2024 YEAR-END REPORT
We are building the community we
INTRODUCTION
2024 was a year for
BUILDING.
This year, Alliance for Girls (AFG) changed leadership and grew as an organization. Chantal Hildebrand and Linda Lu became Co-Executive Directors, and our long-term research partner, Evaluation Studio, was integrated with Alliance for Girls.
This is the first time in AFG’s history that two women of color are co-leading the organization and modeling equity in leadership. We have also implemented a power-sharing model across our team, ensuring that every staff member has the opportunity to lead.
In this current political reality, we believe our organization, with its newly joined staff, is even better positioned to advocate for and actualize youth-driven change at local, county, and state levels.
To fight for change, we believe we must first imagine the future we want. Our theory of change is based on this belief.
In this report, you will learn about the dreams of those in our community, as well as our efforts to make these dreams our shared future.
Making Public Transit Safer
Along with a community of girls, gender-expansive youth of color, and caring adults, Alliance for Girls (AFG) created a Youth-Informed Safety Evaluation Framework for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). In a survey and four community sessions, we gathered input from 86 people — mostly girls and gender-expansive youth of color. All participants were paid a stipend for their expertise. Collectively, we co-defined “radical safety” on public transit and created clear metrics for BART to track its progress improving safety.
In a public BART Board of Directors meeting on December 5, 2024, BART Director Lateefah Simon said, “[Alliance for Girls] is an extraordinary organization... I do think, as someone who has worked with young women for most of my career, this kind of work is often times pushed to the side, or laughed at, or disrespected — but I gotta tell you, when young people are saying, ‘These are the things that are going to keep us safe,’ we better damn well listen.”
When girls and gender-expansive youth tell us what they need, we believe them and take their lead.
“The youth who participated were really grateful that their voices were taken seriously and that the framework will translate to tangible change,” says Kailin Chou, AFG’s Director of Community Engagement. We look forward to seeing this evaluation framework implemented at BART, and hope it is adopted at other public transit agencies, as well.
If adopted by BART, this evaluation framework would represent one of the first known instances where a major public transit agency centers the definition of safety as articulated by girls and gender-expansive youth, using it as a core metric to assess impact. It is a powerful demonstration of how youth can redefine something as fundamental as safety through their voices and lived experiences, driving real systems change.
Left to right: Alliance for Girls’ Kennedy Foye, Mars Francis (youth leader), Chantal Hildebrand, as well as BART’s Chief Communication Officer Alicia Trost, presenting recommendations at BART’s public Board of Directors meeting on Dec. 5, 2024.
Timeline of AFG’s Work with BART
2019
AFG’s report Together We Rise, shows lack of safety on public transportation as a key barrier for girls.
2020
Thanks to significant community-led advocacy, BART Board passes 12-point resolution that leads to creation of Not One More Girl (NOMG) Initiative.
2021
AFG, its member organizations, and BART complete Phase I of NOMG, working with community members and youth to build awareness and shift the way BART approaches sexual harassment. For more information on NOMG Phase I please refer to the Safety In Numbers case study.
2023-2024
BART hires AFG to develop the first youth-informed evaluation framework through a community-driven process.
Cande Angeles Larrieta, Youth facilitator
State of the
Bay Area Girl
To uplift girls and gender-expansive youth of color, we must first understand the challenges they face. We launched the State of the Bay Area Girl Initiative to understand their experiences — what matters to them, the systems that shape their lives, and the solutions they envision for their future.
By aggregating and reviewing 9 years of Alliance for Girls’ youth participatory research, we identified 150 promising practices and recommendations across 17 different preliminary themes and domains.
The State of the Bay Area Girl Initiative ensures girls and gender-expansive youth of color are positioned as solution builders, so Alliance for Girls and the organizations we work with can lean into their expertise to meet their needs.
We track what’s meaningful to youth of color, which leads to the systems change they want and need.
AFG research about girls and gender-expansive youth was aggregated over 9 years, and includes:
23,006
middle and high school youths’ academic performance data*
1,214
online surveys
73
participating community organizations, schools, county offices
270
listening sessions and interviews
*from Oakland Unified School District and San Francisco Unified School Districts
Lynelle Legados, Youth facilitator
Pláticas
In September, Alliance for Girls hosted two gatherings — one in-person and one virtual — to uncover the true “state” of girls and gender-expansive youth as they define it. At both events, we were joined by two inspirational leaders, Julayne Virgil, CEO of Girls Inc. of Alameda County, and Holly Martinez, Executive Director of The Representation Project.
As an intergenerational community, we talked about the most important issues to girls and gender-expansive youth.
Youth want services to be basic and siloed thoughtful and holistic.
When asked about the community they need, the youth described it as one that goes beyond survival. They want to feel respected and cared for. For example, they don’t just want access to food — they want meals that nourish them and honor their culture. They don’t just want access to period products — they want ones designed for their bodies, along with care for their pain. They don’t just want mental health services — they want access to therapists who understand their culture.
These findings underscore the need to shift from siloed, issue-based approaches to an integrated system that measures and creates environments aligned with how girls and gender-expansive youth want to feel.
Participants shared feedback about the Pláticas, noting that the youth facilitators were amazing, and they felt “affirmed, connected, excited.” They also said how important it was to “[shift] from problem-identification to collective dream building.”
