This spring, @MEANGirlsEmpowerment , one of the girl-serving organizations in Chicago supported by the Girls Opportunity Alliance, hosted its third annual Girls Health Matters Summit and a ribbon cutting for its new Girls Health Matters Resource Van.
M.E.A.N. Girls Empowerment empowers girls between the ages of 11 and 18 to avoid negativity, build confidence, and pursue their goals through perseverance, courage, and creativity.
The Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund is supporting the expansion of the organization’s Girls Health Matters initiative, which gives adolescent girls the knowledge and tools to proactively and confidently manage their health. This support facilitated the acquisition of a new Resource Van, which will travel to community sites and offer health education, workshops on issues like nutrition, mental health, and more. This initiative aims to reduce health disparities and help girls build confidence and self-esteem.
We hope you’ll learn more about their work and visit the link in our bio to support girl-serving organizations across Chicago!
This week, we are supporting 15 new organizations through the Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund. Their work is transforming the lives of girls around the world—from supporting leadership development for indigenous girls in Guatemala to helping refugee girls access education in Kenya to offering digital literacy training to students in Rwanda.
For the first time, we are also supporting grassroots organizations in three new countries: Argentina, Barbados, and The Gambia. We hope you’ll learn more about the work of these organizations around the world and donate to support them at the link in our bio.
To celebrate #FathersDay , girls in our community shared how their dads and father figures have supported their education and their dreams.
Read messages from @girlupuganda , @herfuturecoalition , @polishedpebbles , and @theharpswellfoundation —and we hope you’ll join us at the link in our bio to support girls and organizations like these around the world today. 💜
Last week at the @socinnovation Summit in Chicago, our Vice President and Executive Director Tiffany Drake spoke alongside our friends @lululemon about our collaboration over the last three years. With their generous support, the Girls Opportunity Alliance has reached more than 120,000 girls around the world—from providing scholarships and mentorship to funding new learning centers and school dormitories.
“Positive role models can literally change the trajectory of your life,” shares Jamila Trimuel, Founder and CEO of Ladies of Virtue, a Chicago-based organization supported by the Girls Opportunity Alliance. With a mission to instill perseverance and prepare girls for college, careers, and leadership, @LOVChicago is transforming lives—one girl at a time.
To learn more about their impactful work and story, visit the link in our bio.
To mark #MenstrualHygieneDay , the Girls Opportunity Alliance Network hosted a virtual session about ways we can all work together to create a #PeriodFriendlyWorld .
Panelists from organizations like @WASHUnited , @ProcterGamble , @StudioSamuel , and @Nosotras.womenconnecting joined us to talk about the work they are doing to support menstrual health and why it’s so important to ensure that no one misses school because of their period. Last week’s session is part of a three-part series we are leading about the importance of access to menstrual health resources and education, and we are grateful to everyone who participated.
Last week, we held a virtual discussion with more than 100 grassroots leaders from the Girls Opportunity Alliance Network focused on the importance of centering adolescent girls in climate action.
Angie Murimirwa of @camfed , Wanjiru Ndung’u of @creativeaction__ , and Kate Hampton and Linda Weisert of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation joined us for a panel discussion on the impact of climate change on adolescent girls’ well-being and gender transformative approaches to climate resilience.
If you are a grassroots leader working on girls’ education or empowerment, join the Girls Opportunity Alliance Network at the link in our bio.
Congratulations to Girls on the Run Chicago, an organization supported by the Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund, on its 25th anniversary Spring 5K at Grant Park!
Since 1999, Girls on the Run Chicago has served more than 100,000 girls from third to eighth grade at hundreds of schools in Chicagoland. Its mission is to inspire girls to be healthy and confident, using a research-based curriculum that creatively integrates running and celebrates the joy of movement in community with peers and trusted coaches. The curriculum focuses on girls’ mental and physical health and includes training that builds girls’ social-emotional skills, such as self-awareness, relationship building, and responsible decision-making.
The Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund helped support Girls on the Run Chicago’s Heart and Sole curriculum, which culminated in the recent Spring 5K event. The life skills gained throughout the program have a multiplier effect and translate to positive effects for girls, such as increased academic achievement, improved mental health, and bullying prevention.
To learn more about Girls on the Run-Chicago’s work and impact, visit @gotrchicago .
Ahead of #MothersDay , we are spotlighting the work of Dominicca Troi Washington, Founder and Executive Director of SHE Chicago, a local nonprofit organization supported through the Girls Opportunity Alliance. SHE Chicago’s mission is to provide social emotional learning, college and career planning, and community service opportunities to inner city teen girls to help them become powerful community leaders of tomorrow.
In 2017, while founding SHE Chicago in a high school in South Shore, Dominicca leaned on her mother, Gwendolyn, for support. Dominicca shares that “I’ve always had the privilege of having my mother’s support of my life’s ambitions. When I explained to her what I wanted to do with SHE Chicago, she didn’t hesitate to lend her expertise in every possible way. My mom has been instrumental in securing organizational support, planning events and extending her own network and resources to aid in the growth and evolution of our organization. She is now volunteering as a Social Emotional Learning facilitator at one of our schools. I love my mom, and I am forever grateful for everything that she’s instilled in me and for choosing to grow with me at every turning point in my life.”
To learn more, visit @_teamshe .
This spring, @sistaafya , a Chicago girl-serving organization supported by the Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund, hosted a community wellness event for girls to explore the mind-body connection and nurture their well-being.
Sista Afya offers culturally-responsive mental health care and education, focused on dismantling stigmas associated with mental health. Recognizing the unique needs of girls and women of color, the organization offers holistic services including free individual therapy, group therapy, wellness classes, and community workshops.
Funding from the Alliance provided support for Sista Afya’s Thrive in Therapy for Teens program expansion, which provides individual therapy to girls, and facilitated VIBE Day and other community events which will help expand the reach of its programs in South Shore and the surrounding neighborhoods. VIBE Day recently brought together girls ages 13 to 17 in a safe space for open dialogue on mental health, self-care practices, and navigating challenges unique to Black girls. Participants enjoyed art therapy, hip hop dance, yoga, and group discussions. To learn more about the organization’s work and impact, visit @sistaafya .
To celebrate #EarthDay , we joined our friends from Emerald South, Jackson Park Conservancy, and the Chicago Parks Foundation this weekend for a great day at Jackson Park–the home of the future Obama Presidential Center. 65 leaders and girls from the Girls Opportunity Alliance’s Chicago Network came to help lay wood chips and clean up our shared space–thank you to organizations like @_teamshe , @meangirlsempowerment , @focusfairiesmentoring , and @girlsincchicago for joining us!
