Believing In Girls

I am settling down from a really inspiring day at the All About Girls Summit (AAGS) in Orlando. AAGS is a celebration of people and organizations that support work in the girls movement. People who understand the unique needs of girls and are committed to providing programs and opportunities to inspire girls to find their voices, dream big, and achieve success are all here together. PACE Center for Girls organized and sponsored the event, and I am fortunate to work at one of the 19 centers in the state of Florida.

One of the unique things about being here is the entire center shut down, our students have two days off from school, and the entire staff at every center is here. Doesn't matter whether you are a teacher, a counselor, a manager or an administrative employee, all of us are here. Even some of our volunteer executive board members came. To top all that off, we are surrounded by attendees from outside our organization who also work on and care about girls' issues (relationship violence, abuse, sex trafficking, and others). Our executive officers at the state level have partnered with state legislators and departments and people in the community to start a movement, and it's really pretty spectacular. There was a video message from the White House, messages from two Florida senators who were honored but could not attend because they are in session, and the secretary from the Department of Juvenile Justice read a proclamation from the Governor, declaring March Believing In Girls Month. It truly is an exciting time for our organization and for partnerships between people who believe in girls.

One of my colleagues turned to me at the awards dinner tonight, as we listened to gymnastics olympian Dominique Dawes accept a Believing in Girls Award, and said, "Don't you just feel like you're working for an organization at just the right time?" I smiled and agreed. She's right. It is an amazing time to be working for such a groundbreaking organization. There's no one else around the country doing what PACE is doing, and our model is in high demand. Our goal is to lift girls up and break the cycles of poverty, abuse, and trauma in their lives. Everyone here shares the same goal. Everyone here believes in what we do. Everyone is here because we believe in girls.

I am looking forward to getting down to business tomorrow. We have speakers and sessions to talk about the tough stuff, to address the factors putting your girls at risk. Then we're told we'll hear about some of the solutions, and how PACE will be part of the movement to make a difference. It exciting work.

There were several speakers tonight. Some were representatives from PACE and others were award recipients. They talked a lot about the importance of the work we do, and the guiding principles of PACE. But Dominique Dawes talked about love. She said love isn't just a feeling, it's a doing. She believes it's the answer and I think I do too.