"Now I Can SCREAM!" Help Girls Get LOUD with GRCB!

“Now I can SCREAM” Help Girls Get LOUD by supporting GRCB’s full calendar of programming in 2018! 

Girls Rock Campaign Boston, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to empower girls and women to believe in themselves by providing a supportive community that fosters self-expression, confidence and collaboration through music education and performance, has seen exponential growth in the past year! We need your help to continue expanding and improving the work that we do! 

In 2017 we served 210 youth, 90 adults and debuted 66 bands! The year 2018 is going to be JAM PACKED with even more GRCB programming as we continue to develop curriculum for our new after school program, launch a year round workshop series, and support more youth leadership opportunities. 

As we head into our 8th year, we need your help to ensure that we are able to continue to provide quality, year round, programming that allows girls to develop a sense of confidence that will carry over into all aspects of their lives, empowering them to recognize and respond to discrimination.

Your contribution will help sustain the sounds of our year round calendar of programs and launch girls into their futures. Our goal is to raise $30,000 by December 31st - please make your donation today!

This year we will continue to expand the reach of our mission and ensure the sustainability of this organization. Here is some of what we will accomplish with your support:

BUILDING ELECTRONIC ART TOGETHER IN SCHOOL (GRCB BEATS): In 2017 we launched our first in-school, after school program, GRCB BEATS, a free program currently serving the East Somerville Community School and Mother Caroline Academy in Dorchester. 

Using art, music education, and performance, participants grow measurably in confidence, self-expression, and peer support. During BEATS, girls form bands, create music electronically, attend workshops, and direct music videos, encouraging collaboration and self-expression while gaining technical skills and expanding their 21st century skills.

Our inclusion of electronic music creation provides instruction in a field where women are startlingly underrepresented. By most estimates, women represent less than 5% of producers and engineers industry-wide. Providing access to this technology and instruction by women in these fields we are working to inspire girls to move from consumers to producers, changing the way they think about their own potential and giving more girls and women a voice in our society, a key element in combating gender inequality and creating social change.

PROMOTE YOUTH LEADERSHIP: We are committed to the future of GRCB and believe that collaborative partnerships between the youth and organizers will lead to greater outcomes for our programming and mission.

GRCB offers empowering leadership opportunities at BEATS by inviting two teens from a nearby high school to serve as Teen Leaders. Similar to our summer internship program, the Teen Leaders serve as peer mentors and research, design, and lead workshops on topics they deem pertinent to middle school girls. One Teen Leader stated about her experience, “BEATS gave me a voice. It gave me the opportunity to work with younger girls who need the advice I’ve learned throughout the years.” 

In 2018 we will launch a new program, the Youth Action Leadership Lab (YALL). YALL will rely on the power and leadership of youth to act on issues affecting young people and their communities. YALL will engage youth more deeply in our grassroots movement and support the development of feminist, anti-racist youth leaders through cultural organizing practices that blend music education, political education, and DIY media making. The youth involved will conduct self-driven projects that will work to improve their lives, their communities, and the institutions intended to serve them while redefining who has the ability to make change in the world.

CONTINUED COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS: In 2017, GRCB worked with various organizations to be able to provide free programming to youth outside of our sessions. We held our first GRRRL GRIT Workshop in collaboration with Science Club for Girls and The Possible Project, where girls built their own distortion pedal, and co-hosted YES FEST, a teen driven, all ages, music festival, with Brookline Teen Center, Boston Hassle, WSYCCA and Zumix. 

In 2018, collaborations will continue to play a major role as we launch a new workshop series in collaboration with organizations all over the greater Boston area. Your support will allow us to continue to provide free, quality programming that will allow GRCB to expand our reach and raise girls’ awareness of community resources and opportunities available to them.

GET LOUD FOR GRCB!

If you are able to support financially, your tax deductible donation will go towards ensuring GRCB can reach it's goals in 2018!

Unable to contribute financially this year but still want to help out? Already donated and want to know what you can continue to do to help GRCB reach our goals? Here are FIVE ways you can still help: 

1. Start a Fundraising Team through Fundly! Teamwork makes the dream work! Engage your friends and family to reach a fundraising goal together!

Click the “Become a Fundraiser” button on this page to get your team started! Fundly will walk you through setting up the page and sharing it with friends.

2. The more people that know about our campaign, the faster we will reach our goal! Help by spreading the word about our campaign with your friends, family, neighbors and colleagues and ask them to do the same. Let the people in your life know how GRCB’s mission and programs have impacted your life and why you are helping spread the word about this campaign.

You can do this via Facebook, Twitter, email, blogs, phone calls, in-person, or any other form of communication that works for you. Helping us get the word out helps more than you could ever know!

3. Access our Fundraising Toolkit for Email and Social Media Templates. Email [email protected] to get a toolkit to help you spread the word about GRCB and this fundraising campaign!

4. Participate in our virtual BATTLE OF THE BANDS! Are you in a band who wants to support GRCB? Nothing wrong with a little friendly competition for a good cause, right? Bands will compete to raise the most money for GRCB during the campaign and the winner will take home an incredible custom made trophy! Email [email protected] for all of the details!

5. Offer to do a trade donation with a friend or give a donation as a gift! Talk to your friends about what organizations they care about and offer to donate to their favorite if they donate to yours. It’s a great way to learn about and support other amazing nonprofits.

About Girls Rock Campaign Boston

Girls Rock Campaign Boston (GRCB) empowers girls to believe in themselves by providing a supportive community that fosters self-expression, confidence, and collaboration through musical education and performance.

In week-long sessions run by adult female community volunteers, girls gain meaningful life skills of collaboration, problem solving, and positive self-expression in a creative, supportive environment. During each session, girls meet and form bands, learn how to play an instrument (guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, or vocals), compose original songs and perform live to hundreds of family, friends and community members at a prominent local rock venue - all in one week’s time.  

GRCB provides daily workshops geared towards self-esteem building, self-reflection and expression every morning. In the process of collaborating with their bands, girls are encouraged to share their ideas as well as listen to each other, think critically, negotiate, and participate in conflict resolution--all essential life skills that help them succeed in their future goals and activities as they mature.

Providing a safe space for girls and women, GRCB hopes to become a key element in fostering leadership and confidence as girls transition into adult lives. Though we at GRCB are excited when girls continue to play their instruments and express themselves through music, our programming is far more based in self-esteem building. The main objective is for a change in behavior in girls who had previously felt held back from pursuing their own goals or interests, whether starting a band, creating a winning science fair project, excelling in a sport, or running for student government.

Learn more at www.girlsrockboston.org

YOU ROCK!