Why I Founded GFC by Whitney Smith, GFC Co-CEO and Visionary Founder
My experience growing up with a fire in my belly for social change and no opportunities to exercise that desire inspired my vision for Girls For A Change. As a young woman, I was motivated by a belief in a more fair and just world, but experienced not only subtle deterrence in this quest to speak my mind and make change, but often was directly told by adults that I should make less noise so life would be easier. Despite discouragement, I spent most of my high school career attempting to create change in my environment with no support system. Going to college changed my world--I found a small community that encouraged taking action for social change. My first thought was, “Why did I have to wait this long? My life would be so different if I had the opportunity to funnel my passion for social change at 13 or 15 or 18!”

Many years later, I was asked to design an initiative that responded to the most pressing needs of all young women and would make a powerful difference in their lives. Motivated by my work with girls in juvenile detention facilities, group homes, and after school programs, I identified a common theme. The girls did not believe they were powerful and no one had asked them how the world could be a better place for them. Many organizations which were trying to help bandage problems never asked girls why the problems existed in the first place. I saw girls far outside the corridors of power and no large-scale work being done to fix that.

I started asking girls what things made them angry about their lives and communities and how they felt these issues could be solved. At first they just looked confused. Once they realized that I was truly interested in what they had to say, I couldn’t close the floodgates. Every girl I asked had a laundry list of issues she felt passionate about, things that got her fired up and stuff she cared enough about to spend time changing. Girls also had more innovative and practical ideas about community problems than anyone I had talked to before. They held the key to changing the world and didn’t even realize it.

One evening I sat down at my computer and envisioned Girls For A Change. I dreamed a social change organization that would teach young women to make noise and to trust their wisdom in finding solutions to problems they face in their own lives and in their communities. I dreamed a model of a social change organization that would value girls participating in a meaningful way at all levels of that organization. I dreamed a movement which would stop saying “no” to young women, and only say “YES!”

I founded Girls For A Change to be an organization that thinks big and takes risks. Girls For A Change is about shifting girls’ perceptions of themselves, not one at a time, but thousands at a time.

The History of GFC
GFC is committed to giving all girls the opportunity to invent and experience the spark that comes with seeing their own ideas take form and make a difference. Here is how that happened for GFC.

In 1999, The Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Advocacy (OWA), under the leadership of Patricia Lee began a year-long forum for data collection and strategic planning in coordination with The California Women’s Agenda (CAWA). The initiative, called Women and Girls 2000 and Beyond, was to take a specific regional look at some the primary issues, which bubbled forth from the Platform For Action from the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China in 1996. OWA produced a report, which included platforms for information and action. These platforms are Violence, Poverty, Older Women, Media, Employment/Economics, Health, Education, Environment, Policy, and Girls.

To collect data and produce recommendations on the Girl Platform for action, OWA sought the assistance of The Girls Coalition (SVGC). The SVGC is a collaborative of over 75 agencies serving young women in . The SVGC participated in research and authored the Girl section of the “Women and Girls 2000 and Beyond Report.” One finding of this report was that not enough was being done to address growing issues of risk for girls. There was also no model working on a large scale to reach the region’s most marginalized girls.

Coincidently, The Cornerstone Initiative surveyed young people in Santa Clara County to map the Developmental Assets of youth in that area. Of the youth surveyed, only 15% indicated that they felt that they were seen to have value in their communities and only 24% felt that they were give useful roles in their communities.

An opportunity arose to submit a grant to The Joint Powers Authority of The City of San Jose and The County of Santa Clara. The grant was for $100,000 to address a pressing need facing youth in the . Lee, the Director of OWA at the time, enlisted Whitney Smith, the Chair of the Girls Coalition to create an initiative, which responded to the grant. The initiative was successfully funded and then the real excitement began.

With no infrastructure to support GFC, Whitney enlisted members of The Girls Coalition (SVGC) to become part of the initial Steering Committee, which has become the current GFC Board of Directors. GFC first hired a consultant to help with the initial Girl Summit in October 2002. That consultant became the first paid staff person, Executive Director Niko Clifford.

Under the leadership of our founding Executive Director Niko Clifford, GFC has flourished into a well recognized organization with a national vision. Immediately after the first Girl Summit, it became clear to Niko and Whitney that GFC was not going to be an initiative or a modest organization, but it was going to become a national organization and a groundbreaking movement. Niko aligned GFC with Social Fusion, formerly the Social Entrepreneurship Incubator. Social Fusion, a branch of the Women’s Technology Cluster, supports entrepreneurial organizations to launch and scale social enterprises by uniting successful business practices with positive social impact. GFC was the second organization to successfully graduate from Social Fusion.

In addition to raising over $500,000 for GFC, Niko spearheaded GFC’s partnership with 15 national corporations, over 50 elected officials and nearly 50 schools in the area. She was the sole staff support in 2002-2003. In the summer of 2003, Niko was awarded a prestigious fellowship with the Draper Richards Foundation for her vision and work with GFC. With this fellowship, GFC was granted $300,000 to support current sustainability and national expansion. In October 2003, GFC hired its second staff member, Carrie Ellett, Director of Program and Recruitment, and moved into new offices in Palo Alto. GFC expanded to its first site outside of California in 2005. Under the collaborative leadership of our girls, volunteers, staff and Board, GFC has been ignited as a powerful and progressive organization.

Without the support and dedication of the following individuals and partner organizations GFC would not have been possible:
Founding Steering Committee Members:
Lora Barnett
Niko Clifford, Executive Director
Mariah Dabel*
Nancy Fox
Michelle McCormick
Caroline Ocampo
Jo Seavey
Whitney Smith
Sari Wisch
Sharon Wood
Lead Partners:
Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County
The Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Advocacy
Partner and Founding Organizations:
Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte
The County of Santa Clara Office of Women’s Advocacy
The County of Santa Clara Dept. of Public Health - Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Network
Women’s Technology Cluster- Nonprofit Incubator
*Mariah Dabel, Founding Board Member, named Girls For A Change.