One Girl
The One Girl Initiative is a unique research-based effort to develop a holistic, inclusive, replicable, and collaborative program that focuses on girls. Through alignment with organizations, agencies, and girl-centered programs, One Girl will empower girls in a seven county central Ohio region to develop leadership skills, participate in community service, improve problem-solving skills, understand safety, and build healthy relationships. It is the first comprehensive study on girls and women under 18 in the seven-county central Ohio area. In addition to informing policy-makers and nonprofits about the unique needs of girls in central Ohio, One Girl will serve as a benchmark for progress and a basis for future research.
In Fall 2009, The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio in partnership with The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Insurance, and Cardinal Health awarded an initial investment in the development of a holistic approach to helping girls reach their full potential.
The collaborative of girl-serving organizations include; The Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland, The Interprofessional Commission of Ohio, The Mentoring Center, and the YWCA of Columbus.
Strategic Objective
Our mission is clear and simple. Young women deserve to reach their full potential.
The Women’s Fund wanted to invest targeted dollars to move the needle toward social change on one topic over three years. After two years of investigating successful strategic grant making practices, The Women’s Fund decided to focus on girls. Our first step was to uncover existing data about girls.
In February 2009 we released a One Girl: A Status of Girls in Central Ohio report. It contains research specifically about population and diversity, economic characteristics, child care, education, health, sexual health, safety, and risk behavior.
In addition to the “numbers and narrative” information we’ve gathered, to complete the portrait of girls in central Ohio, The Women’s Fund held “Listening Conversations” with over 500 community members including, social services providers, parents, educators, decision makers, and funders in all seven counties.
An underlying theme in every conversation was cross-age experience. We were surprised at the consistent feedback between both the adults and girls – girls need someone to help them navigate through the transitions in their lives, specifically, elementary to middle school, middle school to high school and high school to college. Although there were specific concerns about sexual activity, self-esteem and healthy relationships, every group felt the solution was some type of relationship. Generally, adults wanted girls to have adult mentors. Overall, the girls strongly advocated for mentors who were closer to their age who had “been through it.” The girls also said that they wanted to have a role in creating the program – not just “do” what the adults have set up. When the adults were asked about the idea of girls mentoring girls, they could see how effective it would be for girls to have a support system more close to their age. These conversations connected The Women’s Fund directly with girl-serving organizations to help them understand exactly what we are looking for.
Using an appreciative and strengths-based model of inquiry, we asked adults questions concerning the experiences of girls in each community. Then we asked the experts – Girls themselves – what it is that motivates them, what resources have been most helpful, and what they need to catapult to success.
Outreach Goal
In order to enrich the lives of girls in our area, One Girl will focus on several key topics facing girls today: Self-esteem and confidence building, establishing healthy relationships with parents and peers, accountability, and exposure to the environments surrounding them daily.
Through aligning organizations, agencies, and girl-centered programs within a conceptual frame work, One Girl will coordinate the targeted delivery of services to girls in seven Central Ohio counties. Because of One Girl, participants will utilize new skills allowing them to finish high school, move on to a post-secondary program, and find options that suit their needs and goals. The girls will understand how to focus on what is healthy for them as individuals, rather than images projected by the media. All in all, the girls will be armed with aptitude in social competence, cooperation, and citizenship.
Research and Planning
In our effort to uncover existing data about status of girls in central Ohio, The Women’s Fund reached out to Community Research Partners (CRP) for data collection and the completion of the first ever gender-specific study on girls in central Ohio; One Girl: The Status of Girls in Central Ohio. The research found that girls are concerned the most with eight key areas: population and diversity, economic characteristics, child care, education, health, sexual health, safety, and risk behavior. This data is imperative in order to improve the lives of girls.
Through keeping a close ear to the community and placing a gendered lens where there was none previously in central Ohio; The Women’s Fund has determined how to invest targeted dollars in the organizations and projects that will have a measurable impact upon girls in the central Ohio community.
Production and Implementation
Over three years, One Girl will implement an evaluative model in each of the seven counties, using existing best practices and the development of a comprehensive plan that will assess the success of the program on an individual and collaborative level.
Under the guidance of The Ohio State University Institutional Review Board, The Women’s Fund will collect both qualitative and quantitative data for a strategic analysis of the success of One Girl.
This initiative is a collaborative for both the funders and the community non-profits.
At every step of the Initiative, each partner must have a voice, yet the group will maintain a shared vision. Through regular communication, and clear guidelines and expectations, all partners feel supported and the mutual vision remains intact.
Differentiation
The One Girl initiative is unprecedented in research and unique in structure. Never before has there been such a close examination of how girls are really fairing in central Ohio, making The Women’s Fund the definitive resource for research on girls within our seven county service area. We are the first to honor girls as the experts in their lives.
Results
At the heart of The Women’s Fund is the power of a girl.
Through empowerment training, self-designed community service projects, and exposure to opportunities outside of their current framework, upper elementary through college age girls will support each other as they make the most important transitions of their young lives.
Our ideals of mobilizing the collective power of women and girls give us strength in connecting girls with the resources they require to reach their full potential. When you invest in one girl, you not only invest in her- you invest in her family and in her entire community.
The One Girl initiative has the resources, power, and potential to make central Ohio a place where girls have the confidence, skills, and tools to live productive, happy, and effective lives. Together, we empower women and girls, impact families and uplift entire communities -one girl at a time
Click here for the full report, including the Executive Summary. One Girl: The Status of Girls in Central Ohio
In an effort to make sure that every voice is heard, we are also providing a survey so that anyone who wants to weigh in about girls in their community can do so. Please click the link to take the survey. Thanks!
Statement from Andi Boutelle, the high school student volunteer filmmaker for the One Girl video:
When I was asked to create a video for the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, my immediate response was yes. As a past grant reader, I have seen the work of the Women’s Fund in action and how beneficial their support has been to several programs who have assisted countless women and implemented long term change in society. It has been a real pleasure to work with such an uplifting and positive organization whose message is simple yet powerful: every girl can reach her full potential.
One of my initial concerns when I began making plans for the video was how to present the statistics. From experience and observation, I have learned that people tend to detach and dissociate themselves from statistics often times because they cannot conceive the enormity of the issues or because they view them as cold, hard, unrelatable facts. By having real girls present these statistics, I hope to give these facts a face, so to speak, giving them life and meaning. This could be your sister, daughter, or friend. She’s not just some number typed on a sheet of paper.
I really enjoyed working with other girls to create this video, and found that the girls enjoyed their experience as well. After reading some of the statistics, one of my friends was pleased to find that girls were doing so well in school, but commented on the need for further progress. I tried to film a wide array of girls in this video, differing in ethnicity, age, and background in order to show the variety of girls that these statistics represent.
A few were shocked at the graveness of some of the statistics. A friend even asked me, “What’s the point of reciting these dismal facts to people?” I told her that these statistics were not set in stone. The great thing about the Women’s Fund is that they recognize this. Instead of seeing a group of struggling girls, they see young women who have the potential, but just need to tap into it. We can change the statistics presented to us today for the better.