Community Link: Girls Inc. of Indianapolis
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On this week’s Community Link, we are discussing the mission of Girls Inc. of Indianapolis and how they empower young girls with CEO and president Elyssa Campodonico-Barr.
So how does Girls Inc. empower young girls?
We have a very rich history and a presence in the greater Indianapolis area. We’re about 50 years running in the greater Indianapolis area. Our anniversary is next year and our mission is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold. and we do this through programing that ensures girls are healthy, they understand what healthy relationships look like. That they’re educated through college and career planning and that they’re bold, that they are independent and they understand that their true worth is from what’s within not on their outer shell.
How many people do you guys serve? The demographics themselves?
We served last year in 2017 about 2300 girls in the greater Indianapolis area and our reach is not only central or Marion County area, it’s also Hendricks County, Hamilton and Boone County and we’re hoping to expand those as well. we also have a wide reach of socio-economic strata in our community… serving about 55 percent African-American girls, 20 percent Caucasian and 15 percent of the Latino community.
Tell us about some of the programs you have.
We have three program suites: strong, smart and bold.
In our strong programs we make sure that our girls understand what it is to be healthy so we have physical education programs, conflict resolution programs. We ensure that they understand how to combat cyberbullying in this age of technology. In our smart programs we introduced our girls to stem programing so science, technology, engineering and math; which we know it’s so underrepresented by women right now on those disciplines so making sure that they understand there’s a pathway there.
We do economic literacy programs that would serve girls for the rest of their lives and we do a program called re-defining beauty, which really focuses on girls understanding their self-worth and empowering them. No matter what skin color they are, no matter what background they are from, we want to make sure that girls, when they have a seat at the table, that they not only have a seat as a leader but they also know how to express their voice in those really important situations.
So you’re teaching them to be prepared for the future?
Absolutely. We’re focusing on and we have new programs that really speak to this and what we’re doing is to carve out the next leaders in the city of Indianapolis. Making sure that girls and young women really have a place in those atmospheres.
How difficult or easy is it to get girls to participate in those programs?
We have over 100 program partners so we have a large presence in Indianapolis and the greater area, so those are from public schools to charter schools throughout those counties that I mentioned. if you have an interest in Girls Inc or volunteer, I actually started as a volunteer so it’s really important to get involved and we have opportunities for you to do that. Visit here for more.