Compton G.IRLS Club

Support for Foster and Systems-Impacted Youth

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Cultivating confidence in girls and gender-nonconforming youth has never been more challenging. In the past year, gender non-conforming adolescents were two times more likely to have experienced psychological distress than their peers, and 75% of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in harmful activities like cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered eating. We want to be the safe space that teens struggling with these feelings can turn to. We want to help them find their strengths, build their confidence, and become the best version of themselves.

Our programs, Compton Girls Club and Girl Scout Troop Program, offer instruction on topics that students might not be exposed to in their traditional school curriculum, like financial literacy, mental health awareness, self-care strategies, computer science, and the arts. Our afterschool program "Girls Club" allows girls to participate in extracurricular and performance arts activities that improves their academic success and build their confidence. The Girls Scout Troop program allows youth girls to participate in our summer activities that focus on the youth developing additional growth skills. We want to create more workshops and events for the youth in our community, but we need more resources to do so. We continue to adapt and expand our youth educational programs to support local school districts and provide a creative curriculum throughout the year. We also want to hire full-time staff who are dedicated to this critical work. At present, we have no full-time staff, and all work is completed on a volunteer basis by our founder and board members.

Our organization's vision is to continue to create sustainable communities that individuals can be proud of. We plan to change the narrative of communities such as Compton, CA and within Los Angeles County one youth at a time. We want to provide a safe space for our youth to learn new skills without judgement. We envision a community of girls that are enlightened and empowered to become the best version of themselves. We want girls to become emboldened with knowledge and resources that encourages them to plant the seeds into their neighborhoods to help future generations. We ultimately want to offer quality art related programs that can serve generations residing in underserved communities.

We define and assess the impact of our programming by evaluating if the programs are working for the youth. Our organization frequently conduct surveys and assessments on youth and their families to determine how our Girls Club and Girl Scouts Troop program has impacted their lives. Our surveys have informed us of the youth and their family's opinions of our art programs. This has allowed us to make improvement to better serve the youth that are in underserved communities. Our assessments have informed us of youth you have academically improved and or may need academic assistance. We conduct surveys and assessments on a quarterly basis to track the activity and progress of youth that involved in our programs.