Ignite

IGNITE Orange County

IGNITE Orange County Programs include: California IGNITE Dr. Anne Moses Fellow – This politically ambitious college-aged woman hones her political organizing abilities over 18-months by launching, organizing, and running IGNITE college programming efforts across California. She will help host events on Orange County and California policies and civic education; she will help build college chapters; and she will help train chapter members to network with local stakeholders and organizations; while supporting middle school and high school club development. #IGNITEtheVote – Voting knowledge is the first step toward civic engagement. Orange County IGNITE participants learn voting basics (how elections happen, why they’re important, how to use a ballot) and local and statewide issues and measures related to women and families. They register and activate peers on campus; hold candidate meet-and-greets and ballot parties; and educate and engage others on campus who don’t understand how politics impacts their lives. Legislative Advocacy – Young women train on what legislation is, the policy lifecycle, and how to influence local/state/national legislation. They practice amplifying their voices on local Orange County gender justice issues; then convene at the city and state level. IGNITE the Capitol brings young women from Orange County to their legislative seat in Sacramento once each year to meet policymakers and discuss the issues these young people identify as important. This is a life changing experience for many young women who for the first time see that they can make an impact on how their city works for themselves, for other young women like them, and for their families. These are young women like Sriya Srinivasan, who you can learn more about here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sriyasrinivasan_knowyourperiod-activity-7246248187538128896-op_1. Training – IGNITE's comprehensive training teaches Orange County young women the skills and strategies to seek and win key leadership roles including seats and appointments on county and local boards and commissions; public office; policy-making internships and positions; campaign staffer, community organizer, and voter activation bootcamps; and more. Thought Leadership - We train young women to see themselves as leaders, so the public values their knowledge and insights. We center their voices, teaching them to write for and speak in interviews and op-eds with local and national media. They learn to elevate the political ideas they see as important and develop political and cultural power. This article was written by IGNITE's own Christine Hernandez about voting in Orange County and addresses why we must begin the voter education process early with young people: https://voiceofoc.org/2024/09/hernandez-why-do-orange-countys-9-year-olds-think-politics-is-boring/. IGNITE’s Senior Director of Programs, Christine Hernandez, lives in Orange County. She will be a member of the Huntington Beach Union High School District Board of Trustees beginning this December. She is also a member of the City of Westminster Parks and Recreation Commission and the County of Orange John Wayne Airport Arts Commission, and has been a Board Member and Vice President of the California State University, Fullerton’s Alumni Association. She is a Girl Scouts of Orange County Troop Leader and a Service Unit Leader. In addition, she is a Coastline College alumna who was heavily involved with Westminster School District’s Measure T Citizens Oversight Committee, Budget Advisory Committee, and LCAP strategy team. Christine’s efforts, as well as those of our IGNITE fellows, chapter leaders, and high school and college participants continue to move our work forward in Orange County. Our outreach locally has included these actions among others: - A publicized meet and greet during 2023’s Orange County Registrar of Voters Open House. - A career day for Girl Scouts of Orange County in 2022 and again in 2023 with middle and high school girls and young women. - In April 2023, during California’s High School Voter Education weeks, Christine targeted high schools in the county to promote opportunities to partner with IGNITE on voter education. She handwrote 100 postcards to local school principals / social studies chairs as well as many emails to area high school teachers. - A prior Fullerton College IGNITE chapter was supported in part by IGNITE Fellow-alum Camille Serrano, who was a student at the college prior to transferring to UCLA. Serrano did outreach to Fullerton High School during her fellowship. Some of our Orange County activities this year have/will include: - Hosting an IGNITE the Vote Day of Action on September 16th with local Girl Scout members. This Day of Action was an opportunity for young people to get excited about and personally invested in the election, while expanding local mobilization of community members to register to vote in November. There are multiple sessions scheduled to provide Democracy Badge workshops to local young scouts. - This year’s IGNITE the Vote training included preparing Gen Z Vote Ambassadors. Ambassadors are young people (ages 15-23) who traveled from 11 states to our IGNITE the Vote Summit in Las Vegas to learn deep canvassing; a number of them from Orange County. They are tasked with reaching out to peers and community members from now to election day in November to activate, expand, and mobilize the Gen Z vote. - Students have expressed interest in starting high school clubs in Orange County this year. - Earlier in 2024, two Orange County residents joined us in Sacramento as participants in our exciting IGNITE the Capitol event, which brings young women from across the state together to learn and practice leadership and advocacy skills at the Capitol. There they meet with their representatives to discuss key legislation impacting girls and women in their own communities.