Girlsource, Inc.

Programs: GirlSource programs include the Young Women's Technology and Leadership program which hires young women to build an interactive web site. Their job during the program is to provide information and discussion on the issues from our book, It's About Time, published in 1999. Program participants gain technology and leadership skills that will prepare them for internships, jobs, or additional training. The Young Women's Community Leadership Program delivers a curriculum that emphasizes leadership and activism around self-identified health and well being issues within participants' own communities. GirlSource has partnered with community based organizations across 5 Bay Area counties to reach over 150 young women per year. Bound For Success provides career, college, and life planning services for low-income young women. Bound for Success has four components: workshops to help young women get to college and expose them to a broad range of career options, visits to local colleges and universities, enrollment in an Individual Development Account (IDA) program (which allows youth to save earnings that are matched at a 3:1 rate for educational expenses), and the Glady Thacher Scholarship Fund, which provides a cash award to GirlSource participants entering college. In addition to these three programs, GirlSource also actively includes low-income young women in leadership and decision-making positions on both our staff and Board, and program participants are routinely promoted to staff positions within the organization. Consequently, GirlSource provides an environment in which young women work with women of all ages on our staff and Board to shape and run our programs.