about

Girls For A Change is a national organization that empowers girls to create social change. We invite young women to design, lead, fund and implement social change projects that tackle issues girls face in their own neighborhoods. GFC provides the tools, resources, partnerships and support girls need to gain the voice, ability, and problem-solving capacity to realize their full potential. We welcome and serve all girls and focus our efforts on girls who live in low income communities.

GFC was founded in , California in 2002--and has since doubled the number of girls served. We expanded to the Phoenix Metro Area in 2005 (see Communities). GFC kicks off each year with a Girl Summit, a one day conference where more than 1,500 girls gather to learn about social change and are empowered to take action.Following the Girl Summit, girls form Girl Action Teams with two women volunteer Coaches. In partnership with women, the teams of 10 girls meet throughout the school year to identify an issue they want to change and then design and implement a social change project.

Imagine the possibilities if every year thousands of middle school and high school girls learn how to tackle community problems! Picture the huge number of powerful women leaders driving local communities and the world toward success and well-being.

This is our work.

Our mission:

• Empower girls to be social change makers by providing the tools, resources and support girls need to move from being spectators to being change makers.
• Catalyze professional women to support urban middle and high school girls to become social change makers and innovators, by training the women as social change makers and activists.

How we accomplish this mission:

1. GIRL SUMMIT: Each year 1,000+ girls and 500 women have the opportunity to attend an all-girl event that offers dynamic workshops, speakers, leaders, activists and performers who are all involved with the sole purpose of empowering girls as social change makers and celebrating girls and young women.
2. GIRL ACTION TEAMS: A thousand girls annually have the opportunity to participate in community teams. The girls identify challenges in their communities and design and implement creative solutions to address them as a team. Each team has two women coaches to guide and support the girls through the project.
3. “NEW GIRLS NETWORK”: GFC connects girls to a network of professional women and legislators who help them build their own web of contacts and mentors. This network aims to help girls accomplish their GFC project as well as their personal goals. It also builds a bridge to the rich opportunities of local communities, as many GFC girls live in lower income areas.

How GFC benefits girls:

In completing the GFC program, girls will gain an increase in four areas:

• Self-efficacy (belief in one’s personal power to produce an effect)
• Authentic relationships with women volunteers, called coaches
• Social Change skills (critical thinking, problem solving, resource development, and networking)
• The ability and confidence to express and implement their ideas

Why I Founded GFC by Whitney Smith, GFC Co-CEO and Visionary Founder
My experience growing up with a fire in my belly for social change and no opportunities to exercise that desire inspired my vision for Girls For A Change. As a young woman, I was motivated by a belief in a more fair and just world, but experienced not only subtle deterrence in this quest to speak my mind and make change, but often was directly told by adults that I should make less noise so life would be easier. Despite discouragement, I spent most of my high school career attempting to create change in my environment with no support system. Going to college changed my world--I found a small community that encouraged taking action for social change. My first thought was, “Why did I have to wait this long? My life would be so different if I had the opportunity to funnel my passion for social change at 13 or 15 or 18!”

Many years later, I was asked to design an initiative that responded to the most pressing needs of all young women and would make a powerful difference in their lives. Motivated by my work with girls in juvenile detention facilities, group homes, and after school programs, I identified a common theme. The girls did not believe they were powerful and no one had asked them how the world could be a better place for them. Many organizations which were trying to help bandage problems never asked girls why the problems existed in the first place. I saw girls far outside the corridors of power and no large-scale work being done to fix that.

I started asking girls what things made them angry about their lives and communities and how they felt these issues could be solved. At first they just looked confused. Once they realized that I was truly interested in what they had to say, I couldn’t close the floodgates. Every girl I asked had a laundry list of issues she felt passionate about, things that got her fired up and stuff she cared enough about to spend time changing. Girls also had more innovative and practical ideas about community problems than anyone I had talked to before. They held the key to changing the world and didn’t even realize it.

One evening I sat down at my computer and envisioned Girls For A Change. I dreamed a social change organization that would teach young women to make noise and to trust their wisdom in finding solutions to problems they face in their own lives and in their communities. I dreamed a model of a social change organization that would value girls participating in a meaningful way at all levels of that organization. I dreamed a movement which would stop saying “no” to young women, and only say “YES!”

