AFG 2023 Winter Newsletter
Dear AFG Community,
AFG has seen a lot of big changes in the last year. Earlier this year, our Founding Executive Director, Emma Mayerson, announced she would transition out of her position in mid-September, after 11 impactful years at the helm of our organization. Over the summer, we started our process to gather community input and develop our three-year strategic plan (2024-2027), which is nearly complete. In September, we shared that AFG was adopting a Co-Executive Director model and how that decision embodies our core values. Last week, AFG announced both us as the new Co-Executive Directors and that Evaluation Studio will integrate with Alliance for Girls.
We know that change can feel uncertain, and uncertainty can often feel scary and deeply overwhelming, especially when there are unknown elements at play. For us and the AFG team, this change has felt exciting, hopeful, and serendipitous. These changes come at a time when we have an immense opportunity to advance change where we can so we can shine a light where there is darkness.
As we turn the page to this next chapter that we’ll design together, we promise that we will not lose sight of who we are at our core. We will always center the experiences and voices of girls and gender-expansive youth of color in research, data, and policy solutions and bring an intergenerational approach to collectively advocating for what youth need to thrive. Together, we will continue to uplift their voices, shift narratives about them, and change systems to better meet their needs as they define them. This quarter, AFG saw significant wins from the work we did together with member organizations at the local, county, and state levels.
We look forward to continuing to build upon this powerful work and ring in the new year with a clear strategic direction and purpose.
In community,
Chantal Hildebrand & Linda Lu
AFG Co-Executive Directors
On November 9th, Alliance for Girls announced Chantal Hildebrand and Linda Lu as AFG’s new Co-Executive Directors! We couldn’t be more proud to welcome two incredible women of color who bring their unique expertise, lived experiences, and community-driven approach to AFG’s work.
You already know Chantal Hildebrand (she/her) who has been a trusted member of the AFG leadership team for nearly three years, most recently serving as our Deputy Director.
Linda Lu (she/her) founded Evaluation Studio, a long-time research and evaluation partner of AFG specializing in feminist and decolonized research focused on intergenerational communities and youth of color.
The selection of Chantal and Linda, and the integration of Evaluation Studio with Alliance for Girls, create new opportunities for AFG to better support the girls and gender-expansive youth-serving community through more youth-driven research that sparks girl and gender-expansive youth-centered advocacy.
Chantal and Linda have already officially started working together in their new roles. Soon there will be opportunities to meet them and hear more from and about the new AFG team members, our three-year 2024-2027 strategic plan, and how it charts a course for our collective future.
Please share our social media posts and leave encouraging words for Chantal and Linda in a quote!
Alliance for Girls’ Founding Executive Director, Emma Mayerson, transitioned out of her position on September 15th. Thank you to everyone who came to our reception to honor Emma’s 11 years of leadership and celebrate our collective accomplishments as a powerful network of organizations. As Emma stepped into this next season of her career, we expressed our deepest gratitude to her for her visionary leadership and commitment to AFG.
On September 12th, AFG released Safety in Numbers: How the Not One More Girl (NOMG) Initiative Addresses Sexual Harassment and Gender-Based Violence, a case study that documents our collective journey, impact, and learning from Phase I of the Not One More Girl initiative.
Together with the Betti Ono Foundation, Black Girls Brilliance, the Unity Council’s Latinx Mentorship and Achievement Program, and other powerful community-based organizations, AFG collaborated with BART to turn our research into action – creating Phase 1 of the Not One More Girl (NOMG) initiative. Nearly three years later, the impact of Phase I of the Not One More Girl initiative continues to be clear – from changes within BART to influencing state policy on transit safety.
⚒️ Use this toolkit to amplify our powerful initiative with your funders, donors, and other key stakeholders as a part of your future fundraising efforts or impact reports to demonstrate what is possible when organizations collaborate together for change.
Celebrating State Policy Wins that Center the Safety of Girls and Gender-Expansive Youth
AFG celebrated some exciting legislation wins this legislative cycle and in each of these bills, our girl-centered research was uplifted to highlight their need for these policies. Additionally, our local advocacy through Phase I of the Not One More Girl Initiative with BART helped inspire two important pieces of legislation on public safety that were passed in the last 2 years: SB 1161 and SB 434.
🤲🏽 AB 452 (Justice for Survivors Act), introduced by State Senator Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Dawn Addis and signed by Governor Newsom.
🚇 SB 434 (Public Transit for All), introduced by State Senator Dave Min and signed by Governor Newsom. Read AFG’s op-ed supporting SB 434, published a few days before it was signed.
🩸 SB 260 (The Menstrual Equity Act of 2023), introduced by State Senator Caroline Menjivar, unfortunately, did not make it to the Governor’s desk.
Learn more about the bills AFG supported and how they will positively impact the lives of girls and gender-expansive youth in California in our Legislative Alert below.
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we spoke with Justina Duran about her role as Cultural Events Coordinator with the Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley. Initially hired when she was 18 years old to teach a pow-wow song and dance class at the Indian Health Center, her position has grown tenfold over the years. Justina works cross-vertically with the organization’s events from their prevention services department to hosting ceremonies, sweat events, mini pow-wows, and more.
A California native, Justina’s Apache traditions and cultural practices were a large part of her family life, though it took multiple generations for her family to learn exactly what that meant. Justina’s father knew from his mother that, aside from his Mexican roots, he also had Apache heritage, though his family did not know who or where to connect to learn more about it. It wasn’t until years later, when he joined a Chicano group in college, and met other students who were Indigenous, that he was able to learn more about his Native American background.
Now, Justina gets to connect other youth to their Native traditions, which is, she notes, one of the most powerful and inspiring components of her position. This means bringing new members to traditional cultural events and practices, so they can feel closer to their Native American ancestry.
“We actually brought in a young Apache girl and it was time to do a coming-of-age-ceremony. We got some people…and they did a really big ceremony for them and (it was) really traditional.”
We thank Justina and the incredible work she does to empower Native American and Alaskan Native youth and people.
Thank you to those who joined us on November 1st for our Hear Their Voices: LA Community Asset Mapping Shareback meeting where we discussed learnings from AFG’s data, research, and conversations with girls and gender-expansive youth in LA County, specifically South and Southeast LA, and outlined next steps for collective action.
Of participants who responded to our event survey, 82% reported they are more knowledgeable about issues impacting girls and gender-expansive youth in SPA 6 & 7 and 100% are interested in taking an active role in research, training and/or advocacy.
AFG along with its LA Advisory group, the girls and gender-expansive youth that participated in our research, and collaborators from the larger LA girl-serving community who attended our Kick-Off and Community Shareback meeting will begin to develop key data-driven and girl and gender-expansive youth-centered policy recommendations and will share the ways to be involved.
📧 Stay connected to see our powerful work unfold in 2024.
