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SPORTS
TRAINING
AND
ROLE MODELS FOR
SUCCESS

STARS Citywide Girls Initiative is a coalition of 10 leading nonprofits spanning disciplines—sports, literature, art, activism, and beyond. Over the past decade, we’ve joined forces to advocate for girls, young women, and gender-expansive youth from systemically underserved communities—supporting their growth emotionally, academically, and physically to be strong, skilled, and successful leaders. The STARS Coalition has raised over $12 million from the New York City Council and served more than 500,000 across New York City.

10 NONPROFITS

LEADING
PROGRAMS FOR GIRLS & GENDER-EXPANSIVE YOUTH

10 YEARS UNITED

TO ADVOCATE
FOR GIRLS & GENDER-EXPANSIVE YOUTH

$12+ MILLION

RAISED FOR GIRLS
& GENDER-EXPANSIVE
YOUTH

500,000+ SERVED

GIRLS & GENDER-EXPANSIVE YOUTH IN ALL 51 NYC
COUNCIL DISTRICTS

ATHLETICS

LITERACY

ARTS

LEADERSHIP

ACTIVISM

STARS Self-Care Celebration: Activate
Monday, March 13

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STARS Self-Care Celebration: Create
Wednesday, March 15

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STARS Self-Care Celebration: Motivate
Friday, March 17

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STARS Self-Care Celebration: Celebrate
Saturday March 18

In this self-care celebration week, STARS partnered with Nike to bring youth a diverse array of self-care activities and community-building. Our young people began the week at the Manny Cantor Center, where they engaged in an afternoon of meditation and art. The week continued at the Lower East Side Girls Club to write poetry about food & community and to decorate charcuterie boards.
In their penultimate day, STARS youth gathered at The Armory for an afternoon of skills challenges and cheering on their peers. The week ended at Nike Headquarters for a day of double dutch, Tik Tok challenges led by the Ladies of Hip Hop, and more!

BECOMING MORE FELLOWSHIP

In collaboration with the National Women's Hall of Fame, STARS launched the Becoming More Fellowship in which fellows delivered their own TEDx-style talk detailing their journey to Becoming More. Becoming More is loosely based on Michelle Obama’s book Becoming.

LEADERSHIP BREAKFASTS

Leadership Breakfasts are a gathering of city council champions and influential corporate leaders to discuss best practices for supporting girls and gender-expansive youth in NYC, and how to foster an equitable NYC in which girls and gender-expansive youth are civically engaged.

STARS IS A VERB: PLAY

STARS youth met at Coexist Gaming for a day of games, a 360 photo booth, and empanadas.

OBAMA FOUNDATION

STARS celebrates with Michelle Obama's Girls Opportunity Alliance, empowering adolescent girls around the world through education.

At our fifth annual STARS Town Hall, the STARS Youth Fellows discussed school safety with subtopics ranging from gun violence to mental health to public transportation to and from school. Our young people were joined by District Leaders Kenésha Traynham-Cooper, Shaquana Boykins and Sarana Purcell at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn.

STARS CGI hosted its third youth Town Hall entitled ‘Pass the Mic’ with Council member Farah Louis as our guest of honor. Pass the Mic was a call to action to urge policymakers to include youth in the decision-making process. Our young people discussed topics such as the impact of the pandemic, as well as the youth perspective on the COVID-19 vaccine.

Our 2nd STARS CGI Fellow cohort hosted a Town Hall on Mental Health with Council member Carlina Rivera as guest of honor. With so much attention focused on getting "back to normal," our young people chose to speak out on the mental trauma they previously endured and how those may have been exacerbated during the pandemic.

The fifth annual STARS Youth Town Hall focused on themes of exploration, empowerment, and evolution for girls and gender-expansive youth. The Summit is a one-day conference created to give youth opportunities to increase knowledge of career fields and the college application process.

Let Your Light Shine: In this workshop, a gentle movement practice made space for participants to slow down, find serenity, and connect to their true selves. Participants celebrated the joy, wisdom, and power of moving and breathing together.

A Letter to Your Future Self: In this Self-Care Saturday Workshop, participants wrote letters to both their past and future selves, taking inspiration from the youngest inaugural poet in history, Amanda Gorman.

Alyssa Fowler was selected as a Becoming More Fellow. The Becoming More Fellowship was developed in partnership with the National Women's Hall of Fame, and was inspired by Michelle Obama's book Becoming. This is Alyssa's “Becoming More” story.

Becoming More is a declaration that "more is more, when we understand our true worth." Youth exemplified this sentiment in the above reel, which highlights the experiences of the Becoming More Fellows during their time at the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls.

The Armory Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving youth by promoting fitness and education through a broad range of athletic, educational, and community programs.

The Bella Abzug Leadership Institute (BALI) has proudly worked with underrepresented youth throughout NYC and the tri-state area since 2005, inspiring, training and mentoring them to become leaders in creating positive social and economic change.

Figure Skating in Harlem helps girls transform their lives and grow in confidence, leadership and academic achievement. We are the only organization in the world for girls of color that combines the power of education with access to the artistic discipline of figure skating to build champions in life.

Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) works intergenerationally, through a Black feminist lens, to center the leadership of Black girls and gender-expansive young people of color in reshaping culture and policy through advocacy, youth-centered programming, and narrative shift to achieve gender and racial justice.

Groundswell is a NYC-based organization that brings together youth, artists, and community organizations to use art as a tool for social change, for a more just and equitable world. Groundswell engages youth in creative processes at the intersection of arts education, youth development, and social justice to inspire community engagement and social change.

Girls Write Now breaks down barriers of gender, race, age and poverty to mentor and train the next generation of writers and leaders for life. Together, our community channels the power of our voices and stories to shape culture, impact industries and inspire change. We are a powerhouse of voices that have been ignored or silenced for too long.

The Lower Eastside Girls Club amplifies the inner power of young women and gender-expansive youth in New York City through our free, year-round innovative programs in STEM, Arts, Digital Media and Sound, Wellness, Civic Engagement, and Leadership.

PowerPlay’s programs for girls and young women seek to stem the decline in confidence that occurs three times more often in girls than boys from elementary school to high school. If girls don’t see it, they won’t do it. Girls miss out on opportunities to learn from positive female role models who look like them.

Row New York was founded in 2002 based on the premise that the discipline of competitive rowing combined with rigorous academic support yields powerful returns. Rowing instills in athletes a strong work ethic, persistence, and grit. This is particularly evident in the classroom, where focus and determination produce higher grades and college acceptance rates.

Sadie Nash Leadership Project’s mission is to strengthen, empower, and equip young women and gender-expansive youth of color as agents for change in their lives and in the world. Operating at the intersection of love and rigor, we use popular education to build community, critical consciousness, and college and career readiness among participants, who we call Nashers.

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