I founded Girls For A Change to be an organization that thinks big and takes risks. Girls For A Change is about shifting girls’ perceptions of themselves, not one at a time, but thousands at a time.

The History of GFC
GFC is committed to giving all girls the opportunity to invent and experience the spark that comes with seeing their own ideas take form and make a difference. Here is how that happened for GFC.

In 1999, The Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Advocacy (OWA), under the leadership of Patricia Lee began a year-long forum for data collection and strategic planning in coordination with The California Women’s Agenda (CAWA). The initiative, called Women and Girls 2000 and Beyond, was to take a specific regional look at some the primary issues, which bubbled forth from the Platform For Action from the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China in 1996. OWA produced a report, which included platforms for information and action. These platforms are Violence, Poverty, Older Women, Media, Employment/Economics, Health, Education, Environment, Policy, and Girls.

To collect data and produce recommendations on the Girl Platform for action, OWA sought the assistance of The Girls Coalition (SVGC). The SVGC is a collaborative of over 75 agencies serving young women in . The SVGC participated in research and authored the Girl section of the “Women and Girls 2000 and Beyond Report.” One finding of this report was that not enough was being done to address growing issues of risk for girls. There was also no model working on a large scale to reach the region’s most marginalized girls.

Coincidently, The Cornerstone Initiative surveyed young people in Santa Clara County to map the Developmental Assets of youth in that area. Of the youth surveyed, only 15% indicated that they felt that they were seen to have value in their communities and only 24% felt that they were give useful roles in their communities.

An opportunity arose to submit a grant to The Joint Powers Authority of The City of San Jose and The County of Santa Clara. The grant was for $100,000 to address a pressing need facing youth in the . Lee, the Director of OWA at the time, enlisted Whitney Smith, the Chair of the Girls Coalition to create an initiative, which responded to the grant. The initiative was successfully funded and then the real excitement began.

With no infrastructure to support GFC, Whitney enlisted members of The Girls Coalition (SVGC) to become part of the initial Steering Committee, which has become the current GFC Board of Directors. GFC first hired a consultant to help with the initial Girl Summit in October 2002. That consultant became the first paid staff person, Executive Director Niko Clifford.

Under the leadership of our founding Executive Director Niko Clifford, GFC has flourished into a well recognized organization with a national vision. Immediately after the first Girl Summit, it became clear to Niko and Whitney that GFC was not going to be an initiative or a modest organization, but it was going to become a national organization and a groundbreaking movement. Niko aligned GFC with Social Fusion, formerly the Social Entrepreneurship Incubator. Social Fusion, a branch of the Women’s Technology Cluster, supports entrepreneurial organizations to launch and scale social enterprises by uniting successful business practices with positive social impact. GFC was the second organization to successfully graduate from Social Fusion.

In addition to raising over $500,000 for GFC, Niko spearheaded GFC’s partnership with 15 national corporations, over 50 elected officials and nearly 50 schools in the area. She was the sole staff support in 2002-2003. In the summer of 2003, Niko was awarded a prestigious fellowship with the Draper Richards Foundation for her vision and work with GFC. With this fellowship, GFC was granted $300,000 to support current sustainability and national expansion. In October 2003, GFC hired its second staff member, Carrie Ellett, Director of Program and Recruitment, and moved into new offices in Palo Alto. GFC expanded to its first site outside of California in 2005. Under the collaborative leadership of our girls, volunteers, staff and Board, GFC has been ignited as a powerful and progressive organization.

Without the support and dedication of the following individuals and partner organizations GFC would not have been possible:
Founding Steering Committee Members:
Lora Barnett
Niko Clifford, Executive Director
Mariah Dabel*
Nancy Fox
Michelle McCormick
Caroline Ocampo
Jo Seavey
Whitney Smith
Sari Wisch
Sharon Wood
Lead Partners:
Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County
The Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Advocacy
Partner and Founding Organizations:
Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte
The County of Santa Clara Office of Women’s Advocacy
The County of Santa Clara Dept. of Public Health - Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Network
Women’s Technology Cluster- Nonprofit Incubator
*Mariah Dabel, Founding Board Member, named Girls For A Change.

