Strong Women, Strong Girls is delighted to announce the distinct honor of receiving The Boston Club’s 2017 Advancement Award. We were chosen amongst 14 incredible nominees in recognition of our work to improve the lives of girls and women. This year’s award was specifically given to support programs to develop leadership skills that promote diversity, inclusion, and tolerance in girls and young women.
SWSG wins The Boston Club's Advancement Award in partnership with YW Boston for mentor diversity & inclusion training

We are proud to share that we were honored this morning by The Boston Club with their 2017 Advancement Award. Our efforts in Boston to create and expand our mentor diversity and inclusion training program were generously supported by The Boston Club with a $10,000 gift. It's an honor as we were recognized with this award in 2008 and, after a lot of growth and development, have once again been supported. We were delighted to celebrate at the event this morning in partnership with our friends @ywboston who were instrumental in the implementation of the new training program for our college mentors.

SWSG Boston Executive Director Siiri Morley receives Advancement Award from The Boston Club’s Kathy Collins

YW Boston partners with Strong Women, Strong Girls to deliver mentor trainingSWSG will use the 2017 Advancement Award to expand Mentor Diversity and Inclusion Training through an existing partnership with YW Boston. SWSG aims to continue this work at an even deeper level with college mentors through 2020.
In 2008, SWSG was granted The Advancement Award, when our organization only had 8 years of mentoring under our belt. At that time, we served 250 girls in 23 schools with the support of 75 college women mentors. We are delighted to receive this award again after growing to reach nearly 800 girls at over 50 mentoring sites with the support of 250 college women mentors.

Siiri Morley, Shaunda Lewis, and Payal Sharma (of YW Boston) stand with the award

Siiri Morley, Shaunda Lewis, and Payal Sharma (of YW Boston) stand with the award

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is one that we are striving to prioritize and practice in all aspects of our work. The work that The Advancement Award is funding is critical for increasing the cultural competency, racial awareness, and understanding of identity, power, and privilege for our college mentors. In our 2017-2018 program year every mentor will be able to receive this training. Given that SWSG serves a community of nearly 800 girls in the Greater Boston area – the majority of whom are girls of color in Roxbury and Dorchester – this work is critical in ensuring that the girls who are part of our curriculum-based after-school mentoring program are in an environment that supports and values them fully.

SWSG college mentors engage in training to support the delivery of our high quality mentoring program

SWSG college mentors engage in training to support the delivery of our high quality mentoring program

Thank you to all of our Boston supporters for your generous support of our work. We are proud to continue our organizational evolution with your support!