Mariela Quesada Centeno
Roots for Change/Raíces para el Cambio
I am Costa Rican; cooperatives are part of my life. For more than 9 years I have been working with immigrant worker-owned cooperatives in the Midwest in different capacities. I am a public health practitioner and a fierce advocate for collective power, which key ingredients are education and access to opportunities. That is why, five years ago, together with an amazing team we developed a community health workers/doula framework as a community-based empowerment program that simultaneously served as a peer support model for Latina mothers as they develop a new relationship with their babies. The program became a co-op, as a way to engender a different framework for the generation of wealth and advocacy.
Roots4Change (Raíces para el Cambio) is the first immigrant marketing cooperative in Dane County focusing on health. We are working to change the maternal and child health landscape to address inequities in perinatal well-being, by empowering families and challenging the system. Roots4Change (R4C) is owned by six independent social enterprises led by Latina and indigenous doulas and community health workers, who walk with families in their journeys of parenting, childbirth, motherhood, womanhood. Our ultimate goal is to develop community leadership from within.
https://rootsofchange.org/
