Apply to our Women’s Policy Institute and Unleash Your Civic Imagination - Women's Foundation California
Reproductive Justice team with Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell
2012-13 Reproductive Justice Team with Assemblymember Holly Mitchell

This year we’re looking for 30 extraordinary fellows who have strong content knowledge in one of these three issue areas: domestic violence, criminal justice or career and college access. If you have that knowledge, join us!

Regardless of where you’re coming from—a nonprofit, a community-based organization, academia, philanthropy, labor union or the media—the Women’s Policy Institute (WPI) will teach you how to understand public policy — and how to change it. In our first ten years, our fellows helped pass 16 new laws.

Just last year, our fellows helped pass two bills: AB 2530, a bill that ensured that pregnant women could no longer be shackled while transported to and from a state or local correctional facility and AB 2015, Calls for Kids Act, a bill that made sure that an arrested parent was given the right to make telephone calls or otherwise arrange for the care of their children, regardless of his or her immigration status.

WPI is really a unique fellowship program. In the words of Director Marj Plumb:

“The Women’s Policy Institute doesn’t just teach some civics class version of how a bill becomes a law but is an experiential leadership development program in public policy for women who are in the best position to know what would actually help their communities.”

“We teach how the legislative process really works through training, real policy experience, mentorship, and fellowship and then unleash the imagination of the participants to dream and create a government truly  ‘of the people, by the people, for the people.’ Victories have happened but the ultimate goal is to massively affect how policies are created and implemented—we envision a public policy system that is community-based and community-driven, that is not just responsive to the needs of the most vulnerable but is created with those needs at the center of the process.”

Many fellows have told us that WPI was a life changing experience:

Jacquie Marroquin: “On a personal level, the Women’s Policy Institute experience has totally changed my life. I have been working in the domestic violence field for 13 years, but now I have a better idea of how I can leverage policy to affect change.”

Kim McGill: “We weren’t practicing how to pass legislation – we were working to actually write it and push it forward from start to finish…The only way to really know how to swim is to jump in, and WPI threw us into the deep end during Olympic trials.”

Catherine Porter: “I achieved my Number 1 goal, which was to work on actually developing a bill, including legal and other research and writing, policy analysis and drafting language. Working on public policy in Sacramento, I ended up with a much greater confidence in my abilities.

Apply to the Women’s Policy Institute! Deadline is July 12, 2013 at 5 PM.


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Choosing public policy over law

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Call for Kids Act Is Close to Becoming Law

Policy Advocacy: A Tool for School Equity

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Lifting Media Ban Would Help Shine Light in Prisons

Congratulations, Monica Flores, Our Youngest WPI Fellow!

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