The Need for Girls Inc

A Case for Support

Every day at Girls Incorporated of Holyoke we are inspiring girls to be strong, smart and bold!

For our girls, Girls Inc. of Holyoke is not just a program or a place they come to after-school, it is an identity. Being a Girls Inc. girl is to be proud of who you are, excited about where you are going, and to embody the conviction that “I matter, I am worthy, and with hard work, creative thinking and determination, success for me is not just a possibility, it is inevitable.”

We believe in our girls. Comprehensive, year-round, and customized, we meet the changing needs of girls in our community. We provide girls with life changing experiences, opportunities to excel as leaders, and an engaging learning environment where they can reach their full potential.

Picture the world through the eyes of a girl.

• She is living in a world where sex appeal is promoted as the key driver of success for girls and women; where women are more likely to be viewed as sexual object than as leaders.
• She is growing up in a world where women are still earning only $.76 for every dollar a man earns – aware each day that a glass ceiling persists.
• She is growing up in country where women, and especially women of color, are extremely underrepresented in politics, where only 2% of her U.S. Senate is Hispanic, and only 14% of her U.S Senators are women (2007).

Add on to this, the perceptions of a girl growing up in Holyoke...

She feels unsafe walking around in her neighborhood, mindful of violence and gang activity, and all too aware that she lives in a world where violence against women and girls is at an all time high.

• She is growing up in community where 1 in 4 children in Holyoke live in severe poverty – and is either living in it herself, or surrounded by, the many challenges and barriers facing low-income families.
• She is growing up in a community where the teen pregnancy rate is the highest in the state, with a rate that is 346% higher than the state average (2008).
• She is going to school in a school system that has one of the state’s highest drop-out rates – at last recording the graduation rate was only 49%.

These are among the countless reasons why girls-only programming is so critical.

We have high expectations for our girls, and we are committed to giving each of them the best learning experience possible.

We need Girls Inc. because our programs work.

Our programs are compensatory. By that we mean that the programs and experiences we provide are compensating for all the negative messages that they are exposed to on a daily basis.

• Girls Inc. of Holyoke participants are far more likely to excel academically and to attend either 2 or 4 year colleges.
• Girls Inc. girls are more likely to have high self-esteem, view themselves as leaders, be engaged in civic activities and resume responsibility for being part of the solution to challenges facing their community.
• Our non-pregnancy has been rate 99.8% for the past five years because we provide comprehensive health education and implement nationally recognized prevention curriculums that are effective.
• At Girls Inc. our girls are far more likely to explore career options and to achieve economic independence because our programs focus on economic literacy and encourage higher education as a means of achieving financial success.
• At Girls Inc. our graduation rate for high school seniors is consistently 100%, and 95% of our girls progress to the next grade level.
  Our girls are far less likely to engage in violence, become pregnant or abuse substances.

Join us.

We can’t do it without you. We need Girls Inc. to continue to thrive, sustain, and to grow, because the need is much greater than what we can currently provide. Every day we are turning girls and families away because we are full. For every girl that we serve, there are at least four that we cannot. Here is to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart and bold – together!