Fund SEPA Mujer's 2019 Girls A.C.T.

What is Girls A.C.T?

GIRLS A.C.T. is a nine week intensive summer employment program for Latina youth on Long Island, NY looking to be activists and creators ready to transform their community. Our goal is to create young Latina activists and transform the girls of tomorrow which inspires the acronym A.C.T. (Activist Creating and Transforming). 

Girls A.C.T. falls under the umbrella of SEPA Mujer Inc., a non-profit Latina Immigrant Women's Rights Organization dedicated to the empowerment, education, and activism of Latina women on Long Island. Through community organizing, legal advocacy and civic engagement work, we seek the full integration of all women into the fabric of our community. Our objective is to raise and unite our voices in order to be heard by the social, governmental, and political systems in which we live.

About our Program

Girls A.C.T. follows an original curriculum geared to empower, educate, and create new job opportunities and readiness skills. The full first week of training varies in topics from Immigration history timeline, budgeting and checks, organizational structures and function, administrative duties, and learning about the issues and campaigns that SEPA Mujer works on and its impact.

Each girl is provided with an individually crafted syllabus giving them responsibilities in different areas such as Fundraising & Grant Writing, Community Outreach & Organizing, Communications & Media, and more. 

The curriculum includes weekly retreats where the girls reconvene all together and engage in professional trainings, educational trips, and staff check ins. The last two weeks are dedicated to 2 Mini Me retreats where the girls are paired with advocates and activist in different careers and professions on Long Island. 

Our Mission

Girls A.C.T was designed to empower Long Island’s Latina youth and give them the opportunity to work with SEPA Mujer on issues that affect our community, while giving them a space to learn, grow, and fully embrace their Latina identity. SEPA Mujer’s Giving Tuesday campaign is dedicated to helping ensure that we can continue our Girls A.C.T. program in 2019, and carry on our work in empowering the Latina youth on Long Island to become leaders and voices in their communities.

How Your Donation Will Help

By donating to our MightyCause campaign, you can help SEPA Mujer fund our 2019 Girls A.C.T. Program. Our goal of $10,000 is just a fraction of the funds we need to improve and expand our program. These $10,000 will directly impact the girls in our program by providing them with the resources they need to successfully complete and benefit from our curriculum. 

• $3,000 will be used to purchase new office laptops for the program so all the girls have access to a computer to do research, work, complete projects, and handle their daily office responsibilities. For many of the children of our members and clients, a laptop sounds something out of a storybook, inaccessible and a privileged luxury. For the past two years, SEPA Mujer has struggled to give our participants access to a computer so that they can be successful in the program. This has been one of our biggest obstacles for our youth, many feel outcasted or ashamed to not be able to afford a laptop or have access to one. For some it is also their first time using a laptop and the learning curve that we have seen by the end of the program has been tremendous. We need your help to make sure our youth are set up for success.
• $2,500 will help fund our educational trips which includes any travel/transportation costs and admission/entrance fees for the girls. As many children of immigrants know all too well, traveling and transportation is another obstacle for entire families that cannot drive due to lack of license or lack of funds for a car. Trips that for others might seem common are also a big deal for our youth that for the first time experience a college tour, a museum trip outside of school. We want to enhance this experience for our youth and their families. Help us make this a reality.
• $4,500 will help fund basic program materials such as printed outreach materials, books on curriculum topics, office supplies, and administrative expenses. For families that are struggling often times choosing between buying school supplies and groceries is a decision far too common. This is why we need your help to make sure our youth have all the basic administrative necessities they need to make sure the office can respond to the program and more importantly our young participants. As SEPA Mujer grows with our youth we need your support to help continue one of our most demanding but rewarding programs of the year.