GFC uses its core values in decision making and daily operations. Volunteers of the organization are also trained to use the core values when representing GFC.

GFC is a social change organization that supports girls in fully developing their voice, ability, and problem solving capacity to realize their full potential.

• GFC values girls as a powerful and unique resource for creating social change.
• GFC values the process of creating social change.
• GFC values being intentionally innovative, risk taking and visionary to make broad and lasting impact.
• GFC values people being in a place of self-fullness* in order to create change. People are the organization’s most valuable asset.
• GFC values direct and honest communication to ensure authenticity in the creation of social change
• GFC values the diversity of all women and girls and believes diverse and unlikely relationships are personally transformative and key elements to creating social change.

*Self fullness is defined at GFC as a balance of personal health, personal growth, and self-care.

Girls For A Change began as an idea in Santa Clara County, CA in 2000 with a group of energized volunteers, one staff member, $100,000 and 10 Girl Action Teams. As of 2007, we have a staff of 10, three offices, two national sites, a $1 million budget and over 60 Girl Action Teams. Our accomplishments include:

First Annual Girl Summit
The Girls For A Change October 2002 Girl Summit in was one of the most powerful events of our time. The 1,100 young women and 500 adult women present made a powerful statement about the possibility of what girls and women can create.

The Opening Ceremonies were led by Girls For a Change Girl Steering Committee hosts Jennifer Ha and Denisse Herrera. Keynote speaker Bertice Berry, PhD delivered a moving address followed by a Soul Force performance about girls finding their voice. Girls then attended 3 workshops each, selected from over 30 available sessions. Workshop sessions included: Using Poetry to Speak Back, Dating Violence & Self-Defense, Spiritual Activism, Fundraising for Social Justice, Fat and Body Advocacy, and a Teen Mom panel. At the end of the day, girls and coaches gathered in neighborhood-based teams for the first time to discuss what they learned and talk about possibilities for their social change project.

Expansion
Girls For A Change expanded its work beyond Santa Clara County for the 2004 Girl Summit, establishing Girl Action Teams in Oakland, Santa Cruz and East Palo Alto.

National Expansion Plans
Girls For A Change was awarded a three-year $300,000 replication grant by the Draper Richards Foundation in July 2003. The grant supported expanding program activities and launching national replication through July 2005.

Phoenix Expansion
GFC launched its first programming outside of in the spring of 2006. In the fall of 2006, the Phoenix site already had more than 20 Girl Action Teams.

GFC was recently awarded $700,000 in growth capital from New Profit Inc., a national venture philanthropy fund. Since 1998, New Profit has worked to help social entrepreneurs meet the challenge of building their organizations to scale their social impact.  Through its venture philanthropy fund, New Profit provides multi-year financial and strategic support from individual investors and its signature partner, Monitor Group, to extraordinary social sector leaders whose organizations have the potential to create broad-scale change in the United States. 

Among the "strategies and resources to counter negative influences on today's young females...girl empowerment groups such as Girls For A Change often emphasize health and competence."
-The Washington Post

"They have enormous potential."
-Fast Company

"Girls For A Change residuals are far-reaching."
-The San Jose Mercury News

"Girls For A Change is not just about inspiring girls to make a change. It's about letting girls know that they are a worthy investment across the board. It's about, simply, asking girls what they think and actually listening."
-The Huffington Post 

PRESS CONTACTS
Girls For A Change Co-CEOs Niko Everett and Whitney Smith are available to speak about GFC and are experts on teen girl culture, social change, youth advocacy, women and girls in leadership, girls and self-esteem, the latest research and studies focused on girls and other related topics. In addition, GFC spokesGIRLS are available to speak about any of the topics or issues addressed by Girl Action Teams, teen girl trends and current events, for example.To arrange an interview with the Co-CEOs or spokesGIRLS, please contact:

Katie Watson, Voce Communications, Inc.
650-228-5169 | kwatson@vocecomm.com

PRESS CLIPS

DIY Liberation: A Handy How-To Guide
YES! magazine, Issue 44, 2008

Become a Social Change Agent: Interview with Niko Everett
Women Who Win podcast, December, 2007

