We are excited to highlight this year’s Women’s Policy Institute (WPI) County fellows to share their experiences and encourage other women from our community to form a WPI-County team for 2017.
WPI-County is a leadership and policy training fellowship for county-level influencers offered by the Women’s Foundation of California. The first Monterey County WPI team, this year’s fellows included Dora McKean, Program Analyst for Monterey County Office of Education; Mayra Perez-Diaz, Community Impact Manager for United Way Monterey County; and Vanessa Robinson, Impact Coordinator for United Way Monterey County.
“I wanted to understand how to be an advocate for early childhood development and how to work within our government structures. I was curious about how policies pass and ultimately how change is made,” said McKean. Despite not knowing each other before joining forces, they have been working as a small team over multiple retreats and teleconferences to further develop advocacy and leadership skills associated with local, county, and state policy work to improve early care and education in Monterey County.
The women were brought together with the support of Nina Alcaraz, Bright Beginnings Manager, to participate in the Women’s Policy Institute Fellowship program. Through a collaboration with the community and the Policy Advocacy Network of Bright Beginnings, a review of the current childcare system and recommendations to expand opportunities for children will be ready this month.
Beginning this past March, the fellows have made incredible advances for early childhood development throughout our community. “I encourage any woman advocate to apply to this fellowship. This is great opportunity to learn about local public policy and how to become an even more effective advocate,” shared Perez-Diaz.
All three women learned a great deal about our county policies in Monterey County and gained insight into various sets of political will.
“This was a great experience! Not only have I learned first-hand about how I can help my community enhance options for early childhood development, but experiential learning is the best!” exclaimed Robinson.
Bright Beginnings is interested in helping sponsor another team to focus on Early Care and Education in Monterey County. If you have questions about getting involved, please contact Nina Alcaraz at nina@first5monterey.org. If you have any questions or would like to get involved with other women in our community to put children first when it comes to making political decisions, you can email Dora McKean, mckeanemail@yahoo.com, for more information.
WPI-County is a leadership and policy training fellowship for county-level influencers. Fellows work in small teams over multiple retreats and teleconferences to further develop advocacy and leadership skills associated with a specific area of expertise. The Monterey County fellows focused on Early Care & Education.
