The Girl Power Foundation (GRL-PWR) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young girls by providing them with strong female role models and guiding them through a 34-day curriculum focused on building a strong self-esteem, setting goals to achieve and serving others. The GRL-PWR Mission is to prevent girls from becoming statistic by giving them the tools they need to feel
confident and become successful. GRL-PWR believes that all girls, regardless of background, are vulnerable to self-esteem issues, and it is their mission to help girls learn how to love themselves and be strong enough to overcome all of life’s obstacles. The GRL-PWR story began with Bria Toussaint and Royal Phillips, two teenagers whose lives were fraught with obstacles and life altering situations. As young girls, Bria and Royal struggled to overcome life’s challenges, including poor self-image, poverty, constant transition, and divorce. In 2009, Bria and Royal experienced their “last straw” when Phillips witnessed her father physically abuse her younger sister and Toussaint lost her father to a selfish murder. Statistics have shown that facing such challenges may contribute to young females engaging in destructive behavior such as eating disorders, self-violence or result in underage pregnancy. Bria Toussaint and Royal Phillips were fortunate enough to grow up with strong positive female role models who taught them the power of resilience. It was this power that helped them combat life’s negative obstacles and allowed them to become successful. GRL-PWR began as a way for Bria and Royal to offer young girls the same positivity and be the same strong female role models to other young girls that they had when they were growing up. The GRL-PWR chapters are currently focused on elementary school-aged girls and offer both an empowerment after-school program and week-long summer camps. GRL-PWR also offers mentor training programs for girls over the age of 16 that are interested in starting their own chapter of GRL-PWR. GRL-PWR has recently partnered with The Youth Quest Foundation. Their role in this partnership is to teach the girls attending the Youth Challenge Academy chapters throughout the country how to use the GRL-PWR Curriculum so that they will have the ability to complete their community service requirement by serving as GRL-PWR mentors to girls in the local children’s shelter. GRL-PWR currently is a Registered Student Organization at Spelman College. The Spelman chapter provides 76 students with the opportunity to mentor and work with 76 girls in the Atlanta area between the ages of 8 and 12. GRL-PWR is more than an empowerment program; it is a movement spreading across the nation, creating positive role models that will help every young girl find the “Pwr” of resilience.
