Honor International Day of the Girl by Reading AFG’s Newest Research: Hear Their Voices
Dear AFG Community,
Like you, our heart breaks seeing the tragedy that is unfolding across the world. Today, October 11th is International Day of the Girl*, a day dedicated to amplifying the voices and rights of girls everywhere. On a day we should celebrate girls, we acknowledge and hold our community close, those directly impacted by international conflicts. Especially in times of humanitarian crisis, we must band together to amplify the voices of women and girls and ensure their human rights are upheld both abroad and within our own local communities.
With a membership of 120+ organizations collectively serving over 300,000 girls across the Bay Area and Los Angeles County, and all dedicated to systemic change to advance gender equity, Alliance for Girls (AFG) recognizes the importance that every girl gets the chance to reach their full potential.
Today, AFG is proud to release Hear Their Voices: The Experiences of Girls* & Gender-Expansive Youth in South and Southeast Los Angeles. This brief summarizes the findings of our research to date in LA County. It highlights our most recent community asset mapping report and accompanying heat map of the programs, services, and resources available to girls and gender-expansive youth in South and Southeast Los Angeles, specifically Service Planning Areas (SPAs) 6 and 7.
Despite female-identified folks being over 50% of the LA County population – our Community Asset Heat Map is one of the few heat maps of services and programs available for youth in LA County, that we know of, that is gender-specific. Throughout our research, girls and gender-expansive youth in LA County, especially those of color, told us what they need to thrive, and it is our responsibility to listen.
Bringing together all the research, data, and information that we collected about LA County, specifically South and Southeast LA, girls and gender-expansive youth told us that they:
Have powerful connections and relationships with other youth and their family, friends, community, and often teachers and adults from community-based organizations
Experience strict gender norms and gender-based violence in their communities that impact their ability to feel safe and seen
Have few organizations that explicitly uplift girls, especially systems-impacted girls and gender-expansive youth, including those in foster care or on probation, as their priority population
Have limited programming centering girls and their needs, especially programming, resources, and services explicitly for LGBTQIA+ and gender-expansive youth
Face transportation barriers to accessing programs and services
The overall picture we’re seeing is coming into focus. Take the next step with us today by registering for our virtual Hear Their Voices: LA Community Asset Mapping & Heat Map Shareback meeting on Wednesday, November 1st, from 10am to 11:30am PST, where we’ll unpack these research findings and start outlining data-driven and girl and gender-expansive youth-centered solutions together.
Empowered, self-confident, and successful girls and gender-expansive youth, especially those of color, are essential in the development of healthy communities, and we are committed to working alongside our members and girls and gender-expansive youth themselves to uncover and address the inequities that hold them back from their dreams—not just today, but every day.
In community,
The AFG Team
