Throughout the summer, Skandalaris Center Summer Internship Program participants will be writing guest blog posts about their internship experience. Following is one such post. 

Engaging Communities to Change Communities

By Callie Slater (LA ’21)

I’m Callie Slater, a rising junior studying Global Health, Biology, and Latin American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. This summer I had the privilege of working for WEPOWER, a community-centered nonprofit organization. WEPOWER’s goal is to promote the power held by all people, particularly those in underserved communities, so they are able to work with us towards an equitable, prosperous future for all communities. To read more about WEPOWER’s team and their mission, or to learn more about the various initiatives and programs we are working on and implementing here, visit their website.

What initially drew me to WEPOWER was Charli Cooksey, the founder and CEO of WEPOWER, when we met at the networking fair in February. As we talked, I was not only interested in working here because she is an inviting, energizing person, but also because I strongly resonated with the core values and mission of WEPOWER itself. I have always been a compassionate person who strives to see equity, and so it seemed that even from the start, WEPOWER was exactly where I wanted to be this summer. I consider myself lucky to have had the chance to become involved in St. Louis communities in such a meaningful and significant way and will carry what I have learned at this job, inside the office as well as outside of it, with me throughout my career and life.

Throughout my internship, I’ve been primarily working in operations at the office and as a Community Engagement Fellow. My role as a Community Engagement Fellow is to canvass in North St. Louis communities and have meaningful conversations with residents there to determine the issues they want to see addressed, and in what ways. WEPOWER offers programs for members of the communities to get involved in our work, such as the two-year long Tomorrow Builders Fellowship and seven-month long Power-Building Academies. Power-Building Academies have place-based classes of residents that strive to learn, collaborate, and take action alongside WEPOWER, and the Tomorrow Builders Fellowship is meant to activate changemakers in the community to redesign the policies and systems that affect their communities. We act as a community-centered organization, so many of the policy initiatives, goals for our Tomorrow Builders Fellows, and topics for our Power-Building Academies are greatly influenced by the feedback we receive from these communities through canvassing. Having conversations with people in these areas has greatly inspired me to become a part of meaningful change in the underserved communities of St. Louis, and I have seen that starting a dialogue with the residents has shown their drive for change as well.

Through my experiences canvassing and what I have learned this summer on promoting equity, it has become clearer to me that those that live in these communities and the organizations striving to help them must work as two sides of the same coin. Just as WEPOWER alone is unable to fully transform communities, individual residents cannot bring complete change on their own either. The inherent power must be activated in these communities, and we aim to help residents realize their power through our programs like the Tomorrow Builders Fellowship and the Power-Building Academies. With the work that WEPOWER is doing, and the work that community members are eagerly contributing, the dream of equity in St. Louis seems closer than ever.

WEPOWER Social Media Handles:
Facebook: @wepowerstl
Instagram: @wepower_stl
Twitter: @wepower_stl