2004 Annual Report - Girls Inc.

Programs and Programming
Direct, Focused Engagement:
The Girls Inc. Strength
In 2004, Girls Inc. observed its 140th anniversary.
Across those years, we have consistently advanced a
forward thinking view of the role of girls and young
women in society and the resources they deserve to be
given as they prepare for their own futures.
In the 1960s, the realities of women’s lives
underwent historic change. Girls Inc. responded to the
significant opportunities of the civil rights and women’s
movements, the flood of women entering the workforce,
and the adolescent turbulence of the time. This generation
was preparing for very different adulthoods, and
the role of Girls Inc. in their lives changed as well.
In the 1970s and early 80s, program development
at Girls Inc. was undertaken on a relatively small scale.
But there was growing interest in investing more
resources in girls’ development, and a growing network
of child development experts, educators, women’s
colleges and foundations eager to get involved.
Girls Inc. set out to develop programs on a national
scale that would be unlike anything any other organization
was doing. And we were willing to focus on topics
others wouldn’t touch, like sex education.
“We were especially concerned about sex education
because the profile of many of the girls we served was
the same as that of most at risk for early pregnancy,”
recalls Margaret Gates, National Executive Director of
Girls Inc. from 1983 to 1993.
“At the time, the only effort in this area was called
family life planning. The idea was to talk to young
people about the appropriate time to have children, that
children needed a home, that a home required marriage
and marriage required thought, and sex required
marriage, and so forth. It wasn’t all that effective.”
Girls Inc. decided to build a more comprehensive
approach. Girls Inc. Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy ®
showed girls they had the power to control their
sexuality and reproductive future. In a rigorous
evaluation, the program was deemed successful in its
dual goals of postponing the age of first sexual activity
and reducing the incidence of adolescent pregnancy.
Another program priority was to help prepare girls
for success in the world of work. Everything pointed to
the fact that future job growth was going to be in the
technological sector. There would be a need for more
people with skills in math and science — areas girls
were still being socialized to avoid.
Girls Inc. developed Girls Inc. Operation SMART ® ,
which offered girls a way to learn that was linked to
adventure and discovery. While other educators were
talking about this method, it was the first real opportunity
many of the girls we served had to experience it.
“After the launch of Operation SMART, the organization
knew it was on to something big,” says Susan
Houchin, Girls Inc. Director of National Services. “We
were poised to create a framework of programming that
affiliates across the country could offer, grounded in the
core principles of our Girls’ Bill of Rights, and reflecting
rigorous standards of research, testing and evaluation.”
In the mid-1980s, Houchin was Executive Director
of Girls Inc. of Sioux City, Iowa, and she recalls the
real hunger on the part of affiliates for substantive
programming resources.
“Many of us were small centers with very limited
budgets,” says Houchin. “We were pretty much on our
own in terms of what to offer. So when Girls Inc.
Girls Incorporated
Strong
Smart