For Young Women and Girls, Community Is Power

Young women in the world often find themselves in perpetual combat with a system that has historically silenced and oppressed them. One organization is bent on dismantling those systems for girls in California. 

The Alliance For Girls (AFG) is rooted in what girls* and gender-expansive youth are experiencing and the solutions they want to see made real. Comprising more than 100 nonprofits serving some 300,000 girls and gender expansive youth across nine Bay Area counties and L.A. county – AFG is the largest alliance of girl-serving organizations in the nation. As a collective of organizations, AFG works for gender equity for all young women, girls, and gender-expansive youth – driven by the leadership of girls themselves. AFG’s power is in its vast network of partners and youth-led approach.

*Girls refers to gender-expansive youth
(cis girls, trans girls, non-binary youth, gender non-conforming youth, gender queer youth, and any girl-identified youth)

AFG was born during 2009’s Great Recession when six executive directors of girls organizations came together with a shared vision for youth in their communities. 

“If we don’t start supporting one another, coordinating services with one another, and advocating on behalf of girls and gender-expansive youth, our girls are going to really suffer in the middle of an economic recession,” Founding Executive Director Emma Mayerson says of the collective thinking at the time. That genesis was critical in helping young girls navigate a much broader disaster: the pandemic. 

As an alliance of organizations, AFG listens to the youth they serve, and amplifies their voices  in order to achieve gender equity. 

AFG’s Young Women’s Leadership Board and Youth Fellows program empowers young women to be in the driver’s seat of effecting the change that they want to see in the world. 

“My voice and those of other young women on the board have helped to shape the direction of Alliance For Girls,” says Gabrielle Battle, a Young Women’s Leadership Board alum. “Our voices help make sure that underrepresented young girls do not go unnoticed.”

One example of what AFG’s young leaders are able to achieve is the leadership of AFG Fellow Viviana Arenas, a young mother herself, during the implementation of the When Young Moms Thrive (WYMT) Initiative in Santa Clara County – a landmark initiative that trains young moms to be researchers and advocates to improve the ecosystem of care available to young parents. Rooted in the two years of advocacy work that AFG and its member organizations did to advocate for the funding from Santa Clara County to design and implement WYMT pilot initiative, Viviana worked closely with the other five WYMT research and policy fellows to engage over 150 young moms across the county in youth-led research. Viviana played a crucial role in uplifting these young moms’ policy recommendations and co-authored a policy memo that was presented to the Santa Clara County government and is in process to be adopted.

“It’s really important to understand what young moms are experiencing in the communities in which they’re living,” says Chantal Hildebrand, AFG’s Deputy Director.