Peer Mentor Coordinators: Inspiring Each Other, Building Community!

​On September 28, 2025, CTW convened peer mentor coordinators and program leads from eleven of the California High Road Training Partnerships (HRTPs) for a full day of learning, teamwork, and inspiration.

​This historic in-person statewide meeting showcased the great progress these partnerships have made in their peer mentoring programs since they last met in person at the March 2025 CTW annual meeting. A new feature of this meeting was bringing together HRTP peer mentor coordinators and leads from both transportation and maintenance. Participants broke new ground by building a statewide community between two sets of occupations who ordinarily do not have an opportunity to work together on common projects.

The meeting agenda and discussion highlighted the essential roles and multiple skills needed to be successful peer mentor coordinators and leads. A dynamic fishbowl discussion featured coordinators Seannice Archie (Riverside Transit Agency/ATU 1277), Kay Avognon (AC Transit/ATU 192), Harpreet Singh (Santa Clara VTA/ATU 265); maintenance leads Herlinda Macias and Rudy Alcantar (Santa Clara VTA/ATU 265); and James Jackson (ATU 192 officer and PIA JATC member). They shared powerful insights on peer mentor recruitment, performance, and retention; the need for maintenance peer mentor programs; support for women entering maintenance careers; and the nuts and bolts of coordinating program development and administration. All meeting participants had insightful questions and issues, reflects both the diversity and commonalities at each transit agency.

Meeting participants kicked off an exciting process of developing new skills checklists for both the position of peer mentor coordinators, and for the work life needs of workers in maintenance occupations. Developing these skills checklists is a concrete example of fully utilizing worker voice in the design and administration of transit operations workforce development programs. The checklists will also serve as an evolutionary “road map” for the skills needed to build professional coach operators and maintenance staff, as well as the basis for program metrics and evaluation. We are off to a great start in developing these  dynamic tools to guide future work.

​The day concluded with calls for a two-day in-person convening next year – a testament to the energy, commitment, and passion of all meeting participants. CTW will continue to create statewide and regional spaces to support this work, year-round.  Huge thanks to  Progress In Action (PIA), the AC Transit and ATU Local 192 partnership, for hosting this meeting; to the ATU International workforce development coordinators for facilitating this  meeting with CTW; and most of all to the statewide peer mentor coordinators and leads for bringing their heart and enthusiasm to this work.