Our Work

What do pairs do together?

Once policymakers and their low-income constituents, (either parents or youth living in foster care) are invited and have signed up, the “walking” and “talking” begins.  

Conversations that partners share are usually personal, one neighbor to another. They talk about the challenges they face in their families, their careers, the events of a stressful day, their goals and how to achieve them. 

These personal day-to-day details touch on policy-related issues such as transportation, childcare, and education and help address how the system can be made better.

Over one month, partners share life experiences and discoveries through:

• Weekly telephone calls
• Participating together in an activity from the low-income constituent's life. (Examples: visiting a welfare office, grocery shopping together, sitting in on a training program, visiting a group foster home or school class)
• Participating together in an activity from the policymaker's life. (Examples: attending a public hearing, meeting, press conference, or legislative session.
• Food budget exercise: policymakers are asked to try feeding their family on the amount of money they would receive in either food stamps for their family size, or the monthly amount a foster youth typically has for food.

At the end of the month, participants are invited to an open-mike reception, hosted by the WAM coordinating agency, to share their experiences with other participants, the public, the media and one another.