We center girls and gender-expansive youth’s needs and solutions through policy and programming
Our FOCUS AREAS
We facilitate collective advocacy, centered on radical safety for girls and gender-expansive youth, especially those of color, at the local, county, and state level in California.
Our advocacy is directly informed by our research, girls, gender-expansive youth, and community-driven recommendations, membership and emerging needs for girls.
Gender-Based Violence Prevention & Intervention
Advocating for girl-informed policies to prevent and address gender-based and sexual violence and harassment across schools, public transit, and in public spaces
Data Collection and Dissemination
Ensuring that government agencies and school districts are collecting and responding to disaggregated data on the expressed needs of girls and gender-expansive youth, and using that data to inform budget, policy, and program decisions.
Funding for Girls’ Needs
Advocating for budgets that explicitly increase funding for girls and gender-expansive youth programming and girl-serving organizations to better meet the identified needs.
Through powerful, intergenerational mobilization, AFG facilitates community and girl-driven advocacy to advance the #GirlsPolicyAgenda with leadership from our Advocacy Committee.
OUR CURRENTadvocacy initiatives
Safe and Inclusive Schools for Girls
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Building upon our work at Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and San Francisco School District (SFUSD) through the Meeting Girls Needs Initiative (MGNI), we continue to:
→ Engage in research and data collection on the lived experiences of girls, especially girls of color, in the school district;
→ Educate girl champions’ and key stakeholders working within school districts on girls needs;
→ Amplify and advance girl-centered solutions to girls’ expressed needs through the establishment of girl-centered policies, practices, and programs;
→ Enable district-wide implementation of promising solutions; and
→ Implement and evaluate the impact of these girl-centered solutions on girls’ expressed needs.
In 2022, we collaborated with Equal Rights Advocates, Family Violence Law Center, California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, and The Unity Council to draft a policy memo to the California Department of Education (CDE) based on the findings and girl-led recommendations outlined in AFG’s Uniting Isolated Voices: Experiences of Girls and Gender Expansive Youth During COVID-19 report (2021). The memo outlined three main areas of improvement for the CDE:
→ Strengthen Title IX and related state law enforcement and oversight protocols using existing policy and protocols and advancing best practices.
→ Advocate for including gender and culturally responsive programs for girls and gender-expansive youth and additional staff to connect students with these programs in the 2022 and 2023 state budgets.
→ Develop more numerous, deeper, and more accessible guidance to address gender bias through school dress codes and other areas in which K-12 districts have shown a clear need for Department signaling.
Increase Support for Young Moms and Girls as Caregivers
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AFG convened a coalition of ten member organizations in Santa Clara County including YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley, the Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Policy, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, CARAS, Youth Outreach and Learning Institute, Shine Together (formally Teen Success, Inc.), and more and in partnership with YWFC to advocate for better support for young moms in Santa Clara County. In December 2020, this advocacy work resulted in a commitment of $400,000 in funding for the When Young Mom’s Thrive, We All Do (WYMT) project by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Between June 2021-2022 the WYMT project, led by YWFC in partnership with AFG, hired five young moms as part of the WYMT design team and engaged 159 young moms in youth participatory action research (YPAR) to identify the needs of young moms and uplift key recommendations to Santa Clara County government to better serve young moms without stigma and discrimination. An accompanying video was created to help shift the narrative about young moms in Santa Clara County to one that centers their experiences and how they see themselves.
The recommendations, informed by the research, the coalition members in Santa Clara County, and young moms themselves, were included in a policy memo highlighting five core recommendations to the county to better support young moms and are being presented to the Santa Clara County Office of Education. For more information please refer to the WYMT Fact Sheet and policy memo.
Safety on Public Transportation
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In 2019, our research became the rallying cry that mobilized Bay Area girls and gender-expansive youth, and the adult champions who serve them, to advocate for change. Together with the Betti Ono Foundation, Black Girls Brilliance, the Unity Council’s Latina Mentorship, and Achievement Program we collaborated with BART to turn our research into action – creating the Not One More Girl (NOMG) initiative. This first-of-its-kind initiative centers girls* and gender-expansive youth of color as they reimagine safety for riders on BART. It reflected the voices and needs of the community, especially the voices of girls and gender-expansive youth of color. Building upon this work, starting in late 2023, AFG and our research partner, Evaluation Studio, will begin work on the first youth-informed evaluation framework focusing on rider safety as it pertains to sexual harassment and assault on BART. This framework will support BART in centering the voices of girls and gender-expansive youth, especially those of color, in future data-driven BART policy and programming. Read our case study that captures our journey, impact and learning of the first phase of the Not One More Girl Initiative.
READ THE SAFETY IN NUMBERS CASE STUDY→
In 2022, Alliance for Girls joined Chinese for Affirmative Action in advocating for the passage of State Bill (SB) 1161, a bill inspired by Phase 1 of the Not One More Girl (NOMG) BART campaign that requires the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University to develop and make available a survey focused on rider safety and street harassment on public transit. Since this bill’s passage in 2022, AFG continues to collaborate with Chinese for Affirmative Action and Stop AAPI Hate to push for the 10 of California’s largest transit agencies to actively improve tracking and responding to harassment and gender-based violence experienced by transit riders.
In 2023, Senator Dave Min and Stop AAPI Hate introduced State Bill (SB) 434, Public Transit for All: Improving Safety & Increasing Ridership, a bill aimed at requiring California’s top ten public transit systems to collect survey data to address street harassment on public transit and improve rider safety. AFG, along with its collaborators at Stop AAPI, are actively advocating to push this bill forward.
LEARN MOREabout our advocacy work beyond our campaigns
AFG uplifts girl-centered recommendations and supports our member organizations’ advocacy work, where possible, through a number of tactics, including:
Mobilizing our networks to give public comment at the local, county, and state levels;
Sending support letters for bills and policies that align with what girls and gender-expansive youth and their champions need;
Creating opportunities for girls, gender-expansive youth, and our member organizations to directly engage with elected officials and policymakers through legislative briefings to share AFG research and girl-centered recommendations;
Connecting members with state and local government agencies; and
Uplifting AFG members’ advocacy work on AFG social media, where possible.
EXPLOREour past advocacy work
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