Word has gotten out about the effectiveness of Jump Start Girls ¡Adelante Niñas!, the girls empowerment program run by Community Bridges in Silver Spring, Maryland. Many organizations have asked them to share the recipe for successfully reaching young girls through tutoring, mentoring, health and fitness, building career aspirations and community involvement. The Women’s Foundation gave the organization a grant to help them document their program.

While the professional staff worked on their manual, the girls were inspired to create a document of their own. The girls, in grades three through eight, are African American, Latina, and Asian living in vibrant, changing, and sometimes dangerous, neighborhoods. They are writing a community safety guidebook that addresses avoiding peer pressure and gang activity, provides helpful phone numbers, and self defense tips that they learned in Tae Kwon Do class.

“This kind of leadership development has worked so well with our girls, that one of our long-time participants who will graduate this year asked us to help her start up a club to support Vietnamese girls in the community. We are delighted that the Women’s Foundation is supporting this kind of success,” says Community Bridges Executive Director Meagan Labriola.