The Fund's Advocacy in Action Summit Amplifies Youth Voices From Across Chester County

Group photo of youth participants at Advocacy in Action Summit

Downingtown, PA (February 3, 2024): This Saturday, The Fund for Women and Girls convened 35 middle and high school youth from five nonprofit organizations located throughout Chester County to present to the Governor’s Advisory Commissions on Women and Next Generation Engagement.

The Fund’s GAB and CivicG+ programs were joined by youth from the Coatesville Youth Initiative, Girls Spark, and the Parkesburg Point. Two students from Mighty Writers also contributed their voices through two powerful written statements. Drawing from their lived experiences and their research using The Fund’s Fourth Edition Blueprint Report, these incredible youth self-advocated directly to state-level officials about issues that are important to them: education, economic security, child care, the gender wage gap, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, and much more. In addition to speaking to the Commissioners, these youth heard directly from these officials about the purpose and scope of these commissions as well as how they get involved in making change. 

Below is a sampling of these impressive youth voices and the areas they identified as priorities for their communities. 

FY24_YouthAdvocacyinActionVoices
Box with image of youth in front of a screen that reads GAB. Text in box reads, Priority Areas: LGBTQ+ rights, immigration rights, gender rights. Box has logo of GAB (Girls Advisory Board) on right side.
Box with Girls Spark logo on the left side. With quote that reads "“While the issues that women face have lessened substantially from decades ago, there are still prominent and apparent social issues that women of today experience. We can’t possibly touch even the surface of all of them right now, but we can go over some of the major issues that continue to teach young girls and boys that women are not valuable.”
Box with photo of two individuals standing, one speaking on the right side. Text that reads Priority Areas: Education, Funding for education. and Logo of the Coatesville Youth Initiative on the right side of the box.
Box with CivicG+ logo on the left had side. Text that reads Priority Areas: Economic empowerment, reproductive rights, and educational advocacy" in the middle of the box and a picture of youth standing in front of a screen presenting on the right side of the box.
Box with logo from The Point on the left had side. Text that reads "Priority Areas: School related expectations School curricular opportunities School disciplinary practices Cost of child care/gender wage gap Home responsibilities Cost of higher education"
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THANK YOU!

We’d like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Chester County Intermediate Unit for the use of their beautiful space, Christian Lamar Photography for capturing these great moments of advocacy, and Wegmans Malvern for catering the event.

We’d also like thank and recognize the generous sponsors who ignite change through their ongoing support of our GAB and CivicG+ programs:

The Germeshausen Foundation