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+# Title
+
+WoCCode: Peer mentoring for the Women of Color coding community
+
+## Summary 
+
+Women of Color (WoC) -- which includes Black, indigenous, and Latinx
+minorities -- are the most underrepresented demographic from high
+paying industries, including software engineering. Yet WoC are flush
+with the talent, creativity, and social insight to solve complex
+problems and lead in the software industry. This program seeks to
+unite WoC and other members of minoritized groups, to battle feelings
+of isolation and marginalization that are prevalent in educational
+institutions and industry settings. Using a dedicated Slack space and
+cohorts of 4-5 people, we will create a peer mentoring network for WoC
+and members of other minoritized groups to engage, receive feedback,
+and troubleshoot issues around their participation in open source
+software communities, including Astropy.
+
+## Team 
+
+Program Lead: Lia Corrales (@eblur)
+
+Program Mentors and Slack moderators:
+* Lia Corrales
+* Kelle Cruz
+* TBD (invited Camille Avestruz)
+
+Anticipated 2020 cohort: 20 people from underrepresented groups in the
+United States (Black, indigenous, disabled, and gender-minority
+coders) or other underrepresented groups from the national stage (see
+Plan). We are open to any career stage, from undergraduate to research
+professionals.
+
+Guest webinar speakers: 6 industry or research professionals
+
+## Plan
+
+We will solicit applications to join the program via Twitter, AAS
+CSMA, and by emails to academic department chairs. We will accept
+applications from anyone, and will select a cohort in a way that
+prioritizes most marginalized demographics.
+
+We operate under the principle that supporting the most marginalized
+in our communities supports the well-being of all members of the
+Astropy community. While the Astropy project has shown considerable
+diversity in its international demographics, the majority of non-US
+participants are still overwhelmingly European (white), male, and from
+privileged classes. This program seeks to engage with people from
+groups that are marginalized in the United States, the Global South
+(Central America, Latin America, Africa, and less-privileged classes
+of Southeast Asia), or Global North (European, Northern Asia,
+Australian) members from marginalized demographics such as being
+indigenous, non-binary or queer, and disabled.
+
+We aim for 20 participants, to be separated into cohorts of 4-5 people
+with similar interests.
+
+Participants will be connected via Slack, with one channel for each
+cohort and a general chat channel. Slack moderators will be assigned
+to moderate cohort chat spaces to help answer technical questions
+regarding code. Each cohort is expected to hold regular meetings, 2-4
+times per month, for peer-mentoring. (These sessions should be
+independent of Slack and will not include the Slack moderator assigned
+to them.)
+
+There will be one webinar scheduled per month. Similar to "code
+coffee" chats organized by the Program Lead at MIT, partipants will
+present a new tool, piece of code, or professional development
+practice. The webinars will toggle between peer-led webinars and a
+guest speaker from outside the program. Guest speakers will be
+professionals from underrepresented backgrounds, in either the
+software industry or academia.
+
+Some examples of guest speakers from underrepresented groups, who will
+be invited to give a webinar, are:
+* Nicholas Hunt-Walker (Senior Software Engineer at Verica)
+* Duane Lee (Customer Support Engineer at Starburst Data)
+* Rudolfo Montez (Data Carpentry instructor)
+
+## Impact
+
+Through peer mentoring, we will create a safe space for participants
+to experiment with their code and to engage in open software
+practices. They will be introduced to coding practices and
+professional development during the monthly webinars. Additionally,
+they will learn the stories of the guest speakers who are members of
+minoritized groups that have created spaces for themselves in industry
+and research, and could also serve as role models for participants in
+earlier career stages. This all serves to equip participants with the
+foundational skills and social network to function in majority-white
+open source software spaces, giving them the opportunity to contribute
+more effectively to the Astropy code base and community.
+
+
+## Budget
+
+Slack moderators will receive an honorarium of $500, for their work in
+moderating the Slack forums, answering questions, and arranging for
+guest speakers.
+
+It has been well documented that members of underrepresented groups
+typically earn less money than white and cis-male counterparts with
+similar employment. Hispanic women receive on average 54 cents per
+dollar earned by white men, Black women receive 62 cents per dollar,
+and white women receive 79 cents per dollar ([click here for
+source](https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/resources/economic-justice/fair-pay/quantifying-americas-gender-wage-gap.pdf)). As
+such, monetary compensation is one of the most important ways to
+support underrepresented groups in our fields. For engagement in the
+program, participants will receive a $200 honorarium.
+
+Guest speakers will receive compensation of $300 for a one-hour
+webinar given to the program participants. This is based on the
+industry standard of $150 per hour compensation, anticipating a total
+of two hours for preparing and giving the webinar talk.
+
+We also request $2000 in discretionary funds. This money will be used
+to pay additional speakers, moderators, or program participants. This
+need arises from the simple fact that we may find more than 20
+participants from ideal situations, or if we need more moderators. We
+also wish to dedicate the discretionary funds towards advertising the
+program, or for supporting a participant who may be in need. The funds
+could be used, for example, to support a participant's travel (or
+remote conference registration fee) to present work related to the
+WoCCode program.
+
+Budget outline:
+* $200 x 20 = $2,400 in participant honorariums
+* $500 x 3 = $1,500 in Slack moderator honorariums
+* $300 x 6 = $1,800 in guest webinar speaker compensation
+* $2,000 in discretionary funds
+* Total request: $7,700