteers smiling at a cafe after a doorknock

The visibility of our candidate is also incredibly important! It’s how people know that we’re running in the electorate. The more we can saturate the local area with signs of Angelica the more voters will see support for our movement in the community. This weekend brought us another 21 signs that will be put up around the electorate on top of the 36 that have already been placed. It’s especially helpful if you live in a high visibility area, such as the sign below that is on the corner of Dandenong and Punt Roads.