Nonprofit Collaborative Focused on Girls and Gender Expansive Youth awarded $750,000 Catalyst Grant to Launch First Statewide RI Girls Coalition
Providence, RI — [January 6, 2025] — Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England (GSSNE), in partnership with Women’s Fund of Rhode Island (WFRI), Girls on the Run Rhode Island (GOTRRI), Rhode Island for Community & Justice (RICJ), and The Womxn Project Education Fund (TWPEF), announced today that the Rhode Island Foundation has awarded a three-year, $750,000 Catalyst Grant to advance groundbreaking work with girls and gender-expansive youth throughout the state.
The collaborative, led by GSSNE as the primary applicant, will use the investment to formalize and launch the first-ever RI Girls Coalition, a coordinated effort grounded in the findings of the RI Girls Report, the first comprehensive data source focused on the well-being of girls in Rhode Island.
Pictured: Jocelyn Foye, Dana Borrelli-Murray, Rose Albert, Micah Salkind, Kasha Hanflik, Kelly Nevins, Katie Murray, Keith Tavares, Louisa D’Ovidio
Building on a Shared Vision for Girls Across Rhode Island
RI Girls Coalition partner organizations have decades of experience and expertise serving girls and gender expansive youth across RI. Their collaboration on the RI Girls Report catalyzed a unified vision: a statewide coalition that addresses the challenges girls and gender expansive youth face, from mental health to leadership development to economic opportunity, with coordinated, data-driven, equity-centered strategies.
“It is vital for our community to understand the needs of girls and gender-expansive youth. Through coalition-building, we can focus our energy, share resources and learning, and advocate for systems change to ensure our young people can thrive physically, emotionally, and socially,” said Dana Borrelli-Murray, CEO at Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England.
“The Rhode Island Foundation’s investment is transformative,” said Jocelyn Foye, Executive Director of The Womxn Project Education Fund. “We now have the resources to build a coordinated system of support that listens to and engages girls and gender expansive youth. It centers their lived experiences, removes barriers, and generates opportunities, especially for youth in low-income communities.”
How the Catalyst Grant Will Be Used
Over the next three years, the RI Girls Coalition will:
Expand access to existing programming and create new programs to support this population,
Convene for shared learning, and
Create a second edition to the RI Girls Report.
A Transformative Moment for Rhode Island Youth
“This coalition represents the future of youth support in Rhode Island—collaborative, data-driven, and rooted in equity,” said Kelly Nevins, CEO of Women’s Fund of Rhode Island. “We are grateful to the Rhode Island Foundation for recognizing the importance of investing in girls and gender-expansive youth.”
“Girls and gender-expansive youth deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of their background or lived experience,” said Kasha Hanflik, Executive Director at Girls on the Run RI, “We are excited to engage directly with communities across the state, through this work, to better understand their needs and create solutions that make a tangible difference in their lives.”
About the RI Girls Coalition
“We’re excited to bring RICJ’s work to this coalition. By bringing together girls and gender-expansive youth with diverse lived experiences, we’re creating spaces where young people can build understanding across cultures and communities. This work is about removing barriers for girls in our most under-resourced neighborhoods and giving them a seat at the table to shape solutions,” said Rose Albert, Executive Director of Rhode Island for Community and Justice.
“This coalition will contribute to the well-being of young people and the community, and work at the intersection of culture and identity to capture their experiences. Together, the Coalition partners will expand culturally-grounded programming opportunities, create a statewide convening, and publish updates to their 2025 inaugural RI Girls Report, ensuring the voices and needs of girls from under-resourced communities, particularly girls of color, are centered in this work.”
The RI Girls Coalition is a new collaborative effort dedicated to improving outcomes for girls and gender-expansive youth across Rhode Island. Formed by five long-standing Rhode Island organizations—GSSNE, WFRI, GOTRRI, RICJ, and TWPEF—the Coalition aligns programming, data, and advocacy based on the findings of the RI Girls Report. Its mission is to create accessible, equitable pathways for every girl in the state to thrive.