Naming our feelings is powerful. That’s true even—or especially—when we’re hurting. School has just begun, and already we’re faced with the horrifying tragedy of another school shooting. We have been bombarded with an overwhelm of news, memorials, and arguments. In order to re-establish equilibrium, we want to invite our community to join us in naming …
Like all educators, Girls Leadership Program Manager Catherine Castillo Cruz gets up early. There’s always a lot to do, and she has a long commute before she can even start. It’s January in New York and the cold is biting. Catherine checks her phone, hoping for a distraction from the seeping chill, but instead there’s …
Many people think of friendship as a purely social endeavor, but we hold a different perspective: we believe that friendships are an incubator for leadership development — that the social and emotional skills girls develop through friendships form the habits of their personal and professional relationships for decades to come. It’s why building healthy friendships …
A foundational piece of our work at Girls Leadership is to create brave spaces – communities where all girls and gender-expansive youth feel seen, accepted, and loved by peers and adults – in person and online. Brave spaces are crucial because they allow for vulnerability, the safety to take risks, mess up, reflect, and recover, …
Basketball coaches tell us one of their biggest challenges of coaching is off the court. They dread dealing with conflict between players and are burdened by the impact that “team drama” has on recruiting and retaining players. We want them to know they’re not alone in the challenges they face, and we’re here to help. …
Check out these inspiring highlights from an event hosted by Warriors Basketball Academy powered by Rakuten and Girls Leadership. February 1 was National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD), a nationwide celebration to enable girls and women to reach their potential in sports and life. This special experience at the Warriors Basketball Facility in …
Last year, with support from Girls Leadership’s Empower Club, youth at Latitude High School in Oakland created and modeled in a photoshoot to embody strength, vulnerability, and body confidence. They held a creative showcase of their photos and poetry called “My Beautiful Body” at the Joyce Gordon Gallery in downtown Oakland to share their work …
Photo caption: “Students in discussion at The Young Women’s Leadership School” Lifting others up and helping them find grounding, wellness, and the power of their voice is at the foundation of what we do at Girls Leadership. When girls experience their own power, amazing things happen. Last year eleventh graders at The Young Women’s Leadership …
Leadership Spotlight: Krystal Folk Krystal Folk, LMSW, is a Director of Social Work for KIPP Freedom Middle School in New York. Krystal reconnected with Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW) and works part-time as a Live Support Specialist for the school’s online Master of Social Work program. She has represented the CSSW’s online campus at …
As schools across the country are coming to a close, communities are celebrating milestones that come with the high school experience: graduations, promotions, and prom. For many youth these milestone celebrations become a time when gender expectations become reinforced: from boys being expected to be the ones asking girls to prom or paying for prom …
