Sarah Hewins, who is running for 2nd Plymouth District state representative, says “the more you know about local government, the more you can change.”

Hewins, a Democrat, is challenging State Rep. Susan Williams Gifford (R-Wareham) in November’s election for a seat the incumbent first won in 2002.

The Carver resident has been making the rounds in the district’s three towns (Carver, Middleboro and Wareham) recently, stopping at the Wareham Free Library on Tuesday to introduce herself to residents.

Hewins’ background includes a current stint as a Carver selectman. She was first elected in 2009. She recently retired as that town’s Conservation Agent after 16 years.

Hewins said she’s campaigning because the region is underserved.

“It’s time we had some really good representation,” said Hewins. “I don’t feel the region is being represented in Boston as well as it could be.”

If elected, Hewins said she’s work to bring in funds for youth programs. She, along with eight others, founded the Young People’s Alliance of Carver. The nonprofit is designed to provide a safe haven for kids with after-school programs.

For the past year, she’s served as the groups volunteer executive director.

While Wareham has groups such as the YMCA and the Boys & Girls Club, she said more funding would make those, and other programs, more robust. If elected, she said public education would be a focus as well. She noted that Wareham and Carver lose approximately $500,000 and $300,000 respectively when students opt out of the districts. She said it’s important to restructure how the state awards education funds to support struggling districts such as Wareham.

Originally from Philadelphia, Hewins came to the area when her husband’s parents moved to Wareham. New England’s Town Meeting style of government was eye-opening, she said.

“I was impressed that anyone could speak up and that everyone’s opinion mattered so much,” she said.

She first became engaged in her community when her now 22-year-old son was an elementary school student.

Carver didn’t have a playground at the time and parents traveled to neighboring Middleboro and Wareham for play. Along with other parents, she helped organize the Carver Community Playground Committee in 1998 that got the playground built.

She still serves as chair of the committee, even though her son is about to enter graduate school.

“I wanted the town to be even better than it was, even after he grows up and moves away,” she said.

For more information on Hewins, visit her campaign website at www.sarahhewins.com.