What is Girls Build?
Girls Build, an initiative run by the LA Promise Fund, challenges young women from public middle and high schools to use STEM principles and 21st Century learning skills to effect social change. Girls Build activates young women to engage with the issues they care about, and prepares them to solve the problems of tomorrow.
This year, at a very important time in our nation’s history, Girls Build, in partnership with When We All Vote, is working to accelerate voter registration and voter turn-out around important elections. Girls Build is also broadening its reach to include 9 additional cities beyond Los Angeles where more teams of girls will work to be agents of change in their own schools and communities.
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.
