Fostering civic engagement in the digital age

In 2009, while serving as student president at UMass Boston, Neil MacInnes-Barker began to organize civic engagement initiatives related to access to higher education in Massachusetts. His role in student government brought him face-to-face with legislators at the State House, and many of them, he says, expressed the desire to engage more with constituents.

“That’s when I started to realize, ‘Okay, these are real people, too. They’re on state level, they live in our communities, and if we’re not involved in the process of their governing, how do they make informed decisions for us?’ ” he says.

He created a short film of interviews with students at state schools who spoke candidly about their student loan debt and the effects it had on their lives and education. After the film was shown during a committee meeting on higher education, MacInnes-Barker knew he wanted to continue working to bridge the gap between legislators and their constituents.

Today, MacInnes-Barker heads Innovative Perspectives Collaborative (IPC), an organization he is able to run as a nonprofit through fiscal sponsorship from the Cambridge Action Fund (CAF) while he works to achieve tax-exempt status.

IPC’s mission is to empower citizens to engage with their lawmakers and MacInnes-Barker does so with a three-pronged approach, which he describes as, “instruction, film, and technology.” Through the use of short documentaries and other technologies, he educates people about their value as citizens and the ways they can make a difference in their communities.

Since IPC’s founding, he has filmed and screened a documentary, “No Place Like Home,” about homeless LGBT youth in the Boston area, and has launched an iPhone app, Voice US, which allows users in Massachusetts to create short videos on issues they are passionate about and send them directly to their state legislators. Unlike similar platforms, which ask users to send form letters to their representatives, Voice US fosters two-way communication, encouraging legislators to reach out to their constituents for feedback.

Voice US is MacInnes-Barker’s answer to the two types of barriers he says keep people from becoming civically engaged: perceived barriers and actual barriers. Perceived barriers are self-imposed barriers that occur when citizens believe their experiences don’t matter to lawmakers or believe that lawmakers are too important to speak with them. Actual barriers are distance and a lack of time. And because many people do not engage with their legislators due to these barriers, large corporations and their lobbyists are able to have unmatched influence on law and policy.

“I just want it to be a balanced playing field,” MacInnes-Barker says.

Voice US was inspired, in-part, by a conversation MacInnes-Barker had with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh when they met once a few years ago. Walsh told a story about being a junior state representative trying to decide how to vote on a bill regulating the use of animal traps. He was planning to vote against the bill, not thinking it particularly necessary, when he received a phone call from a citizen whose dog had been severely injured by an unseen trap. The caller implored Walsh to vote for the bill, citing the potential danger the traps posed to children and family pets. The plea worked, Walsh voted for the regulation of traps, and the bill passed by one vote.

As someone who grew up in poverty and later – upon leaving the military – discovered that his brother and niece had been struggling with homelessness, the subjects MacInnes-Barker focuses on through his projects are very personal to him. He feels a responsibility to use his position to help end the cycle of poverty that often affects families for generations.

MacInnes-Barker’s path to running IPC started when he was looking for a fiscal sponsor. He spoke with a contact who recommended he look into the nonprofit seminars offered by the Lawyers Clearinghouse. After attending one seminar, he decided to sign up for a Nonprofit Incorporation Workshop.

“It was fantastic getting this really valuable information,” he says. “I felt a great sense of gratitude and there was a lot of sincerity from the people who were involved; they really wanted to help.”

Through the Clearinghouse, he was connected with Nikolas Abel, an attorney at Ropes & Gray, who helped him acquire fiscal sponsorship and has since been working with him to finish the incorporation process and navigate the many forms and requirements laid down by the IRS and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

The wait for 501(c)(3) status hasn’t slowed MacInnes-Barker. He is currently working on a number of new documentary projects, including one about veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and has plans to expand the Voice US app to more states in the coming year. Ultimately, he hopes to make it available to the entire country.

“It’s all because of the Lawyers Clearinghouse. I remember the day I got the letter from Ropes & Gray saying that they would be working with me. Starting my nonprofit was something I’d wanted to do for so long,” he says. “That, to me, was the biggest gift and it has made so much possible.”

Neil MacInnes-Barker has received ongoing assistance from a number of Ropes attorneys since he initially started working with Nik Abel. He would like to extend his gratitude to Nik, Taras Czebiniak, Jessica L. Alfano, Brendan Gavin, Nathan Anderson, Brandon Dunn, and their respective support staff.