Girls Empowerment Network

Girls Empowerment Network’s vision is a world where all girls believe in their power. 

Girls Empowerment Network is a statewide organization with a prominent presence in Central Texas and Houston. In 2017, Girls Empowerment Network hosted its first conference in Dallas at E.D. Walker Middle School. Since 2019, the organization has expanded its presence into the North Texas region and for this upcoming school year, there are Radiant G Circle programs planned in the Dallas Independent School District, Cedar Hill School District, KIPP Texas-Dallas, and more!

We use our self-efficacy building curriculum that incorporates our Seven Cs (Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Communication, Coping Skills, Creativity, Confidence, & Changemaking) to teach girls that they are powerful people. Self-efficacy is a girl’s belief in her ability to succeed. Whether she is shooting for an A on an exam, working to be the first in her family to go to college, overcoming a bully, breaking up with an abusive partner, or trying to take care of herself because she feels like no one else will - when she experiences our self-efficacy curriculum at a school, camp or conference, she realizes she can do it and she becomes powerful. One of the most critical skills to youth engagement that brings all of the other Cs to life in our programs is creativity. We know that for our girls to know they are powerful, they must first have the opportunity to explore, innovate, and imagine what that power can be for them and their greater community. Girls Empowerment Network is participating in North Texas Giving Day 2024 to raise $2,000 to support the implementation and growth of creativity for Radiant G Circle programs in North Texas for the 2024-2025 school year.

Our History

Originally called The Ophelia Project, Girls Empowerment Network a 501(c)(3) was created in 1996 by twelve concerned mothers raising adolescent girls in Austin, Texas. Inspired by the book Reviving Ophelia by Dr. Mary Pipher, these mothers met to address an increasing trend among middle school aged girls – a systematic decline and sometimes permanent loss of self-esteem, the outcome of which can be devastating: epidemic levels of anorexia/bulimia, self-mutilation, depression, low academic achievement, teen pregnancy, and drug abuse.

Twenty-eight years later, we help girls* 3rd-12th grades discover they are powerful across Central Texas, Houston, and Dallas. We do this by teaching self-efficacy, which is a girl’s belief in her ability to succeed. In Dallas, we bring our mission to life through our Radiant G Circle groups. We partner with local school districts like the Dallas Independent School District, Cedar Hill Independent School District, KIPP Texas-Dallas and more. Although not limited to, we have primarily served the areas of South Dallas, Pleasant Grove, Oak Cliff, and Cedar Hill. Over 677 girls have participated in Radiant G Circle groups since 2019, and those numbers will continue to grow in the 2024-2025 school year.