Girls and gender-expansive youth of color co-designed, co-facilitated and/or co-presented 100% of AFG’s public events this year.
Participation at the two Pláticas:
7
youth facilitators
24
youth
37
organizations
42
adults
Holly Martinez, Executive Director, The Representation Project
Julayne Virgil, CEO,
Girls Inc. of Alameda County
Youth Research Hub Listening Sessions
With the integration of Evaluation Studio, AFG acquired new Youth Participatory Research capabilities, which we call the “Youth Research Hub.” To understand what our member organizations need from our research, we held in-depth sessions and learned what they need, including consulting, workshops, facilitation, materials, and best practices.
“Many want to collaborate and co-create with young people, but they don’t have a way to do this kind of youth research. I want to make sure the Hub works for them,” says Irina Nuñez, Participatory Research Director.
Youth Participatory Research is youth-led, and where youth have shared authority and decision-making power. In this work, we center lived experience and all experiential knowledge as valuable.
“Each organization has a particular focus, from mental health to housing or justice-involved youth. At AFG we have a unique perspective — we can see across these organizations to understand their collective research needs,” says Reina Rodríguez, Participatory Research Coordinator.
In 2025, we will present a proposal for the Hub, which will be co-drafted with girls and gender-expansive youth.
We spoke to youth and adults at 15 organizations to understand what our member organizations need from our research.
Scaru Esteva,
Youth facilitator
Evolving Our Membership Model
Alliance for Girls currently has 120 organizations in our network — all with a shared commitment to serve girls and gender-expansive youth in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.
However, we are in the process of redesigning our membership model to better serve the organizations in our alliance.
This shift is key to Alliance for Girls’ larger strategic goal of building community, strengthening relationships, and increasing collaboration among the organizations in our network. We intend to make the alliance more intergenerational (it was previously more adult-led); and more quick and coordinated in its response to the changing needs of those we serve, especially given the dangerous political environment.
We are also moving away from a fee-based model to one organized by communities of practice, or perhaps a community participatory model. This makes participation more accessible for organizations, while also shifts our focus away from a financial model that did not work.
Our advisory Membership Committee, composed of 8 organizations, are helping us define our new model, and in early 2025, we will bring the recommendations to our broader community for feedback.
Alliance for Girls
Membership Committee
We are grateful for these inspiring organizations, who are helping us to design our new membership model.
Irina Nuñez, AFG’s Participatory Research Director and their family: Josefina, Joanna, and Soona
A LETTER FROM OUR CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORSLooking Ahead
Linda Lu and Chantal Hildebrand, Co-Executive Directors, Alliance for Girls
As we close this year, we reflect on the message we shared with you in our post-election letter—the importance of rest. We spoke about unclenching our fists in the wake of uncertainty and finding grace in the space rest creates. When we rest, we renew our hearts and rediscover our ability to lead with love.
Building on that message, we encourage the possibility of letting go as we enter a new year. We know how hard it is to let go — of doubt, fear, despair, and uncertainty. It can feel impossible, even misguided, to release these things, especially when the world around us insists we carry them. But these burdens are not ours to hold. In our journey toward imagining and creating sovereign spaces, there is no room for the fear and doubt that others impose on us. That is their weight to carry, not ours.
Instead, we want to carve out space for something else— something more radical and life-affirming. We want to honor our defiant hearts. We love our collective defiance, the way we reject control over our minds, bodies, and spirits. When we let go of fear and doubt, we find room for defiance — and with it, love, bravery, imagination, and joy.
This year has been one of profound learning and growth. We, as co-leaders learned more about ourselves, our girls and gender-expansive youth, and the incredible organizations and champions who work tirelessly to support them.
We deepened our understanding of what it means to share power and co-lead, and how these values can transform our work.
This year, through our research and key initiatives, we connected to 132 youth and 133 organizations to co-create a shared vision — a vision that centers lived experience, fosters unity, and seeks to dismantle systems that do not serve us. In doing so, we saw the beauty and resilience of imagined communities coming to life every day: in trusted relationships, in community programs and circles, and in your unwavering dedication.
We want you to know we are here for you. Truly. This world is not always kind or supportive, but you are building the future every day in ways big and small. We are here to support you, hold you, create with you, and honor your voices.
We are grateful to the youth and organizations we work with, as they continue to raise their voices and lead the way for all of us.
Our biggest learning this year is that this work — co-creating radically safe, sovereign spaces where girls and gender-expansive youth of color can fully own their agency and futures — is more important than ever. And we are committed to continuing this work with all of you.
As we step into the new year, let us walk together, grounded in our shared purpose. Let us release what does not serve us and make space for defiance, joy, and imagination. Let us lead together with love.
Chantal Hildebrand
Linda Lu
The Alliance for Girls team (from top right to left and down): Linda Lu, Shwetha Sridharan, Reina Rodríguez, Irina Nuñez, Nia Thompson, Chantal Hildebrand, Kennedy Foye, Cimone Satele, Kailin Chou, Liz Alvarado (and not in the photo, but included in our hearts and on the team, Michelle Sare.)
Kelly Nguyen, Youth participant
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Year-End Report Credits: Storytelling by Public Access
Visual and web design by Njoki Gitahi
Photography by Myleen Hollero and Chanell Stone