Girls First

Girls First is a nonprofit, out-of-school program for girls
located in Norristown, Chester, and Philadelphia. Our program incorporates
elements of arts exploration, daily nourishment, movement and breathing, STEAM
activities, and academic support alongside positive mentorship to help create
lasting change for families in our region.

Founded in 2009, Girls First is a tuition-free after school
program that provides first through fourth grade girls with an arts-based
education, as well as academic and social-emotional support through its
trauma-informed proprietary ARTSEE curriculum.

Since the beginning, the goals of our program have been to
enrich the lives of young girls through exposure to the arts, while offering
academic support in a safe environment. Our girls are amazing but by collaborating
with them we can see that they may have to group up too fast. Common struggles
among our students include homelessness or unsafe living conditions,
incarcerated parents, domestic violence, and concerns for undocumented family
members. These situations frequently rob them of their ability to just be children,
and, as such, we have begun to see a not-so-subtle shift in student behaviors
that mirror those noticed by area schoolteachers.

Girls First is committed to helping mitigate
adversity-related student behaviors that create barriers to successful
classroom learning. Our programming works through a holistic, bottom-up
approach that incorporates the latest research on countering the effects of
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Everything we do at Girls First is
intentional, developed around evidence-based neuro-sequential practices and
shaped through the lens of brain development. Our program supports girls:

• feel safe and secure while building positive relationships
  with their peers and our volunteers and staff


• learn new social, emotional, academic, and creative skills


• increase their confidence, regulation, efficacy, empathy,
  and agency so that they may better use those skills in their everyday lives increase
  their resiliency and perseverance, giving them adaptable coping mechanisms for
  future adversity

• break cycles of adversity, so that they may succeed better
  and become leaders in their community