AFG in LA County: The First Years
*“Girls and gender-expansive youth” refers to cis girls, trans girls, non-binary youth, gender non-conforming youth, gender queer youth and any girl-identified youth.
In 2017, the Los Angeles County Women and Girls Initiative (WGI) and several local girl-serving organizations reached out, asking AFG to bring its collaborative model to the region. From the exploratory conversations AFG had with these organizations, it was clear they needed to start by listening to girls and gender-expansive youth and then uplift what these youth say they need to thrive.
Since then, AFG has been gathering research, data, and information about the needs of girls and gender-expansive youth in LA County, with a specific focus on South and Southeast LA, through:
Publishing our Girl, You Can Do Anything report in August 2020 to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of girls of color within Los Angeles County.
Establishing our LA Advisory Group to provide expertise and strategic thought on how to better meet girls’ needs in LA County.
Convening 60 girls’ champions and youth, representing 25 different organizations across LA County, as our official LA Kick-Off. It was a day of learning, connecting, and most importantly collective dreaming of the transformative change that is possible.
Developing an LA Community Asset Mapping report, the Hear Their Voices summary brief, and a heat map to identify the programs, services and resources currently available to girls and gender-expansive youth in South and Southeast LA and the barriers they face to accessing them. Our heat map is one of the few heat maps, that we know of, focused on services and programs for youth that is gender-specific for LA County.
Throughout this research, girls and gender-expansive youth are clear about what they need at an individual, organizational, community, and public policy level to thrive.
“In this neighborhood you gotta be tough because you’re exposed to a lot of stuff here and you’re put through more than anybody in a better neighborhood would be put through.”
AFG’s FIVE POWERFUL LEARNINGS ABOUT THE EXPERIENCES OF GIRLS & GENDER-EXPANSIVE YOUTH AND THE SERVICES AVAILABLE TO THEM IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST LA
Through AFG’s research in these two areas of LA County, 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.
Hear Their Voices, the LA Community Asset Mapping Report and Heat Map were made possible by the generous financial support of the California Community Foundation and the ongoing support of AFG’s funders.
We also want to thank the CNM team for all their work and dedication to ensure this data and report was as thorough and useful as possible to the LA community and girls and gender-expansive youth themselves
Special thanks to the AFG LA Advisory Group for their guidance and participation, including Black Women for Wellness, EmpowHer Institute, Girls Inc. of Los Angeles, MOSTe, the Positive Results Center, Public Counsel, YWCA Greater Los Angeles, and Young Women’s Freedom Center. We also thank the Vera Institute of Justice, LA County Departments of Public Health and Youth Development, and the LA County Women and Girls’ Initiative for sharing their generous time and resources with the research team.
