Strong Women, Strong Girls

Mission

The mission of Strong Women, Strong Girls is to utilize the lessons learned from strong women throughout history to encourage girls and young women to become strong women themselves. By building communities of women committed to supporting positive social change, Strong Women, Strong Girls works to create cycles of mutual empowerment for women and girls.

• Strong Women, Strong Girls is built on a foundation of six core values:
• Love & Support: Building positive and consistent relationships that support each other, even when we make mistakes.
• Integrity & Respect: Recognizing and role modeling that everyone deserves to be treated with respect, including girls, community members, volunteers, staff and ourselves.
• Discovery: Seeking out and appreciating the unique talents and abilities of others and ourselves, as well as being open to new experiences, learning and growing.
• Balance: Knowing when to offer and accept help to maintain a healthy life-style.
• A Diverse Female Community: Honoring our commonalities and differences while recognizing the unique power of a diverse all-female community.
• SPARKS! Feeling the magic, inspiration and excitement of working toward a common goal in Strong Women, Strong Girls.

History


2000

• Lindsay Hyde founds Strong Women, Strong Girls as a student group of the Phillips Brooks House Association at Harvard University. The program begins working in two elementary school sites & engages six college volunteer mentors.

2001

• Strong Women, Strong Girls gains national recognition among young women when it is featured inSeventeen Magazine.

2003

• Requests from parents, teachers, and principals support the rapid growth of Strong Women, Strong Girls from serving 30 girls to serving over 100 girls in the Greater Boston area.
• Strong Women, Strong Girls is featured in Glamour Magazine, publicizing its efforts to empower women and girls

2004

• Strong Women, Strong Girls launches as a nonprofit agency! This expansion brings new partnerships with college and universities, as well as expanded programming.

2006

• Working in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, Strong Women, Strong Girls launches the organization’s first replication site in Pittsburgh, PA and transitions from a local to national movement.

2007

• Strong Women, Strong Girls is chosen as a Social Innovator by Root Cause’s Social Innovation Forum.
• Support for the movement builds when Strong Women, Strong Girls is featured on NBC News and in theBoston Globe.
• Strong Women, Strong Girls launches a strengthened, simplified and streamlined outcomes measurement system in order to gather clear and compelling data capturing program achievements and highlighting areas for program improvements.
• Founder Lindsay Hyde receives the Jefferson Award for her work on Strong Women, Strong Girls and joins the likes of Steve Jobs, Alan Khazei and Wendy Kopp.

2008

• The first annual Jump Into Spring event engages Strong Women, Strong Girls’ Boston community with John Kerry as the keynote speaker.
• Strong Women, Strong Girls builds more momentum when it is featured at the Coca-Cola North America National Executive Summit and as an exemplary program through the Solomon McCown Mission Recognition program.
• Lynne Garfinkel, Pittsburgh Executive Director, is invited throw out the first pitch at a Pittsburgh Pirates game.

2009

• Strong Women, Strong Girls expands to its third location – South Florida.
• Strong Women, Strong Girls is featured at the National Coalition for Girls Schools Annual Conference. Lindsay Hyde is recognized with the Women of Achievement Award, previously accepted by Sally Ride and Cokie Roberts.
• Strong Women, Strong Girls Pittsburgh is recognized with the Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania award.

2010

• Strong Women, Strong Girls launches its AmeriCorps program through Volunteer Florida and joins the national service movement.
• Strong Women, Strong Girls is featured in the Miami Herald for its exemplary work in Florida.
• Strong Women, Strong Girls receives the National Philanthropic Business of the Year Award at the Classy Awards.

2011

• Strong Women, Strong Girls launches the Get Active! initiative, incorporating health and wellness education into its core programming.
• SWSG receives the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network Excellence Award for Communications.
• SWSG Director of Process Improvement and Knowledge Meghan Trombly receives the Comcast Leadership Award.
• SWSG Pittsburgh is honored by the Wilkinsburg Boys & Girls Club as Community Service Organization of the Year.
• SWSG South Florida is honored at the 2011 AmeriCorps Disability Partnership meeting as part of its “Better Communities Include Everyone” program.
• SWSG Founder Lindsay Hyde receives the Margaret Stewart Lindsay Inspiration Award at the Root Cause Social Innovation Forum.

2012

• SWSG significantly expands the Strong Leaders program, engaging more than 120 women as Leadership Coaches.
• SWSG South Florida is recognized with the 2012 NOVO Award by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.
• SWSG engages more girls than ever before, serving 1,400 girls across the organization’s three cities in the 2011-2012 program year.
• SWSG launches new chapters on two college campuses: Barry University in South Florida and University of Massachusetts-Boston.

http://swsg.org/