GJL Newsletter: The Highlights from 2017!
The GJL Newsletter: Highlights from 2017
GJL is Growing!
This year we hired Charlotte Jacobs as our first Executive Director! An educator and researcher focusing on girls’ education and participatory methods, Charlotte has been involved with GJL for the past 4 years as a Co-Coordinator, Board Member, and Board Chair. For more information, check out the full press release on our website.
We also welcomed two new Co-Coordinators to GJL, Sarah Craig and Aurora Sanchez. Sarah has worked as a teaching fellow for high school students with the Penn Social Justice Research Academy, and currently works at the University of Pennsylvania. Aurora has several years experience working with young people, including as an advisor for Youthadelphia, and currently as the Culinary Literacy Collaboration Coordinator at the Free Library. Check out their full bios on our website!
The Girls are on the Road
The GJL girls have been busy! In 2017 we attended the Miseducation of Black Girls conference sponsored by the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls, and the Pennsylvania Conference for Women. Additionally, Nyazia and Indiah, two veteran GJLers, facilitated a “Good Girls, Bad Girls” workshop at the Teen Leadership Conference at Lower Merion High School.
Turning Points Conference
In February the GJL girls hosted their 2nd annual Turning Points Feminism Conference. This year’s conference theme was “Escaping the Systems: Fighting for the Rights, Justice, and Liberation of Girls.” As part of the conference, the girls facilitated mini-workshops on reproductive justice, the juvenile justice system, and the education system and girls’ experiences in each of these areas.
Another successful Summer Institute!
This summer we welcomed 16 girls ages 13-18 who represent various places and spaces in the greater Philadelphia area to our 8-day social justice and activism camp. This year’s institute focused on direct action, reproductive justice and consent, education justice, and food justice. True to the GJL spirit, the institute workshops were facilitated by our Peer Coordinators (veteran GJL girls) and in collaboration with representatives from New Voices Philadelphia, and the Temple University Community Collaborative.
GJL By the Numbers
5-- The number of years since GJL was founded in 2012
30+-- The number of adult allies who have served on the GJL Board of Directors since its founding
100+-- The number of girls that GJL has reached through our Saturday and Summer Institutes since they started in 2013
$90,000 -- The amount of money GJL raised in 2017 from individual donors and foundations
Thank You to Our Supporters!
2017 has been a great year for GJL! In support of our Summer and Saturday Institutes, we have received $75,000 in funding from the NoVo Foundation as part of a 3-year grant, $30,000 each year from the Horner Foundation for a two-year grant, and $25,000 from the Third Wave Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of the Proteus Fund. We received a $10,000 from a Racial and Economic Justice grant from the Bread and Roses Community Fund to continue our work advocating for gender justice. In support of our Reproductive Justice Status Project, we received $3,000 from the Willing Hands grant from New Century Trust. Lastly, with a $6,000 grant from the Helen B. O’Bannon Memorial Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation, we are planning to bring on two Gender Justice Interns!