{"id":39224,"date":"2026-03-19T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/?p=39224"},"modified":"2026-03-16T12:08:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:08:50","slug":"womens-history-month-spotlight-family-advocacy-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/womens-history-month-spotlight-family-advocacy-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s History Month spotlight: Family advocacy leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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During Women\u2019s History Month, we are highlighting the incredible women across Esperanza United whose leadership, dedication, and work help strengthen our communities every day. This week, we are proud to spotlight leaders from our Family Advocacy team<\/strong><\/a>, whose work supports Latin@ survivors and families across the Twin Cities.<\/p>

At Esperanza United, Family Advocacy is rooted in a simple but powerful belief: survivors are the experts in their own lives. Our advocates walk alongside participants and their families, supporting them in accessing resources, navigating systems, and strengthening safety and stability while honoring their choices and leadership.<\/p>

For Sarahi Mateo<\/a>, <\/strong>assistant director of Family Advocacy, Latina leadership is deeply connected to community, opportunity, and collective progress.<\/p>

\u201cLatina leadership to me means opening doors and creating opportunities for other Latin@ women and individuals to lead, innovate, and succeed on their own terms while supporting and honoring their choices \u2013 they know what is best for them. Ensuring everyone feels supported, included, and truly seen by who they are and for our shared diversity. It also means cheering each other as we make collective progress for our community.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Sarahi\u2019s perspective is shaped by her own experiences as an immigrant Latina from Mexico, which informs how she approaches leadership and service.<\/p>

\u201cBeing an immigrant Latina woman from Mexico has deeply shaped how I lead and serve in my role at Esperanza United. Through my personal and professional experiences, I have developed a deep understanding of the unique challenges our community faces when trying to access systems and services while also recognizing how determined and innovative we can be in overcoming them.<\/em><\/p>

We often hear the phrase \u2018think outside the box.\u2019 For me and many Latin@s, the real question is: why are we starting with a box?\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Sarahi sees that same creativity and strength reflected in the advocates and participants the Family Advocacy team works with every day.<\/p>

That vision of courage and collective leadership is also reflected in the perspective of Angie Mejia, <\/strong>community advocacy manager, whose reflection connects leadership with the histories and knowledge carried by women of color.<\/p>

\u201cMy identity shapes how I lead and serve because navigating the world as Latina taught me that courage is not a personality trait. It is a practice and a collective survival technology that we have learned and received from those who came before us. We use this passed down knowledge to move through spaces that were not built with us in mind.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Angie reflects on how courage and voice remain central to the work of supporting survivors and challenging systems that often fail to recognize their experiences.<\/p>

\u201cAs Esperanza United\u2019s Community Advocacy Manager, International Women\u2019s Day pushes me to keep protecting our communities\u2019 ability to name what is happening to them in all of its complexity and to center their lived experience as a blueprint for everyone else\u2019s ability to collectively survive and thrive courageously.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Together, leaders like Sarahi and Angie remind us that advocacy is not only about services \u2013 it is about honoring the wisdom, resilience, and leadership that already exist within our communities.<\/p>

To learn more about Esperanza United\u2019s Family Advocacy program<\/a> and how we support Latin@ survivors and families across the Twin Cities, you can explore the program here.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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During Women\u2019s History Month, we are highlighting the incredible women across Esperanza United whose leadership, dedication, and work help strengthen our communities every day. This week, we are proud to spotlight leaders from our Family Advocacy team, whose work supports Latin@ survivors and families across the Twin Cities. At Esperanza United, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":39144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[36,34,158,38,39,197],"class_list":["post-39224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-family-advocacy","tag-free","tag-prevention","tag-public-policy","tag-research-and-evaluation","tag-training-and-technical-assistance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39224"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39228,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39224\/revisions\/39228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}