According to platinum-selling recording artist Beyonce Knowles, “girls run the world.” The current First Lady Michelle Obama has provided numerous resources and programs for young women to ensure their success; and perhaps one day soon, America will welcome it’s first female president. In addition, there are more young women than ever before enrolling in college, and those who graduate are snapping up employment opportunities in the workforce. However, in spite of these giant steps forward, there are still numerous obstacles preventing women from achieving lasting prosperity. This is especially true for women and girls who reside in Los Angeles, where the glamor of Hollywood often overshadows more important issues like homelessness, domestic abuse, poverty and a poor education. In response to these challenges, the Girls Build L. initiative is encouraging local young women to come up with solutions that will effect widespread change in their communities.
Through the Girls Build LA Challenge (“GBLA”), girls ages 13 to 18 years old will design and implement community-based solutions to improve the fabric of their neighborhoods during a three-year program. However, every year participants will join the initiative as other girls graduate with a scholarship. GBLA also empowers girls to highlight the challenges they face and provides them with resources and support to address them.
The challenge is organized across three critical impact areas: health and wellness, civic engagement, and education. Regional experts and skilled coaches will help facilitate the problem-solving and solution design process.
The students are divided into teams at their respective schools (including groups from Manual Arts, Washington Prep. Inglewood Animo) and each team will develop the skills necessary for effective leadership. These include collaboration, communication, consensus building and project management. Ultimately, each team will present their project before a panel of their peers and judges. The groups that are most creative and impactful will be awarded with scholarships and other prizes.
Among the challenges that girls in L.A. County, face are that 30 percent of all girls live in poverty, and for Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the country, it’s 80 percent.
In addition to the economic barriers, young women are dealing with violence in their neighborhoods, crime, gangs, and even sexual exploitation.
No one is better equipped to identify the underlying causes of these problems than the young women who face them every day. The LA Fund for Public Education seeks to empower these students and give them the resources to research, innovate and develop solutions.
For more information on the Girls Build LA initiative, visit www.lafund.org/GirlsBuildLA, or call The Los Angeles Fund for Public Education at (310) 912-3444.
