Taking Flight

Resources for people who care about girls.

A Project of the Nokomis Foundation

Click here for the Taking Flight Website

Click here to contact Erin Trahan, Program Director

Starting Out . . . Taking Flight

We’re developing our own “look” and our very own space dedicated to girls’ issues here on the Nokomis Foundation website and in copies of the Nokomis newsletter, Voices. Watch this space for announcements of our expanding program.

Once we roll past y2k, we’ll be equipped with a database to simplify our resource searches and an interactive web page to support and encourage people who care about girls . . . People like you.

What has Taking Flight been doing so far?

• We’ve matched young women with girl-friendly mentoring and internship opportunities, on request.
• We collected a resource list on girls and economic literacy, on request.
• We hosted a spectacular author visit—Maya Ajmera, founder of the Global Fund for Children and co- author of Extraordinary Girls in October.

Extraordinary Girls

Borrowing on the theme of the recently published book, Extraordinary Girls, by Maya Ajmera, Olateju Omolodun and Sarah Strunk, Taking Flight will feature one or more extraordinary girl from West Michigan in each Voices. If you know an extraordinary girl who deserves some celebration, please contact Erin Trahan with details.

We know West Michigan is full of extraordinary girls. They’re out there now—testing the Grand River for pollutants, hitting three-pointers, publishing articles on Title IX in their school papers, starring in community theatre, leaving abusive relationships, practicing philanthropy: they’re planning their futures, and ours.

Enrica Lorenz ~ Junior, Youth Career Development Center

Earlier this fall Enrica impressed an audience of West Michigan adults with her clear and sincere opinions about youth violence prevention. Struggling to balance the demands of parenting her two year old son and regularly attending school, Enrica has enormous potential. Her Mom is proud of her because she’s “independent and knows what she wants to do.” She wants to finish high school, attend college and pursue a career in law. Here’s to Enrica, already doing extraordinary things.

Arricka Kilgore ~ 17 yrs old, home school

Clients at the YWCA Domestic Crisis Center have come to count on Arricka Kilgore. Her outgoing and free-spirited personality has been a consistent source of support for clients and staff for well over a year. She volunteers a couple of days each week to rake leaves, sort donations, and entertain the kids. Arricka has overcome some significant personal obstacles by using her energy positively. Staff members admire her initiative to seek out people and seek out things to do . . . a leader in the making!

• The Nokomis Foundation created Taking Flight to broaden and deepen how our dollars meet girls’ needs.

• Recent statistics suggest that as little as 5% of foundation dollars support programs specifically for women and girls. So are dollars given to coed youth programs meeting girls’needs? Scholar Molly Mead of Tufts University says no, unless a program is consciously designed to address differences in societal expectations and attitudes about youth and gender roles. Surprise, surprise: few fit that bill. Besides, girls are outnumbered by boys 3 to 1 in the average coed youth program. Next time you donate, ask about girls’ needs.

girls give too

• Are girls donating their own dollars? Even though many organizations do not track their donors by age, locally I found that a women’s organization received a combined donation from a mother and daughter; one teenager asked guests to donate to the YWCA in lieu of Bat Mitzvah gifts; and student-run groups from seven local schools, from elementary to high school, are participating in the 1999 United Way Campaign.
• Girl Scouts of Michigan Trails along with the Michigan Women’s Foundation and other Girl Scout councils in Michigan created a philanthropy badge to reward girls’ giving. The program, a national model, will kickoff in January 2000.
• The Council of Michigan Foundations (CMF) has the most extensive network of youth grantmakers in the US, if not the world. Over 1600 young people serve as grantmakers in about 93 Youth Advisory Committees (YACs) in Michigan. Significantly more female than male students participate. Since 1989, Michigan YACs have granted over 4 million dollars.

young women speak (and sing) out!

Taking Flight will feature the writing and opinions of young women in future issues of Voices. Contact Erin Trahan with submissions, questions, and ideas. Thanks to Megan McElwee, a senior at Forest Hills Central High School and two year member of YWFC for this article.

Dr. Monique Salinas-Stauffer hoped for a turnout of 20 girls at the first rehearsal of the Grandville Avenue Girls' Choir on the West Side of Grand Rapids. Instead, 60 girls in second through sixth grades showed up to sing in her choir. Stauffer split the mostly Latina group in two to accommodate their enthusiasm.

For many of the girls from Hall Street and Kensington Schools, this choir is the first organized music group they have joined. Sixth grader Anarosa Frausto is very excited about the choir and her solo at an upcoming concert. "We are singing like angels," she said. "[Ms. Martinez, the principal of Kensington School] says I might have a future in singing!"

The future is what concerns Young Women For Change, or YWFC, a group of 20 high school girls from the Grand Rapids area who award grants totaling $20,000 to area programs for young women and girls. In 1994, Michigan philanthropy leaders Susan Church and Twink Frey pioneered the all-girl grantmaking program. Since then, the Michigan Women’s Foundation has added a Southeast Michigan committee. Last year, $5000 of the West Michigan YWFC dollars were given to the Grandville Avenue Girls' Choirs. YWFC committee members follow an annual process of evaluating concept papers, reading full proposals, conducting site visits, and deciding on monetary amounts to be given to several different groups.

"I like the leadership we show with giving out the money. I've learned so much about philanthropy," said junior Libby Bode, a YWFC member from Catholic Central High School. Learning about the grant-giving process and philanthropy is a goal of YWFC, but more than that, the group focuses on the issues surrounding young women today. The group has identified several needs for girls in Grand Rapids such as increasing self-esteem, providing healthy activities, and empowerment.

The members of YWFC see their group as a definite benefit to Grand Rapids. Nabiha Azam, of East Kentwood High School, likes that YWFC grantmaking creates fun, new opportunities that empower girls. "[Our grants] have given them something that has changed their lives," she said.

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