Organization grants $210,000 to five local nonprofits to help improve adolescent girls’ mental health

(January 8, 2024) Danvers, MA – The Women’s Fund of Essex County today announced the launch of a novel collaborative three-year effort that will advance the field of knowledge addressing girls’ mental health and wellbeing. Five Essex County-based nonprofits were selected from a group of 25 applicants and will receive cumulative grant awards totaling $210,000. The program, among the first of its type in Essex County, will offer and evaluate interventions to improve adolescent girls’ mental health. TWF is partially funding the program through a grant it received from the Cummings Foundation.

The recipients are:

  • Bellisini Academy: Resilient Girls After School Program, Lawrence

  • Beyond Soccer: Partnership with The Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport, Lawrence

  • Girls on the Run: Heart and Sole, Essex County

  • New American Association of MA: Group mentoring for adolescent refugee girls, Lynn and Newburyport

  • The NAN Project: Healthy Relationships = Healthy Minds, Essex County

The American Psychological Association stressed the importance of in-school and out-of-school approaches to support mental health and well-being in 2021 when it became clear that the gap between the demand for psychological services and the shortage of providers could not be closed in time to support those in need.

"Championing the essential needs of women and girls is at the center of TWF's funding. It is well-documented that pandemic and post-pandemic stressors have exacerbated an existing mental health crisis in adolescents,” said Trish Moore co-president of TWF. “Building wellness and resiliency among adolescent girls is key to their recovering from the effects of the pandemic and to creating a pathway to a fulfilling future.”

The grantees expect to use a variety of approaches, including mentoring, peer mentoring, sports programming, and social-emotional learning in after-school programs to help build resiliency in the program participants. The qualities of resilience are competence, confidence, character, connection, contribution, coping, and control.

“Girls’ mental health and well-being has been part of an on-going discussion between The Women’s Fund and our nonprofit partners since our first pandemic roundtable held in the spring of 2021. Based on the immense need, we knew we needed to act,” said TWF co-president Wendy Roworth.

The Women’s Fund will convene the cohort of the five nonprofits regularly over three years to share approaches, successes, and challenges and learn from experts in the field to support their work to build girls’ resiliency. In addition, TWF has partnered with Wellesley College’s Youth, Media, and Wellbeing Research Lab to produce a white paper assessing the effectiveness of various programs.

Moore added, “This collaborative effort, shining a light on a critical issue, will yield outcomes and learning far beyond those of individual organizations and will advance the field of knowledge addressing adolescent girls’ mental health, resilience, and well-being.”

###

About The Women’s Fund of Essex County:

The Women's Fund of Essex County has raised and awarded more than $3 million since 2003 to high-impact non-profit partners that provide local women, girls, and their families with the resources they need to find success at work, school, home, and life. The organization has been recognized with the George Peabody Award for Leadership in Philanthropy by the Essex County Community Foundation, the Champions Award for Community Impact by North Shore Community College, the Constance Grasso Award from the YWCA of Greater Newburyport, and the Extreme Esteem Award by Self-Esteem Boston. The Women's Fund of Essex County is an all-volunteer organization supported entirely by generous donors whose philanthropy supports a portfolio of programs impacting local women and girls. For more information visit www.thewomensfundec.org

Press Contact:

Kim Trudel. kimtrudel3@gmail.com