To learn more about Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s investments in early care and education, please click here.

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel with our president, Nicky Goren, to a meeting of the Partnership for Women’s Prosperity, a cohort of six women’s funds from across the country that share best practices and find replicable solutions to address systemic problems facing economically vulnerable women and girls nationwide. Our collective grantmaking will touch the lives of more than 16,500 women across the country.

What do you remember about turning 15? What I remember most about that incredible year was learning to drive. Getting a learner’s permit and being able to hit the road (with a licensed adult) was my first really big step toward independence and, if my mother’s terrified face over in the passenger’s seat was any indication, I was starting out enthusiastically but needed a little guidance. Her hand on the wheel helped steer me away from the mailboxes and signs that lined Roswell Road. Her slightly strained voice reminded me that I needed to switch lanes after checking my blind spot (and turning just my head, not the whole minivan). She taught me how to read a map to make sure that I was going in the right direction. Eventually, she kept her hands off the wheel and trusted me to change lanes without saying “car! Car! CAR!” to me with increasing urgency.

I was born and raised in Ghana in a society where, traditionally, a woman’s role in the community was limited to motherhood. Only a few had the audacity to transcend social expectations and affect the lives of other women around them. My grandmother was one of them.

February was always one of my favorite months growing up. Being the shortest month of the school year definitely helped, but serving as the host of some of the best holidays of the year mainly sealed the deal for me.  I recall the joy of exchanging candy and cards for Valentine’s Day and the pride I felt learning about my history while celebrating Black History Month. The month of February provided me with an opportunity to showcase my knowledge of African-American trailblazers and learn more about ones I was unfamiliar with. My love for Black History Month grew because it gave me a chance to learn about people that actually looked like me. It wasn’t until about the fourth grade that I realized that almost all of the black people I learned about during my black history lessons were men.

Just over 40 years ago, two incredibly brave people made history when they became the first women of color to declare themselves major party candidates for president. Patsy Mink, a Japanese-American congresswoman from Hawaii, entered the Oregon primary as an anti-war candidate to draw attention to issues she felt were not being addressed by the mainstream candidates. Shirley Chisholm, the African-American congresswoman from New York, remained on the campaign trail all the way to the Democratic National Convention.

Last night, D.C. Mayor Vince Gray gave his annual State of the District speech and we were watching closely to find out how his plans for the coming year will affect low-income women and girls in the city. Here are a few takeaways we’re talking about at The Women’s Foundation today:

An election, volunteering, a new logo, historic events, and opportunities to learn more about the needs and lives of women in our community. 2012 was a very busy year at Washington Area Women’s Foundation and much of it was captured on our blog. Here are our favorite blog posts of the year:

Across the globe, there’s growing recognition of the value of nonprofits and volunteers joining with corporations and governments to solve social issues.  Last month, I was honored to participate in a conversation about the most effective ways those sectors can come together at the inaugural Service Innovations Summit in Madrid. The international summit was co-hosted by the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Alan Solomont, the Rafael del Pino Foundation in Madrid, and the Meridian Center in Washington.  The summit brought together the corporate sector, foundations, and NGO’s from Spain, a handful of other European countries, as well as the US to share information and best practices related to volunteering, corporate social responsibility, and public-private partnerships.  Being in Madrid added a sense of urgency to the summit: in Spain, one-in-four people is unemployed (one-in-two people under the age of 25 is unemployed) and in the middle of the conference there was a one-day negotiated general strike across the country to protest recent labor law changes that made it less costly to hire and fire workers.

I, like many in the region, sat down to watch the President’s State of the Union speech last night.  It’s an annual event that always engenders much anticipation (at least among the media pundits, political junkies, and those living in and around our nation’s capital), and this year was no exception.  Many called it “the” campaign speech, kicking off the 2012 election cycle.  Just a day before the speech, the White House said that the President would “outline his vision for an America where hard work and responsibility are rewarded, where everyone does their fair share, and where everyone is held accountable for what they do.”  Economic fairness was lauded as this year’s theme.