Vania Fletcher

Agency: Children's Action Alliance

Term: Fall - 2001

The Children's Action Alliance (CAA) is a non-profit agency that is dedicated to improving the lives of families and children in Arizona through education, research and publication, and through legislative advocacy. CAA's published reports on the state of Arizona's children are so extensive that they are currently the source used by Arizona governmental agencies. Whenever one hears statistics regarding health, poverty and education in the State of Arizona, it almost certainly has come from one of CAA's publications.

Legislative advocacy is the CAA' s strength. One of the issues they battled in the last legislative session was the six-month waiting period for poor children to be enrolled in the KidsCare program, and the need for outreach funding. KidsCare is a federally funded health insurance program for uninsured children whose family income falls between welfare and 200% of the poverty level. With the CAA backing, the Legislature reduced the waiting period to three months (still three months too many for a child without insurance), but there is no money assigned to do outreach, whether it is in schools, businesses, or immunization fairs.

Approximately two years ago, the CAA formed the KidsCare Outreach Council, and that is where I come in. My job at CAA is to network with representatives of non-profits, social services, and government agencies in order to create a cohesive group, ready to do outreach whenever the opportunity arrives. My duties include making the agenda and setting up the Council meetings, updating member information and creating a database for it, transcribing minutes, attending the Council meeting and the School Outreach meetings, and setting up subcommittees for special events. For example, this November I worked on a KidsCare enrollment event at four Safeway Supermarket locations. I also help Director Penelope Jacks with other assignments, such as Visions of Arizona Children. Visions is an on-site educational tour that enables business, government and community leaders to observe how accredited infant/toddler care facilities can benefit our at-risk children, and how important it is that these facilities be protected by legislation.

My personal interest lies in the area of human/social services policy-making and administration, and due to the lack of academic courses that addresses these issues, I felt that without practical experience I would not be able to grasp its concepts. The Service Learning Coordinator, Stephanie Hazel, kept bugging me to interview with CAA, even though I really wanted a congressional internship. My advice to any student (especially older students) considering an internship: Go for it and listen to the coordinator. She might look like a kid, but she definitely knows her business and how to help you.

The internship at CAA could not be a better fit if I had designed it myself. Working with the CAA is fast paced and I have to take on projects on my own. Penelope Jacks is the only person in the Tucson office, so I quickly learned how to take charge and be responsible for my own agenda and work. While attending and helping with meetings and subcommittees, I have had a chance to network and to learn from people from all agencies, to understand what happens at the non-profit level as much as at the government level, which in turn will help me in the future work with the Tucson community once I graduate. As for graduate school, it is too early to tell since I still have one and a half years to graduate. I can see many future possibilities under the banner of Masters degree, because my internship experience at CAA is providing me with a window to a wider world than I had envisioned before, but I also see an immense world of employment opportunities, so who knows?

As for now, it is time to get ready for another Council meeting, asking people for agenda items, create the agenda and facilitate the meeting-hopefully under Penelope's watchful eyes. See you later.

University of Arizona | College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
School of Family and Consumer Sciences | Family Studies and Human Development

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