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If you don’t find one of your questions below, please email us at info@girlsource.org.
Are the jobs GirlSource offers real jobs?
Yes. The young women who participate at GirlSource work six to nine hours a week after school, and each of our paid work programs runs three to ten months.
Furthermore, we treat each step of the process as if they were applying for jobs outside GirlSource. The girls submit applications, and each applicant is interviewed by several of our program staff members.
In the end, we accept those girls who are most in need and have a desire to do something positive for themselves and their communities. The remaining applicants are wait-listed and given priority for the next available program slot. On average, we interview four times as many applicants as we have spots to fill.
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How do participants find GirlSource?
Young women find out about GirlSource in a variety of ways. At least half the participants hear about us through former participants. We also do extensive outreach at local schools and community organizations, giving the teachers, guidance counselors, and agency staff application forms and descriptions of our programs.
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What are young women learning through these jobs?
GirlSource jobs offer young women the opportunity to learn a wide range of professional, life-management, and leadership skills, such as writing, critical thinking, computer software skills, decision-making, budgeting, time-management, teamwork, conflict resolution, and public speaking. For all participants, we provide a supportive environment that encourages them to move into jobs that elevate their life goals and contribute to their communities.
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Where does the money come from to pay these young women?
GirlSource receives funding from individuals, foundations, corporations, government grants, and our annual WAVE Awards luncheon. For more information, we invite you to visit Our Supporters.
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What kinds of things do the participants do or create?
GirlSource participants produce tangible products — a young women’s health book (GirlSource, Ten Speed Press, 12.95), a Web site dedicated to the health and well-being of young women (www.girlhealth.org), community resource and referral guides. In our experience, the creation of tangible products is a terrific way for participants to learn applicable employment skills, including tools for working and getting along with other people. These products also help them understand that jobs can be both personally and socially rewarding.
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What are the demographics of the girls who participate?
45% are Latina, 40% African Americans, 13% Asian-Pacific Islander, and 2% Caucasian. In addition, 100% come from low-income families, 15% are teen mothers, about 40% speak English as a second language, and many comes to us at very low levels of literacy.
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Why do you only take girls?
There are three main reasons we only accept girls into our programs:
- It allows us to create a community that provides the kind of dedicated support they don’t get elsewhere.
- We can create a physically safe environment, which often doesn’t exist at home or school, where boys or men are often associated with danger.
- Low-income teenage girls face a unique set of issues. Reports show that Hispanic and African-American girls have higher drop out and pregnancy rates than other girls, and adolescent girls of color have greater indices of depression and suicide attempts than their white counterparts.
Given these statistics, it is not surprising that low-income young women are impeded in their ability to move out of poverty and into meaningful employment and personal success. They require programming that helps them develop into strong, capable, and active leaders to benefit themselves, to contribute to their communities, and to serve as role models for their peers.
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