Emma Mayerson and Alliance for Girls Achieve Success

Alliance for Girls launched on May 30, 2012. A program of the Eva Leah Gunther Foundation, Alliance for Girls seeks to bring together girl-serving organizations in the Bay Area to promote the betterment of girls’ lives through access to resources, legislation, and effective grass roots organizing. Program Director Emma Mayerson has been with Alliance for Girls since the beginning, and over the past few months, has seen the organization grow in terms of member organizations and the number of girls reached.

Emma Mayerson has been working with community building organizations throughout the Bay Area for many years, and was an obvious choice for Program Director on the basis of her experience. Under Emma Mayerson’s guidance, the Alliance for Girls has started an extremely popular lunch series that provides networking, leadership, and learning opportunities for member organizations, as well as interested non-members. In addition, Emma Mayerson has created a detailed community calendar and listserv that keeps member organizations informed about events within the girl-serving world, as well as a web-based directory of services and member organizations.

Since Alliance for Girls launched in May, the organization has seen a huge increase in community interest. Beginning with just 6 member organizations, membership has grown to a full forty organizations, most of which devote at least 25% of their activities towards the betterment of girls’ lives. Emma Mayerson has done much of the outreach work that has secured the participation of these members.

Alliance for Girls was recently asked to present at the West Coast Children’s Center’s conference on human sex trafficking, and has recently partnered with local organizations ranging from health services groups to recreational centers. Emma Mayerson continues to develop new and exciting programming for the Alliance for Girls, and the organization has continued to grow in the months since its founding.

Family Inspires Emma Mayerson

Emma Mayerson is the Program Director of Bay Area based program Alliance for Girls, which links local groups to create a unified voice for the advancement and improvement of girls lives in California. A long time organizer, she has worked on initiatives involving literacy, community building, and labor rights, in addition to consistently working with groups aiming to improve the lives of girls and women. But where did Emma Mayerson find the inspiration to devote her life to improving the lives of others? She says her family was a huge influence in her decision to take leadership roles in community organizing and development.

Growing up in Berkeley, CA, Emma Mayerson was exposed from an early age to the Bay Area’s penchant for community organizing. Her family in particular was very involved in community building. Emma Mayerson’s father has made a career out of working with at-risk youth, and her mother is a lawyer who focuses on disability rights. In addition, her grandfather’s foundation, the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, funded the creation of an accessible park in Northern Israel designed for use by adults and children with physical disabilities.

Emma Mayerson also found inspiration from her grandfather in terms of bridging gaps between generations. Realizing how much younger generations can learn from community elders, Emma Mayerson initiated a program through the Jewish Coalition for Literacy in San Francisco that linked Jewish elders and youth to provide reading lessons and build relationships across age lines. In her activist work since then, Emma Mayerson has focused on bridging gaps. At Tufts University, Emma Mayerson helped form an alliance between janitors and students to lobby for labor improvements, and is today the Program Director of Alliance for Girls. As Program Director, Emma Mayerson uses her experience in building relationships to bring together an assortment of girls’ organizations, ranging from outdoor adventure activities to health care providers. 

Emma Mayerson Has a Long History of Activist Work

Emma Mayerson got her community service start at the Jewish Coalition for Literacy in Berkeley, CA. As a junior high school student, Emma Mayerson volunteered with the Jewish Coalition for Literacy, tutoring kindergarten students in reading. Deciding to take more of a leadership role, Emma Mayerson elected to start a pen pal program at her school, in which junior high students were matched up with elementary school buddies, and exchanged letters over the summer to foster writing skills.

Emma Mayerson also started the Generations program at the Jewish Coalition for Literacy. In this program, based on a similar initiative started in Cincinnati, Jewish elders were matched with youth to facilitate community among age groups while also improving literacy skills. Emma Mayerson received the Youth Leadership Award from the Youth Leadership Institute in San Francisco for her pursuit of literacy improvement in her community.

In college at Tufts University, Emma Mayerson helped form the Jumbo Janitor Alliance. This student organization worked to create an alliance between Tufts students and janitors to demand better pay and other labor concerns for the janitorial staff at Tufts. Emma Mayerson was inducted into the Honos Civicus Society for her involvement in community building and service at Tufts.

After graduation, Emma Mayerson moved back to the Bay Area, where she has been working as the Program Director for Alliance for Girls, a new organization that connects local groups in pursuit of the improvement of girls’ lives in California. Other organizations that Emma Mayerson has worked with include Bend the Arc (previously known as Jewish Funds for Justice), the Impact Grants Initiative Board at the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Eva Gunther Foundation, and the Women’s Foundation of California. Emma Mayerson has held positions such as community organizing resident, development assistant, and board member at a multitude of organizations.