Compton G.IRLS Club

K-12 STEAM Education

County of Los Angeles

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Growing up disadvantaged is a reality for the girls living in Compton, the usual engine of prosperity, a solid K-12 education, is failing them. According to the U.S. Census, only 34.7% of the female population in Compton graduated high school, less than half of the national graduation rate of 85%. One result is that less than 9% of Compton's women attend college and earn a bachelor's degree. The lack of educational opportunity keeps families impoverished since those without high school diplomas make half of what college graduates gain. A lack of education often leads to homelessness, sex trafficking, and extremes such as self-harm and suicide. In L.A. County, 1 out of 10 youth have attempted suicide; 64% of teens with depression don't receive help, and 140,000 youth suffer from substance abuse. According to LACOE there are 51,287 houseless youth in LA. We believe one of the largest factors of this problem is kids aging out of the foster care system and not being prepared for life.

Compton G.IRLS Club is a year-round after-school and weekend program that introduces girls and gender no conforming youth to experiences, education, and unique opportunities not readily accessible to them within their community. Our program provides opportunities for individuals to learn life skills, bridge the technology gap, improve their wellness, and develop their careers. We do this by hosting innovative workshops, field trips, and experiences. By covering all expenses, we remove common barriers to traditional extracurricular programs, such as cost, transportation, and meals. Also, a large part of this program is our in-depth cohorts. These cohorts include but are not limited to Coding camps, support services for Black teenage Mothers, and transitional life skills for foster transitional-aged youth. As part of our program, we provide offsite field trips that expose girls to culture, careers, and the arts naturally and engagingly. Our field trips offer opportunities for youth to explore the outdoors, discover new professions, and connect in a unique environment. Our goal is to create well-rounded, confident girls and youth through these experiences.

Success with this program would mean reduced numbers of homeless youth because we will see them prepared for college and the working world. We will see a reduction in mental health emergencies because we will give them tools to create self-care practices and learn about mental health help. Our goal is to empower confident and well-informed girls and youth, resulting in decreased rates of self-harm and suicide. We strive to provide girls with the necessary resources for success in LA County. With continued funding, we are confident that we can positively impact their lives. Our program's success will allow us to establish a standardized curriculum for underserved high schools, providing a much-needed resource for our community youth. We also see ourselves having a physical space that would be a literal "safe space" for the girls in our community. Our goal is for this program to have the same success and impact as the Girl Scouts, continuing indefinitely.

The impact of our work includes addressing the KPIs we have set for ourselves. We expect 85% of attendees to have increased knowledge in practical and vocational skills after workshop attendance. 50% of Community Building participants will have brought one or more friends to a C.G.C. workshop or experience. By the end of Q4, C.G.C. will see a 20% increase in attendance. 75% of all participants will be able to define self-care clearly; 50% of participants will be able to declare what their self-care is; 75% of participants will report an increase in mental and physical health 75% will report an increase in their financial knowledge and literacy 75% of C.G.C. girls will demonstrate confidence and fluency in essential computer programming functions; 75% will meet at least one diverse leader in S.T.E.M. after attending a workshop. We get this information by surveying our girls after our longer cohorts and simply by asking and conversing with our youth and parents.