Build Up Your Teen's Self-Esteem
ABC's View from the Bay, November 6, 2007

Hutchison: Girls hear a compelling challenge for change
San Jose Mercury News, November 6, 2007

Teen Girls Meet In SJ Leadership Summit
CBS 5, October 30, 2007

Girls For A Change 'Speak Up!'
Women's Radio, October 22, 2007

NATIONAL HOMELESS YOUTH AWARENESS LEADER KICKS-OFF 5TH ANNUAL GIRLS FOR A CHANGE ‘GIRL SUMMIT’ PRESENTED BY SEPHORA
Press Release, October 23, 2007 

Girls Doing Good
San Jose Magazine, September 2007

Virgin Mobile's The RE*Generation Kicks Off "National Homeless Youth Awareness Month" at the 5th Annual Girl Summit with Powerful Keynote Speaker, Carissa Phelps
Press Release, September 18, 2007

GFC Showcased at 2007 Ypulse Mashup
July 15-16, 2007 

This Summer Teen Girls Go Corporate for a Change
Press Release, Juniper Networks, Inc., June 26, 2007

Girls For A Change
The Huffington Post, May 23, 2007

Goodbye To Girlhood (page 1) |Girl Power: Accentuate the Positive (page 2)
The Washington Post, February 20, 2007

Coach, Mentor, Mold...
blogizona, February 7, 2007

Girls for A Change Kicks off the New Year with Nearly $1 Million Dollars in Grant Funding
Press Release, February 6, 2007

Tech Credit Union features GFC in their new video
KRON 4 Best of The Bay Television, February 1, 2007

Girls Just Want to Have Change
/ San Jose Business Journal, February 9, 2007

Girl power for change
Arizona Republic, January 20, 2007

Teen girls learn skills to change their lives
The Arizona Republic, January 7, 2007

Young local Latinas team up to create big social change
Latino Perspectives Magazine, January 2007

Girls Summit
Respect RX Blog, October 13, 2006

Girls meet to make a change
Palo Alto Daily News, October 13, 2006

GFC Summit Features NY Times Bestselling Author As Keynote
Press Release, September 28, 2006

GFC Launches Program to Transform the Lives of Low Income Girls in Maricopa County
East Valley Tribune.com, August 27, 2006

Girls For A Change Phoenix Welcomes New Executive Director
Press Release, August 25, 2006

Etown Echievement Award
Etown, June 2006

Supporting Girls For A Change
Money Savvy, Spring 2006

Girls For A Change
RespectRx.com, April 11, 2006

Social Capital Awards Finalist 2006
Fast Company, January 2006

GFC Member Named Woman of Distinction Honoree
AsianWeek.com, August 25, 2006

Helping Young Girls Adjust To High School
The Argus, August 21, 2006

Group: No more "girly" €™ insults
Mercury News, June 2, 2006

Active Voice Blog
June 2006

Eaton Eagle Newsletter, May 2006

Girls For A Change
Voce Communication Blog, April 2006

Girls Become Citizen Philanthropists to Improve Lives of Students
Bay Area Business Woman, June 1, 2006

Rescue Operation for Girls
Arizonawoman, November 2005

Arizona Launch Reception
Frontdoors, October 2005

Why Non-Profits Should Blog
Voce Communication, August 25, 2005

Teens Studying Dating Violence: Programs Aim to Educate Students, Parents
Mountain View Voice, Friday, May 20, 2005

Students Pick Teachers for Grant Awards
San Jose Mercury News, Thursday, May 5, 2005

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better
Evergreen Times, Friday, February 11, 2005

The Power of One
San Jose Mercury News, Sunday, January 5, 2005

The Change Masters
Fast Company, January 2005

Enthusiastic Voice Added to Voter Registration Drive
San Jose Mercury News, Friday, October 15, 2004

Tech Cluster Ventures Into Social Change
Women's eNews, April 19, 2004

Girls' Day Out
Mountain View Voice, Friday, March 2004

Girl Summit Activates Social Change
The Spartan Daily, Friday, February 27, 2004

Challenge for Teenage Girls
San Jose Mercury News, Thursday, February 26, 2004

Teen Girls Defining a California Dialect
San Jose Mercury News, Sunday, February 8, 2004

