Our November 2019 Shero of the Month is Rica Rodriguez of Denver, Colorado. She was diagnosed with HIV in 1989 at the height of the early epidemic. She began advocating in 2006. She is currently a member of the PWN Board of Directors and the PWN Colorado co-chair. Barb Cardell, PWN’s training director, who nominated Rica, said, “Rica is a bad-ass community organizer who doesn’t even realize how amazing she is. In the last several years, she has partnered to bring comprehensive sex education, family planning, syringe access, HIV outreach, voter education, voter registration, and grassroots organizing to Colorado. She is able to talk to anyone about any issue and sees this versatility as a way to connect folks to PWN Colorado and Organizing for Power. She is the go-to advocate who supports people in her community, sees value in everyone’s lived experience, taking time to listen deeply, and then follows up with a goofy Instagram picture to leave you laughing.”

Rica has kept busy since she first learned about PWN. She said, “I have been a member of PWN for many years, and I initially joined for the support that we receive from each other and the networking. Recently, I’ve become more involved in policy because of the current administration and all of the ugliness and pain that has come from it. I feel that being a part of the PWN Policy Fellowship has both educated and empowered me to become more of a leader in my communities and help others to move up the leadership ladder so that we can collectively make the changes that we need to see happen.”

As part of the fellowship, the cohort develops a practicum project. For her practicum, Rica is creating a factsheet on why syringe access is a key piece in HIV prevention and data in Colorado. She said, “I have worked with many organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the local harm reduction center to acquire data and pertinent information for my final project. The organization that I am working with, Rocky Mountain CARES, has been super supportive and instrumental throughout my project.”

As co-chair of PWN Colorado, Rica has been able to give feedback to the greater PWN efforts on behalf of and speak for the voices who are not normally at the decision making tables. She said, “I have met women living with HIV where they are at and educate them about PWN and our efforts. Having a face that looks like my community and the ability to be co-chair has complimented the grassroots organizing work that I am able to do.”

She does find it challenging to balance her personal and professional life, though. She said, “I am so personally invested in the professional work that it tends to roll over into each other. I am thankful to have a partner and children who understand my passion and support me in everything that I do, even when I am a madwoman in the name of change! I am going to say that weekends often consist of NO DEVICES and family time!”

When asked about the difference in issue-based organizing and electoral organizing, as she is a core leader of PWN Colorado’s Organizing for Power Team Fuerte, she said, “Shifting the grassroots base and intermediary organizations from a model and history of the struggle to a model and program based on winning at all costs takes time. I have had the opportunity to usher in culture shifts by developing models that integrate the science of electoral organizing with the equation to build grassroots power. In a 2-4 minute electoral style conversation, we are able to engage in political education and get community feedback outside of the social justice base that helps redirect grassroots campaign framing and increase follow-up.  Our base-building organizations are currently doing more in-depth outreach with voters who were ID’ed as ‘hot contacts.’ Electoral organizing offers a couple of opportunities a year to get a good win.”  Colorado Fuerte’s volunteer leaders and community members who work on our team are developing and deepening a new skill set that is continually used to help with grassroots organization-specific campaigns.

Rica wants people to know, “I am just one person, and often it only takes ideology from just one person to create a base or army, if you will, to create the change we need to see in this world. PWN, to me, is the army that I needed to help uplift me and my desire in this fight.”