Girls Action Foundation provides funds and training to over 100 girls’ programs in communities across Canada. It also offers programs, research and support to a network of over 300 partnering organizations and projects, reaching over 60,000 Canadian girls and young women annually, particularly in under-represented communities including Northern, racialised, low-income, Aboriginal and immigrant communities.
Working in partnership
Girls Action Foundation collaborates with several national and international organizations that work with girls and young women, including Canadian Women's Foundation, G(irls)20 Summit, Girls and Women, J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University, Status of Women Canada, YWCA Canada, and over 300 network member organizations.
The Light a Spark Campaign was launched in 2011 to encourage accomplished women to motivate and inspire the next generation. More than 64 Canadian women took part in the initiative as mentors, spokeswomen or fundraisers, including musicians Melissa Auf der Maur and Jenny Salgado, environmentalist Severn Cullis-Suzuki, triathlete Tereza Macel, social justice activist Judy Rebick, writers Lillian Allen and Kim Thúy Ly, and journalist Isabelle Racicot.
Services
Girls Action Foundation provides spaces for girls to speak out, build skills and create action on issues that are important and real to them. Its local girls’ programs address violence prevention, health promotion, media literacy and leadership and its national leadership program offers long-term investment and support to young women who are changemakers in their communities.
By providing publications, resources and practical support, Girls Action fosters learning, connections and collaborations. Its programs include coaching, training and networking opportunities that help develop community initiatives and girls’ programs.
Programs and projects
•Amplify
A national training program for girls’ program providers that involves designing programs, creating empowering spaces for marginalized girls, developing workshops and facilitation skills, as well as deepening understanding of popular education and building community support, while sharing resources, challenges and strategies.
•Art Attack
After school arts program for 14- to 17-year-old girls in the Montreal area. Combines popular education and media arts-based activities where the girls explore themes related to body image, self-esteem, violence, dating, pop culture, the media, and more.
•Bridge Project
A national collaboration to support young women's civic engagement, created to fill a gap in resources and programming that responds to the realities and issues facing immigrant and refugee girls and young women.
•ELLE
A national 5-day leadership program for young women between 16 and 25 years of age that includes training, networking opportunities, long-term mentorship program and Leadership Capacity Grants. Through capacity building, peer learning and reflection, young women develop personal and community leadership skills to foster social innovation.
•Girlhood Exchange Symposium
In partnership with McGill University and the Institute of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, a half-day forum brings together academics, practitioners and policy makers in the "girlhood" field to share research, practices and ideas.
•Girls and Equality: Media Arts Workshops
A workshop to provide support for community groups and organizations that are interested in offering media arts training to strengthen their initiatives for girls and young women from ethno-cultural communities.
•Girls Club
After school violence prevention and empowerment program for 11- to 13-year-old girls in the Montreal area. Offers workshops with guests from the community who share their passion and expertise with the girls in areas such as theatre, self-defence, media arts, yoga and much more.
•GTA Project
Networking and skill-building events that will provide young women and program organizers in the GTA area with opportunities to share resources and best practices, network, learn new skills and strategies, and avoid overlap in work.
•Indigenous Young Women: Speaking our Truths, Building our Strengths
A project that focuses on Indigenous young women's leadership, empowerment, solidarity-building, and ending violence.