2019 GRANTEES

Women & Girls Foundation

The Women & Girls Foundation (WGF) is a non-profit organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania engaged in statewide programming and policy work. The mission of WGF is to achieve equality for women and girls, now and for generations to come. In pursuit of this mission, WGF breaks down barriers so that every girl can rise and every woman can soar. Our vision is for women and girls in Pennsylvania to have equal access, opportunity, and influence in all aspects of their public and private lives.

WGF has recently expanded its award winning GirlGov program to serve even more girls through the development of a new GirlGov Summer Leadership Academy. GirlGov is designed to ignite young women’s passion and prepare them as our next generation of leaders, social justice advocates, and change makers. Our flagship program, has been around for nearly ten years, is active throughout the school year, and engages a diverse group of 135 girls from 60 schools and 6 counties from across Southwestern PA. The demand for this school-year program continues to exceed WGF's capacity. 

Every year since GirlGov launched in 2008, WGF has continued to grow. WGF originally started with 12 girls. This year in 2019, WGF received 200 applications. WGF realized that with the increasing need and demand for their program they must increase their capacity.

WGF is working with Dr. Audrey Murrel, Dean of the Honors College at the University of Pittsburgh, to host a tuition-based GirlGov Summer Leadership Academy on the University of Pittsburgh campus during Summer 2020. A Call for Applications for the Summer Leadership Academy will be released in October 2019. While scholarships will be made available to those who need them, this program will also create an opportunity for those who can afford to pay tuition, with the opportunity to experience GirlGov while simultaneously generating some modest revenue for the year-round program. In this way, the Women & Girls Foundation is able to serve more girls and develop a sustainable model for a successful and critically important community program.