How It Works

High school and middle school teams apply to join Girls Build. We ask young women to identify an issue they face in their lives and through the program, produce a solution to effect positive change in their communities. LA Promise Fund selects 50 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 STEM principles and address three core impact areas: Health & Wellness, Civic Engagement & Leadership, ​and STEM & College Access. Teams choose to address an issue they want to change, within an impact area which directly affects them and their community. Participating teams will create a website, develop social media campaigns, and use professional communication tools to share their progress throughout the program.

Learn more.

OUR REACH

• 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 Leadership Summit 2017

Due to unprecedented demand, the LA Promise Fund created its first ever Girls Build Leadership Summit. Ten thousand girls attended the Summit, held at the LA Convention Center on December 15th. We were deeply honored and incredibly excited to welcome former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on stage. Hillary Clinton, an individual who decided early in her career that she wanted to devote her life to improving the lives of others, embodies so much of what Girls Build is about.

She was joined by Senator Kamala Harris, who wrote about her experience at the event. Accomplished professionals in the technology and entertainment sectors also took to the stage. They included Moj Mahdara, CEO of Beautycon; Bozoma Saint John, Chief Brand Officer at Uber; Beatriz Acevedo, founder of mitú; Tara Deveaux, Chief Marketing Officer at BBDO; and Christy Haubegger, Agent at CAA and Founder of Latina magazine.

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