Sisters Empowering Sisters, or SES, believes in young women's rights and young women's power. This means we support young women having access to information about our bodies and our lives so that we can make informed, healthy decisions about what’s right for us. We believe that young women are smart, fierce, strong, andhave a lot to say about the world around us. We also believe that young women canhelp change the world, starting with our own communities, one at a time.

This is where SES comes in.

Each fall, we give individual grants of up to $3,000 to groups of girls/young women from all over Chicagoland who want to make change in their communities by planning specific projects that THEY plan and lead, with adult support.

Each spring, we do special leadership projects like researching how music videos impact young women's lives and relationships, and creating a documentary where young women speak out about how they can change these images and how they feel about how they're represented.

Some projects we gave grants to in 2004-2005 include:

• a group of young women who wanted to make a video about girls and women who want to work in jobs that are mostly held by men and why it's important
• a group of middle school young women who teach theatre and performance art to younger girls in the same program
• a group of young women who plan and lead a health conference for other girls/young women
• a group of young women who started a project called "Teen Talk" at their high school that is a safe space for all students to come and get accurate, unbiased information about all the questions they have on sex, sexuality, and health.

Interested in finding out more? Check out our brochure!

As of July, 2006, Sisters Empowering Sisters will be making its new home with the Chicago Girls’ Coalition (CGC), since the Girl's Best Friend Foundation will be closing in 2008. (Read more about GBF's closing.)  We are absolutely thrilled to call CGC our new home, because they have the same commitment to young women and social change that we do! There will be more details about the transition posted here in the next few months, but rest assured that next year SES will look and be the same supportive space for young women activists that it has been for the past nine years.