Conference Promotes Self-Esteem For Youths
San Jose Mercury News, Saturday, October 11, 2003

The New Face of Philanthropy|
Business Week, December 2, 2002

Nonprofits Get a Life
San Francisco Business Times, October 25-31, 2002

Girls for Change
San Jose Mercury News, Thursday, October 10, 2002

Girl Power!
Mountain View Voice, Friday, March 1, 2002

Girls For A Change
Bay Area Business Woman, September 2002

40 Women Under 40
bizwomen.com

Press Release Archive

GFC is an equal opportunities employer. We encourage women, people of color, and all abilities and sexual orientations to apply.

Jobs

Internships

NPR's etown award
Whitney Smith, GFC Founder and Co-CEO, was awarded an e-chievement award by the NPR show, etown, for her role in founding GFC. The show recognizes "people around the country who've found positive solutions to challenges in their communities." You go Whitney! The show aired the week of 8/22/06.
 
GFC Goes to Harvard
GFC Co-CEOs Whitney and Niko were given an amazing opportunity this summer to attend the Harvard Business School's Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management with a generous scholarship from the Bay Area Harvard MBA Alumni group. The program welcomed 100 non-profit leaders from around the world to work with the HBS faculty to examine their missions and rethink our approaches for  implementation and replication.

"The HBS professors were truly the finest 'teachers' we have ever experienced," Niko says. "We challenged our own mission, vision, evaluation, and strategy. We pushed our own thought process further then we have ever had the time or support to before. The outcome? Of course, the learning is integrated into our daily actions but we actually flew an Executive Director candidate out to our dorms in Harvard after a particularly stimulating session on attitude versus aptitude and have since brought her on as our shining new star in Phoenix! We imagine the impact to continue to reveal itself and in the meantime, we will miss dorm life and all-nighters."

Niko Everett, Co-Chief Executive Officer

Whitney H. Smith, Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer

Carrie Ellett, National Program Director

Eleanor Rouse, National Development Director

Elise DeYoung, National Operations Director

Ashley Smith, Operations and Program Assistant

Erin Moore, Development Associate

National Board

main phone
(408) 540-6GFC (6432)

email
info@girlsforachange.org

mail
GFC
PO Box 1436
San Jose, CA   95109

emergency pager
In case of an after-hours emergency, please use our emergency pager. Enter your phone number and a staff member will return your call:

Silicon Valley: 408.534.6100

Phoenix: 480.731.2917

GFC offices
GFC's National Office is located in East Palo Alto

Silicon Valley’s main office is located at the Agilent Technologies building in Santa Clara

Phoenix’s main office is located at Gateway Community College in East Phoenix

Staff directory
This is an alphabetical list. Click here for National Leadership and Communities staff bios.

Meghan Arrigo
Phoenix Program Director
602.680.8182
meghan@girlsforachange.org

Elise DeYoung
Operations Director
408.529.4619
elise@girlsforachange.org

Carrie Ellett
National Program Director
408.515.8148
carrie@girlsforachange.org

Niko Everett
Co-CEO
408.515.8455
niko@girlsforachange.org

Allison Garrett
Phoenix Development and Program Coordinator
602.677.5004
allison@girlsforachange.org

Sally Green
Silicon Valley Executive Director
408.529.1298
sally@girlsforachange.org

Anahita Modaresi
Silicon Valley Program Director
408.529.9046
anahita@girlsforachange.org

Erin Moore
Development Associate
408.529.7745
erin@girlsforachange.org

Audrey Roderick
Silicon Valley Program Manager
408.515.8147
audrey@girlsforachange.org

Eleanor Rouse
National Development Director
408.515.3838
eleanor@girlsforachange.org

Ashley Smith
Operations and Program Assistant
408.529.9304
ashley@girlsforachange.org

Whitney H. Smith
Co-CEO
408.529.7226
whitney@girlsforachange.org

Laura Valdo
Phoenix Executive Director
602.677.9428
laura@girlsforachange.org