Public Health Institute

Promoting Health and Social Justice

Since 1994, WHL (Women's Health Leadership program) has graduated more than 350 women like Mejia, cultivating a statewide network of emerging grassroots leaders who are dedicated to addressing health and social justice issues.

Strengthening Women Leaders in San Joaquin Valley

The Center for Collaborative Planning is currently recruiting for its Women's Health Leadership (WHL) regional program in California's San Joaquin Valley. To strengthen the network of nonprofit leaders and organizations there, CCP will select women leaders working in the nonprofit sector in Madera, Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties to participate in a yearlong leadership development program designed to connect those who serve low-income communities and communities of color. By enhancing leadership skills and supporting development of peer networks, the program aims to increase job retention and satisfaction and long-term impact of the organizations in the communities these women serve.

Center for Collaborative Planning logo

Virginia Mejia had a brainstorm. A domestic violence outreach worker at a San Diego clinic, Mejia had won the opportunity to receive leadership training at the Women's Health Leadership (WHL) program, a project of the Public Health Institute's Center for Collaborative Planning (CCP). Why not expand this yearlong program's reach by teaching its curriculum to her clinic's clients, women who toiled long hours for little money cleaning houses and working in factories?

She condensed the training, developed materials in Spanish and held three sessions on Saturday evenings for 13 women, who diligently attended them. The upshot was remarkable: they all became health educators, or promatoras de salud, at the Escondido Community Clinic, which gave them additional training for the jobs, and the local mayor publicly recognized them.

And Mejia? The WHL training empowered her to move on to another job. She was hired by the Parenting Institute, where she became statewide director for health programs. "I think before I was afraid of these changes, more work and more responsibility," she said.

CULTIVATING A NETWORK OF HEALTH LEADERS

Since 1994, WHL has graduated more than 350 women like Mejia, cultivating a statewide network of emerging grassroots leaders dedicated to addressing health and social justice issues. WHL's track record is impressive: 67 percent of its alumni have created their own women's health programs, 75 percent head a women's health program and others engage in local, state and national policy bodies such as the California Office of Women's Health Advisory Committee and the President's Task Force on Cancer Control and Prevention.


Women's Health Leadership program alums

Led by Connie Chan Robison, MPH, CCP offers training and technical assistance to individuals, groups and organizations on core community change processes, including leadership development, collaboration, community engagement and development, strategic planning, and community organizing and advocacy.

To learn more about CCP, visit www.connectccp.org.