GGE

Programs

GGE is a volunteer-run, grassroots, youth development organization, founded in 2000 by Joanne Smith, Executive Director. Joanne Smith is a Haitian American Activist born in New York City who currently resides in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. With an Open Society Institute fellowship, Joanne launched GGE in 2001 as an equitable after-school health and fitness program; due, in part, to a letter signed by a coalition of seventy low-income African-American and Caribbean petitioning OSI to bring GGE to Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant. These parents explained to OSI, "We need your help to change the derogatory views of women and girls that plague our society".

Now, through a combination of advocacy, leadership and self-esteem development, community organizing, and programs, Girls for Gender Equity keeps 600 NYC boys and girls ages 8-18 off the streets by offering them a safe place to achieve academic excellence, explore career education, and maintain healthy lifestyles. In an effort to put an end to the barriers of segregation and discrimination based on sex, GGE takes a dual approach of community organizing and service provision. GGE mobilizes girls, boys, women and men under Title IX of the Education amendment and its ten points (1), to work as a collective toward systemic change in all of the support networks that shape the development and achievement of girls and women. Concurrently, GGE creates opportunities through a variety of programs and projects that nurture the optimal development of girls, women and, ultimately, the entire community.

Youth Organizing

Youth Organizing mobilizes youth and adults towards creating sustained change in their communities through educational campaigns, research and direct action. We recognize that solutions are not monolithic, and need to be addressed through macro- and micro-level actions that encompass the complex nature of gender based oppression. Programming includes:

For more information on Youth Organizing, contact Mandy Van Deven, Associate Director / Community Organizing Coordinator at 718.857.1393 or mandy@ggenyc.org

Teens may visit myspace.com/sistersinstrength

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness Programming establishes and maintains tri-fold programming for 26-30 NYC schools and CBO's to coordinate girl's participation in equitable fitness activities, in self determination groups and in educational health workshops. Programming includes:

For more information on bringing Health and Fitness to your school, contact Joanne Smith, Executive Director at 718.857.1568 or jsmith@ggenyc.org

Urban Leaders After School Program

Urban Leaders After School Program at MS 61 is a holistic program designed to help young men and women, of Central Brooklyn, achieve academic excellence, explore career education and maintain healthy lifestyles. Support is provided by families, community members, teachers, peers and professionals who live throughout NYC and who set high standards for Urban Leaders youth to internalize community activism and self determination as being achievable. Programming includes but isn't limited to:

For more information on becoming an instructor at Urban Leaders, contact Toyia Taylor, Program Director at 718.536.9496 or ttaylor@ggenyc.org

 

1 Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance" (Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to the Civil Rights Act of 1964). 10 key points: Access to Higher Ed, Athletics, Career Education, Education for Pregnant and Parenting Students, Employment, Learning Environment, Math and Science, Sexual Harassment, Standardized Testing and Technology.