Girls Inc. of Santa Fe

Girls Inc. of Santa Fe (GISF) inspires local girls to be strong, through lessons and activities supporting mental and physical health; smart, through hands-on activities involving STEM concepts, reading, and college preparation; and bold, through discussions and activities that promote economic and media literacy and advocacy for self and others. By addressing girls’ mental and physical health, and social and academic skills, and by partnering directly with schools, the girls and their families, GISF works to give girls the resilience they need to stay in school, to set and achieve goals, boldly confront challenges, and see college as attainable. Strategies include professionally trained mentors who give the girls consistent adult support; engagement of school partners, families, and the girls’ themselves in responsive curriculum development; and research-based programming that focuses on hands-on activities that keep the girls excited about learning. Santa Fe Public Schools have identified GISF as wellness support for teachers because we can directly address students’ mental health and behavioral problems that teachers do not have the capacity to handle. In the 2022-2023 school term, we served 1007 girls at our partner schools and at our Hillside Center. Currently, 86% of GISF girls qualify for free or reduced-cost school lunches; 21% live in a single-parent household; 41% speak a language other than English at home; and 69% identify as Hispanic/Latina and 11% as Native American. As an engaged community member for 67 years, we have been able to establish deep and long-standing relationships with community partners, such as Sandia National Labs, New Mexico Museum of Natural History, New Mexico Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe Parks and Recreation, New Mexico Women.org, and the Solace Center, who provide field trips, career discussions, volunteers, and resources for our girls. Through all these relationships, we are able to explore and respond to the current concerns of the community and ensure that our staff and our programs reflect its needs. We have also become a model of advocacy in New Mexico: This year participants in our Leadership Out Loud advocacy program for teens joined the members of our Teen Leadership Council for a Roundhouse Roundup to talk to legislators about upcoming bills that affect the lives of girls and women in New Mexico. A recent two-year study by the American Institutes for Research Study reports: “girls participating in Girls Inc. were more likely to engage in activities and express beliefs that lead to physical and mental well-being, academic achievement, and the development of leadership skills…than the comparison group.” [Note: field 4 will not accept our social media. They are: Facebook.com/girlsincsantafe Twitter.com/girlsincsantafe instagram.com/girlsincofsantafe/.]