The Fountain Hills Democratic Club (FHDC) meets Thursday, Jan. 11, at the Community Center.

The club has changed the starting time of its regular meetings to 6 p.m. with socializing and snacks beginning at 5:30 p.m. The meeting concludes at 7:30 p.m. sharp.

The club’s first meeting of the year will host two scheduled speakers, Francesca Martin, co-founder and deputy director of Keep AZ Blue Student Coalition, and John Dacey, a lawyer and executive director of Abolish Private Prisons.

Martin is a student at Arizona State University majoring in Political Science. During the 2020 election, she and fellow students formed Keep Arizona Blue Student Coalition which focuses on student turnout, community building, civic engagement and winning elections for Democratic candidates.

The coalition’s goal is to expand the student electorate and ensure that young people are prioritized in the political process through their digital presence, field efforts and campaigns while emphasizing voting in local and national elections.

Dacey founded Abolish Private Prisons in 2015. It is a tax-exempt, Arizona nonprofit corporation and a public interest law firm.

Dacey worked for 12 years at legal aid and public interest firms where he handled class actions, along with cases for poor and disabled individuals.

Dacey’s work includes trials in state, federal and tribal courts. For 10  years, Dacey has continued to build a litigation challenge to the constitutionality of private for-profit prisons.

The Community Center is located at 13001 N. La Montana Drive. For more information about the Fountain Hills Democratic Club, visit fhdemclub.org.