Obama Foundation Gives $500K To Chicago Groups Supporting Girls’ Health, Education And More

SOUTH SHORE — More than a dozen organizations offering activities, healing and education to girls in Chicago received funding this week to expand their programs from an initiative spearheaded by former first lady Michelle Obama.

The Girls Opportunity Alliance, an Obama Foundation program which supports grassroots efforts to support adolescent girls, welcomed 14 members with grants ranging from $11,000 to $50,000, officials announced Tuesday.

The money will be spent to boost programs like free therapy, mentorship, education for refugees, a performance at the Harris Theater and more. All are available to and center young women.

The recipients:

• GirlForward, M.E.A.N Girls Empowerment, Polished Pebbles, Sista Afya Community Care, Praize Productions and Ladies of Virtue received $50,000 each, the maximum award available.
• Black Girls Jump received $48,444.
• Girls Inc. of Chicago received $45,000.
• Restored Hope and Girls in the Game received $25,000 each.
• Gyrls in the Hood received $17,280.
• Black Girls Dance received $17,276.
• SHE Chicago and Girls on the Run Chicago received $11,000 each.

“We’re going to be funding 14 grassroots programs that are making a real difference in the lives of girls here in my hometown,” Obama, the alliance’s founder and a South Shore native, said in a statement.

“From providing mentorship and leadership training, to empowering girls through sports and dance, to preparing them for a future career through work-study programs, these organizations are there for our girls each and every day.”

As part of the alliance membership, the groups will gain access to virtual workshops, Obama Foundation events and networking sessions with other grassroots organizations, while the girls they serve can access career events with major companies, officials said.

For more information on the alliance and the recent grants, click here.

The funds and alliance membership will help Sista Afya Community Care, a South Shore-based nonprofit providing mental health care to Black women, expand its Thrive in Therapy program to include teen girls for the first time.

Sista Afya is “excited” to begin serving girls through the program, which has provided more than 200 women with free, weekly therapy, Executive Director Camesha Jones said.

“Girls need support, as well, especially with rising incidences of depression, anxiety, suicide and eating disorders among girls,” Jones said. “To be honest, there are very few organizations in Chicago that supply mental health services to girls, and especially to Black girls. … We’ll also make sure girls are on the forefront, and not the back burner, when it comes to mental health care.”

Sista Afya will offer weekly therapy to about 25 girls for at least six months through Thrive in Therapy for Teens, Jones said. The program will serve residents in South Shore and surrounding neighborhoods, including Hyde Park, Woodlawn, Washington Park, Chatham and Bronzeville. 

The effort is in partnership with Gyrls in the Hood — which also received a grant from the alliance to support a sexual health education initiative — and another, yet-unnamed organization.

Those opportunities for collaboration make the alliance membership valuable beyond the funding, Jones said.

“In the nonprofit space, sometimes people can work in silos,” Jones said. “What I love about the Girls Opportunity Alliance is that we’re all coming together as leaders to better support and uplift [the needs] of girls across the city.”

Beyond the expanded therapy program, Sista Afya Community Care will also begin a series of community events for girls every few months.

Workshops, wellness classes, art and more will be offered through the program, which is tentatively named Black Girls Thrive Day, Jones said. The first is scheduled for April 20, with more details to come, she said.

Among the other programs newly supported by the Girls Opportunity Alliance:

• Praize Productions’ presentation of “Black Love (Reigns) Supreme,” a multimedia performance about Black love. Forty Black girls 6-17 will participate in the production, which premieres this spring at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts.
• Girls in the Game’s after-school and teen club programs at Reavis Elementary School in Bronzeville and Dyett High School in Washington Park, pairing sports and athletic practices with trauma-informed and holistic health education.
• Polished Pebbles’ Every Girl is a CEO summer work-study program, which pays girls to practice job applications and interviews, learn professional communication, participate in job shadowing opportunities and more for 20 hours per week.
• Restored Hope’s Yoga Project, which offers yoga and mindfulness classes to 20 young women 13-17. Participants are encouraged to share their practices with loved ones and will travel for a service project in Ghana this spring.

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