What is GirlGov?

The Women and Girls Foundation’s GirlGov high school program works to ignite a passion for civic engagement and advocacy work in self-identified girls in grades 9-12. The program runs throughout the course of the school year and is designed to cultivate critical thinking skills, spark interest in public service careers, build understanding of history and government, and prepare our next generation of voters, leaders and changemakers. We have supported over 40 different high schools in the Southwestern Pennsylvania region during the 20-plus years that GirlGov has been around. The GirlGov program is offered free of charge and encourages teens of all backgrounds to build community and work as a team to create the change they want to see in their neighborhoods.

What does a GirlGov session look like?

GirlGov meetings typically last two hours and happen once a week.*

  • We start off with dinner and space for students to catch up with each other.
  • The first hour of the meeting allows space for a themed lesson that will help build strong advocacy skills for the students.
  • Sometimes, in place of a lesson, we welcome guest speakers who are experts in policy, community organizing, or are legislators.
  • The last hour of the meeting always gives GirlGov students the chance to work together to complete a themed activity or to work on advocacy campaigns around the theme of their choosing.

Other fun opportunities that GirlGov offers throughout the year include:

  • The chance to attend youth conferences around advocacy, civic engagement, and service-based learning.
  • The ability to work with GirlGov peers and GirlGov Middle Schoolers to run a student-led community event.
  • A free overnight trip to Harrisburg to meet with state legislators and representatives.
  • Learn and practice mentorship skills.
  • Volunteer opportunities within the community.

*GirlGov offers a hybrid attendance option but encourages students to attend meetings in-person when possible for maximum benefit.

What does a typical year in GirlGov look like?

GirlGov kicks off in September with our Fall Retreat in Pittsburgh and ends in May with the GirlGov graduation. We meet once a week after school in the evenings in conjunction with the school calendar.

Here is a sample calendar year:

September

  • Fall retreat

October—November

  • Environmental justice unit
  • WGF’s annual menstrual product drive

December—February

  • Reproductive justice unit

March—May

  • Gun violence prevention unit
  • Student-run community event

May

  • GirlGov graduation

June

  • Harrisburg overnight trip

What are some past GirlGov projects?

2022-23 Cohort

  • The LGBTQ+ committee created a website resource for queer teens in Western Pennsylvania. The website includes access to queer-friendly sex education, information on how to start a GSA, and a map of which schools in the region have a GSA. You can check out The Big Queer Database of Western PA here!Map courtesy of the Big Queer Database of Western PA
  • “The Black Maternal Health Crisis” was a documentary created by the “Racial Justice League” committee. These students noticed a glaring issue with how medical racism was impacting Black mothers in Pittsburgh and created this documentary to highlight those issues.
  • The Environmental Justice cohort applied for grant funding to supply sustainable and clean menstrual products in Pittsburgh Public Schools.

2023-24 Cohort

  • The Mental Health committee created mental health care packages to distribute to schools across Allegheny County after focusing on the correlation between poor mental health in victims of gun violence.
  • The Intimate Partner Violence committee learned about HB1441, which if signed, would help those in domestic violence situations break their lease without legal or financial penalty. After speaking with legislators in Harrisburg and learning that the bill was not a top priority, members of this committee organized a letter-writing campaign in hopes of reminding legislators of the importance of HB1441.
  • The Gun Safety & Tackling Misinformation committee focused on providing accurate and nonpartisan information about gun violence prevention, gun laws, and gun violence related news in the United States. After noticing how hard it was to find unbiased and reliable information around incidents of gun violence, they created an Instagram page with the idea of reaching out to teens with more accurate information backed by trusted sources. Goodbye to Gun Violence
  • Girl Gov Against Gun Violence Event: All three committees worked together to organize and run “GirlGov Against Gun Violence”. The purpose of the event was to provide information about the role we can all play in gun violence prevention in our communities. There was an informational panel from community violence prevention experts and interactive tables by each committee related to their advocacy campaign projects.

Contact our Program Coordinator Rylee Napolitan with any questions about the program: rylee@wgfpa.org.