“Girls Write Now has been my stepping stone for getting in the world I had only dreamt about” — Calayah Heron, mentee alum
Girls Write Now consistently demonstrates that our approach is effective in turning around the high rate of failure often experienced by economically disadvantaged young women and gender non-conforming youth due to systemic inequality and injustice.
100% of our senior mentees go to college armed with writing and multimedia portfolios and a strong sense of self—more than half with awards and scholarships. Our mentees are published in outlets including The New York Times, Newsweek, BuzzFeed, and our award-winning anthologies; perform at Lincoln Center and the United Nations; and earn hundreds of Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Girls Write Now has a long track record of collecting quantitative and qualitative data showing successful outcomes from our programs, most dramatically for those with the highest need.
Girls Write Now earned the 2019 HI Impact Award, ranking in the top 4% of programs nationwide for outstanding performance driving social-emotional growth for youth.
There is a market demand for stellar communication and Girls Write Now is meeting it, making girls and gender non-conforming youth creative thinkers, clear writers, and competitive candidates for the trails they choose to blaze.
TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS
Girls Write Now has been distinguished three times by the White House as one of the nation’s top youth programs, twice by the Nonprofit Excellence Awards as one of New York’s top ten nonprofits for management, by NBCUniversal’s 21st Century Solutions for Social Innovation, by Youth INC for Youth Innovation, and as a DVF People’s Voice Nominee. At the close of the Obama administration, Girls Write Now received the White House Champion of Change Award for creating opportunities for girls from marginalized communities so that all young people can reach their full potential.
Girls Write Now is a founding member of the STARS Citywide Girls Initiative, a collective of 10 leading nonprofits, and the first and only grassroots collective of its kind—annually serving over 6,000 girls and gender non-conforming youth of color in all 51 New York City Council Districts for nearly a decade.
Girls Write Now is regularly named as a top place to volunteer by Time Out New York, New York Magazine, Buzzfeed, Bustle, and more; and has been covered by countless other news outlets like the The Nation, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, NBC Nightly News, ABC Good Morning, Glamour, Elle, Upworthy, and more.
STRATEGIC GROWTH
As we embark on our third decade, we believe our mission has never been more relevant or urgent. Girls Write Now is committed to working with the larger community to rise above the race and income-based inequalities of the nation’s school system and workforce. We are currently rolling out an ambitious strategic growth plan, created with input from 100+ stakeholders. The plan outlines our initiatives to expand the number of people we serve; enrich our programming through integration of creative, critical, and digital skillbuilding; elevate the voices of those who are too often not heard; and extend our alumnae services to support girls and gender non-conforming youth through college and career—creating a pipeline to the industries in need of their talents.