There is no better time to invest in girls than now.
While walking on the other side of Houston Street one morning on the way to the F train, I noticed an inviting storefront with a neon sign “girls club.” Shortly thereafter, I sent an email inquiring about volunteering, and that was the beginning of my 8-year love affair with the Lower East Side Girls Club (@girlsclubny).
The Lower East Side Girls Club connects girls and young women to healthy and successful futures and strives to break the cycle of poverty in the LES. Their state of the art center (not on Houston street anymore!) offers a safe haven with programs in the arts, sciences, leadership, entrepreneurship, and wellness at NO COST to girls and families.
Even though the LES is celebrated as a hipster/artists/ foodie playground, it can be a tough place for a young girl to grow up.
✔️69% of public school students live in poverty
✔️60% of youth are raised in single-parent homes
✔️13% of students are performing at grade level in English in grades 3-8
✔️50% of high school students graduate
✔️2000 of the cities homeless students come from the LES
✔️Public Schools in the LES get $6000 less annual funding per student than wealthier districts around the state.
The Girls Club has been closing this gap for over 20 years, offering joy, power and possibility to participants while expanding the imaginations of young women and the community alike of what might be. Their biggest fundraiser of the year is coming up next Wednesday, May 16th. This year, I am on the After Party Committee & I invite you to join us!! It will be an event unlike any other — you definitely don’t want to miss it.
@pieraluisa of @refinery29 is helping create the evening, so think @29rooms meets @houseofyesnyc while @djspinderella (from Salt N Pepa!) Djs! Party with a purpose with honorees @cleowade, @yarashahidi & @elainewelteroth, and board members @roasariodawson, @dearabalenger and more.
Tickets to the afterparty are only $200.00-link in bio. I look forward to seeing you there. Imaginations are best raised in community.