Texas Girls Are Ready to Lead, Advocate for Change
Ami Kane, Deputy Director at the Girls Empowerment Network, was recently interviewed by the Afterschool Alliance about leadership and advocacy programming for Texas girls. She discussed how the Spark Change Project, a collaboration between Excellence & Advancement Foundation and Girls Empowerment Network, empowers black and brown girls to become advocates for issues that matter the most to them with support from the New York Life Foundation’s Aim High grant program.
Aim High Grant Supports Spark Change Project
Girls Empowerment Network was one of 36 grantees of the 2021 Aim High grant program. The program invests in high-quality out-of-school-time programs to help disadvantaged middle school students successfully transition to high school.
Research has shown that high-quality afterschool, expanded-day, and summer programs lead to greater achievement, better school attendance, and more engaged students. In addition to the Spark Change Project, Girls Empowerment Network’s school-based program, Girl Connect, expects to reach 2,000 girls in weekly, out-of-school time programming in Austin and Central Texas, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio this school year.
The following is an abbreviated form of the interview. Read the entire interview.
What challenges are you seeing amongst your students right now?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adolescent girls are in a particular mental health crisis right now. We realize this from the data, but also from being in direct service to these adolescent youth every day. Girls who spent their middle school transition years in the virtual space are returning to in-person learning and all of the challenges they face are amplified. For example, I have had parents and staff share that some girls were experiencing bullying amongst their peers when they returned to in-person learning because they had only been seen from the shoulders up for a year. Their bodies had changed, their bodies had done a very natural thing during that time—but these types of negative comments hit adolescent girls in an extremely difficult way. There hasn’t been a generation before that has experienced this kind of situation.
Between the sadness, the disconnect, and the big feelings, there have been a lot more requests for the services we provide. There has never been a time where we’ve felt that supports for adolescent girls are so strongly needed.
What difference has the Aim High grant made in your program?
Spark Change Teen Facilitators prepping for Spark Change Day 2022
The grant was able to go towards our [Spark Change Project] Peer Facilitators, the teen girls of color who become the heart and the soul of the Spark Change Project. The idea behind this program is that we want to give girls of color the opportunity to have a platform and receive training to analyze their community needs and advocate to decision-makers in all different spaces. The adult staff from [Excellence & Advancement Foundation and Girls Empowerment Network] become the trainers and the support for introducing these Peer Facilitators into the realm of policy and advocacy, but it is those peer facilitators that actually take the microphone to share out their ideas.
The Aim High grant helped us pay these girls for their time in this professional role. The grant went towards our second cohort of teen girls who stepped into those roles and were able to work 5-10 hours a week. We match them to female mentors of color and help them build confidence for them to then turn towards their peers and become that key mentor for others.
For us to be able to pay these teen girls for their ideas and for their leadership helps create that strong commitment on their part and makes it feasible for them to participate in this program. Otherwise, many of these girls would need to have a part-time job—for them to be working in the non-profit space, aligned directly with their passions, is a game-changer.
What are your takeaways from serving these youth with help from the Aim High grant?
Teens & volunteers connecting during Power Chat sessions at Pathfinder 2022
Girls are ready to lead. We do an activity called Power Chats, which are designed to put girls into small groups and make it much less intimidating to talk to elected officials, policymakers, and local leaders. Often, one of the Peer Facilitators will sit with a group of younger girls and make sure everyone is comfortable having those conversations. What blew us away was that we saw so many of the younger girls jumping in and participating. They showed us that girls are very interested in being listened to when that space is created for them.
What are you looking forward to in your program?
For the Spark Change Project, we are very excited to launch our 2023 legislative year. In Texas, the legislature meets every other year, so only in those years do our girls work on their state-level policy work and see what policies are coming through that are relevant to them. In 2021, one of our girls was able to testify to the education subcommittee in favor of expanding mental health supports, increasing funding for mental health professionals in schools, and training teachers to identify mental health challenges in youth.
When I think about getting our third cohort of peer facilitators and preparing them to speak about what matters to them, we get so excited to imagine what that will look like. The girls get to share out what matters to them, from access to menstrual products to supports for youth experiencing homelessness.
Read more about the Spark Change Project on our blog and see what issues Texas girls are leaning into.
Advocate for Texas Girls
Girls Empowerment Network advocates for and centers the experiences of girls in grades 3-12 in addition to welcoming youth across the gender spectrum. We ignite the power in girls by teaching them the skills to thrive and believe in their ability to be unstoppable. This mission comes to life in all of our programs through a curriculum designed to increase each girl's self-efficacy, her belief in her ability to succeed.
Receive updates about the Spark Change Project or make a tax-deductible donation to make it possible to extend our work empowering more Texas girls of color.
As an adult, you can raise your voice for Texas girls, too. Learn more about our policy priorities and sign up for advocacy and action alerts, which which will kick off in January 2023.