In 2020, the team at Women Connect4Good launched a new campaign – Lift Women Up – to promote the spirit of what we do and urge our friends and followers to do the same. As part of that, we began to provide support, resources, and guidance to help us all empower each other in every aspect of our lives. Our mission then and now is to create an environment where every woman (and man) is valued, respected, and equally compensated. In fact, through Lift Women Up, we not only support and lift each other personally and professionally, but we finally make ourselves a priority too, advocating for our own rights and reinforcing our push for equality.
Recognizing that we are only as strong as our next generation, Dr. Nancy decided that it is past time to make young women and girls part of the conversation and lift them up as well. That means offering them support, celebrating their successes, and reminding them that they matter. Their voices are our future and empowering them to act boldly and continue the mission is not only in all of our best interests but also the right thing to do.
Maggie O’Neill understands that. Through Vote For Your Daughter, a national public art campaign harnessing the power of art, she encourages people to prioritize their daughter’s futures when voting. “Art is going to be the connector in the future for us because technology is creating more and more divisiveness,” she said.
Underscoring the project’s goal to make an impact, she added, “My dream is that this really moves the needle on civic discourse and action and that it galvanizes people in a completely different way and connects people in a completely different way.”
Brianna Baker gets it too and is on a mission to wake up society to the challenges faced by Black girls and ignite a movement to address them. As the founder of Justice For Black Girls, she is recognized as the national voice on the urgency of Black girls’ safety within and beyond the classroom.
Brianna’s work extends beyond advocacy; it’s about changing the narrative and creating a world where Black girls can thrive. Her initiatives create inclusive and safe spaces for Black girls in schools and society, and address issues ranging from educational exclusion to hair discrimination, ensuring that Black girls are not penalized for their natural appearance. Justice for Black Girls offers programs that focus on education and promoting the sisterhood to heal and liberate Black girls. Her invitation to action is clear, “Affirm the Black girls in your life…when you see a little girl in your life who looks unsure, just remind her that she’s brilliant and powerful.”
Zack Fowler is also on board, and serves as the Head of Strategic Partnerships for AMPLIFY Girls, an international collective of community-driven organizations that are investing in raising girls’ agency and amplifying their voices. In 2018, Zack was the Executive Director of WISER International, supporting holistic girls’ education in Kenya. Several community-driven organizations had reached “a tipping point of frustration” with their local insights into what worked for girls. Zack said, “They had started initiatives on their back porches in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda.” He explained that they felt they weren’t receiving the respect, attention or resources they deserved because they were small or hyper-local or didn’t have the same exposure to international development that larger organizations had. They met in Rwanda for a brainstorming session to discuss how they could get these organizations – who were focused on changing the lives of adolescent girls – a bigger platform. Zack said the growth was organic, but from those initial 18 founding organizations, AMPLIFY Girls has quickly grown from its humble beginnings five years ago in East Africa to an international collective of more than 40 organizations – all building the agency of young women.
Zack said that the organizations come together with a single goal, “If you can equip girls with a sense of agency, that’s success.” They don’t restrict AMPLIFY Girls partners to any one type of program but are united and welcoming to others who are changing the lives of girls. He said that women and girls are at the center of so many different solutions for the world. “If you want communities to thrive, women and girls is a wonderful place to start.”
Women’s and girls’ voices are critical to our continued progression, and we all need to tell the young women and girls in our lives how much their voices matter and support their opinions, ideas, and experiences. Our friend Pat Mitchell, Media Executive, Producer, and Curator of TEDWomen summed it up perfectly when she said, “There is a point, and it’s usually around puberty and when you are becoming a woman, where women do lose their voice. If we could save them the time lost between that time and the time when they start to regain it, imagine the power we would unleash?” Here’s to the power of the future generations. May they help us reach true equality at last.