The Women of Color Policy Network© is dedicated to ending the invisibility of women of color in public policy and enhancing our life chances through policy research, advocacy, public education and mentoring a new generation of advocate researchers.

The Network was created in the fall of 2000 by the Roundtable of Institutions of People of Color to create a public sphere for Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American women to engage in discourse about the nexus of gender and race/ethnicity, to develop research and data which can inform advocacy and policy, and to tailor policies and programs to meet their  needs.

The Roundtable of Institutions of People of Color is a coalition of non-profit organizations from the Asian, Black, Latino and Native American communities. It provides a forum for non-profits from these communities to develop a common agenda; develops and provides research on the economic, social and cultural needs of people of color; and advocates for funding equity from government and philanthropic sources.

The Young Women of Color Policy Program was started in 2002 as a pilot program with a mission to: (1) engage young women of color in understanding policies that directly affect their lives; (2) teach them how to develop and articulate policies; and (3) connect them to institutions, including legislative bodies, where their policy articulations will be heard.

Together the Roundtable and the Network are developing new perspectives about multiculturalism, gender and race, and the intersection with their respective civil societies.