User:Rainmaker4u/Cheryl Antier

Cheryl Antier is an American writer (copywriter, ghostwriter and travel writer) and social justice activist living in the south of France, in the area known as the French Riviera. She is also the director of the an online, distance learning center for professional writers authors. She recently accepted the position of travel editor for Phenomenal Magazine.

Cheryl was one of the organizers of the 1995 Valentines Day national campaign "Our Children's Hearts Are In Your Hands" - where activists in 76 cities participated in activities that targeted the punitive "Personal Responsibility Act" then before Congress. Participants in the actions mailed 61,000 postcards to legislators. The organizing group the J.E.D.I. Women (Justice Economic Dignity and Independence for Women) marched to the Salt Lake City Federal Building to present their legislators with a port-a-crib full of cards colored by children in day care centers across the state.

She was also one of the organizers of a 1995 protest against homelessness, where a group of 30 homeless women and their children camped out on the law of the Utah state capital, building a temporary "tent city" which became known by the press as "Leavittville" (after then Governor Mike Leavitt) to spotlight a need to include "affordable housing" in the growth strategy meeting. The group also demanded that funding for the Olene Walker Housing Trust Fund be doubled and "equalized zoning policies" be put into effect across the state, so that multi-family housing units could be banned from the wealthier neighborhoods across the state.

Cheryl served three terms of Service as an Americorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) Volunteer, two of them as a VISTA leader. During her first term, Antier became very involved in social justice and poverty issues and spent six months researching microenterprise loan programs around the country and across the globe, especially those which focused on grants and loans to low-income women with children.

In 1995, she wrote a paper called, "MAPPS (Microenterprise Answers to Personal and Professional Success) Lead Low-Income Women Out Of Poverty. The paper was distributed to low-income advocacy groups and to state legislative committees, and presented the results that microenterprise programs were having on the economic stability of low-income women and their children

During her time as a VISTA Volunteer, Cheryl worked with volunteers on a variety of programs designed to create services needed by low-income families in the neighborhoods she worked in. In addition to helping create volunteer programs, she wrote grants, and trained volunteers to set up fundraising campaigns and organize special fundraising events. Funds were raised for a Family Resource Center, which provided the following services free of charge to low-income families: A lending library, a computer resource room, a "street law" project to help low-income people with legal assistance in landlord/rental disputes, child custody cases and protective orders for women who had been abused by their spouses or partners. They also had a free clothing closet for women who were going back into the workforce, or looking for work. In the summer months, volunteers held a childrens' clothing and school supplies drive, which were then distributed to families in need. There was also free onsite childcare for parents using the center and various workshops and seminars held throughout the year.

Her second two terms were spent working with teens in rural southeaster Utah, where the youth created their own volunteer projects, raised the necessary money to fund them, recruited their peers and managed the projects under Antier's supervision. The East Carbon "MVP Team" volunteer youth group won the Governor's "Silver Bowl" award for volunteer service in 2003.

Following her VISTA service, Cheryl worked as a consultant with a variety of nonprofit organizations in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and California, training their staff, board and volunteers to raise funds for special projects and create sustainable development programs. During that time she provided workshops, and spoke in front of universities, legislative committees and gave fundraising and community organizing workshops.

Antier continues to work with low-income women and entrepreneurs, to help them becoming economically self-sufficient through self-employment and entrepreneurship as a volunteer mentor for MicroMentor a project of Mercy Corps.

As a writer, Antier works with small to medium businesses, as well as authors, writers and entrepreneurs and is well-known for her ability to write for a variety of industries and niches.