What is Girls Build?
Girls Build, an initiative of LA Promise Fund, challenges young women from public middle and high schools across the country to make an impact in their community and ensure that their voices are heard. We believe young women will define the vision for what our schools, communities, and country can be, and that work starts now.
How It Works
Every year, teams of female students from public middle and high schools apply to be a Girls Build team. We ask young women to identify an issue they face in their lives and through the program, envision and implement a solution to effect positive change in their communities. LA Promise Fund selects 65 teams to compete in the Girls Build Challenge. Selected teams will receive seed funding, training, and materials to implement an organic, community-based, data-driven intervention to their challenge. All projects integrate civic engagement and address three core impact areas: Health & Wellness, Civic Engagement & Leadership, and STEM & College Access. Participating teams will create a website, develop social media campaigns, and use professional communication tools to share their progress throughout the program.
Learn more on how your school can participate in Girls Build Challenge by visiting the Girls Build Website.
HELLO FUTURE
Formerly Girls Build Summit
Hello Future, formerly Girls Build Summit, is an annual, 2-day leadership summit event hosted by LA Promise Fund. Hello Future builds on five years of success in hosting inspirational experiences for girls throughout through Girls Build, with speakers like Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Janelle Monae, Shonda Rhimes, Octavia Spencer, and Pharrell. As Girls Build grew to new heights, we realized that we could be doing even more to ENGAGE, INSPIRE, and EMPOWER our girls for the future.
So we expanded our traditional Girls Build Summit to not only inspire girls to leadership, but also to be the largest and brightest STEM experience for young women and students of color in the nation. We invited girls from public and middle schools across Los Angeles County to join us to say hello to the technologies and ideas (em)powering the future.
Learn more by visiting the Hello Future website.
THE IMPACT OF GIRLS BUILD
5 Years of Girls Build Challenge & Summit
- 10,000 young women participated in the Girls Build Summit 2018, hearing from Shonda Rhimes, Alex Padilla, March for Our Lives representatives Delaney Tarr and Kyrah Simon, and more. The event was streamed on Facebook Live to thousands more.
- 10,000 young women participated in the Girls Build Summit 2017, hearing from Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and many more. Millions more experienced the day through extensive press coverage.
- 10,000 young women attended a screening of Hidden Figures. The event featured special guest appearances by stars Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Aldis Hodge and music composer and producer Pharrell Williams.
- 7,000 young women attended the inaugural year’s launch: a screening of He Named Me Malala. The girls watched the film, as well as a special video message from First Lady Michelle Obama, and engaged in a critical conversation around gender equity.
- 1,000 young women from dozens of schools have been engaged over 2 years, forming teams that develop grassroots solutions to urgent problems with far-reaching impact, positively affecting thousands of their peers and community members.
- $50,000 in college scholarships are awarded to six winning teams each year.
- Students everywhere are invited to celebrate gender equity through our social media campaign using #GirlsBuildLA. Together we can raise awareness about the barriers to success that young women face, and celebrate their continued empowerment.
Girls Build Summit 2018
