2004
Special Opportunities

Total FY2004 GBF Capacity/Challenge/Collaborative Grants:  $157,500

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FY2004 Capacity-Building Grants

Girl Scouts of Chicago, Chicago Girls Coalition
$20,000 each year
Chicago Girls' Coalition is a network working to build programs and centralized communication of program facilitators working with girls and young women in Chicago communities.  A $20,000 a year grant, that is renewable for three year, to complete and internal self-assessment and plan to build capacity and sustainability strategy for the organization as a whole.

Literature for All of Us
$20,000 each year
Literature for All of Us offers book groups for young women and girls throughout the Chicagoland area. The groups combine literature discussion and poetry writing that support self-exploration and empowerment. Participants perform their work throughout Chicago.  A $20,000 a year grant, that is renewable for three year, to complete and execute an internal self-assessment and plan to build capacity and sustainability strategy for the organization as a whole.

FY2004 Phase III Evaluation Grants

Alternatives

$5,000

4730 N. Sheridan

Chicago, IL 60640

tel: 773-506-7474

fax: 773-506-9420Support for Girl World’s Girl Driven Research Project.  A team of four young women will research the question, why do some low income youth desire high priced material items?  Each young woman will interview fourteen young men and women between the ages of 13-17 to explore this question.  Young women from the previous year’s research project will train this research team on how to conduct a research project including the topics:  purpose and uses of research and evaluation, research methods,   data analysis, confidentiality, reporting, and presentation skills.

 

Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT)

$5,000

1657 W. Adams, Ste 401

Chicago, IL 60612

tel: 312-942-1444

fax: 312-942-0802

Support for a year-long project to evaluate the impact of the Aspiring Tradeswomen program and the balance of social and career learning opportunities for young women in the program.  CWIT will specifically evaluate how young women in the program define “success” as it relates to their career goals, what influence the program has on participant’s career choices, and does the program provide “safe space” for participants to express themselves, and for lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning participants.  CWIT will use their findings to inform future programming and to share with their peer organizations. 

 

Family Matters

$5,000

7731 North Marshfield

Chicago, IL 60626

tel: 773-465-6432

fax: 773-465-6425

Support for the first phase of a year-long project of the teen girls program to evaluate the challenges and benefits of switching from an entrepreneurial-based leadership development program to an arts-based leadership development program.  Young women in the program will work with five local artists who identify their art as community building assets in an interview process and art-making workshops to identify their interests in an arts-based program and what would sustain the interest of young women in the program.

 

Redmoon Theatre

$5,000

2936 N. Southport Ave.

Chicago, IL 60657

tel: 773-388-9031

Support for the evaluation of the Dramagirls program.  Dramagirls will evaluate how girls develop confidence and self-esteem and what role language acquisition plays in this development.  Dramagirls will evaluate if and how the key concepts and words used in the program help girls to express themselves and how they contribute to their self confidence.  Girls will lead the evaluation process working with adult staff in the program.  Dramagirls plans to use this project to create a more in-depth, on-going and systemic evaluation plan for the program.

 

Sisters Empowering Sisters

900 N Franklin St, Suite 210

Chicago, IL 60610

tel: 312-266-2842

Sisters Empowering Sisters, the girl’s grantmaking group of Girl's Best Friend Foundation, will conduct a research project that will look at the portrayal of young women in commercial music videos, and how constant viewing of these images can impact girls’ relationships including platonic, romantic, and familial relationships.

 

FY2004 Challenge Grant

Global Girls
$3,000
Global Girls engages girls ages 8-14 in activities that build stronger communication skills, life skills, and character.  Girls, staff, volunteers, and board members collaborate in creating projects that demonstrate their core values: exposure, expertise, enlightenment, and empowerment.  In weekly sessions, participants learn and practice new skills as they challenge themselves creatively.

One dollar-to-one dollar matching grant has been given in support of diversified fundraising efforts.  This challenge was issued FY03 and fulfilled on FY04. 

FY2004 Collaborative Grant

Ms. Foundation for Women
$20,000
This is the final payment in support of the National Collaborative Fund for Youth-led Social Change.  The Fund supports organizations working at the intersection of positive youth development, youth-led social change, and gender conscious programming.

FY2004 Other Special Opportunity Grants

Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health &

Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area

$34,500
GBF's single largest grant ever: $69,000 to be paid over two years, in support of honest sexual education to Illinois students, which vividly expresses our commitment to: Promote and protect the human rights of girls by advancing and sustaining policies and programs that ensure girls' self-determination, power, and well being.

Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health
$20,000
To develop a report on the feasibility of the Chicago Summer Freedom School, a joint project of the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH), Friends of Battered Women and their Children (FRIENDS), and the Girl's Best Friend Foundation (GBF).  The Freedom School could be an opportunity to engage youth activists in intensive training on their own, or as a complement to the training - both community-based and issue-specific - they can or already do receive from other non-profits in Chicago.

Women's Funding Network
$20,000
In support of the development of the Social Change Measurement Tool.