Glow Up Girl

The mission of Glow Up Girl is to support, empower, and nurture Wayne County girls in grades 3-12 to become strong, self-confident leaders in their communities.

Over the past two years, Glow Up Girl has created a variety of programs designed to empower and support girls in grades 3–12, including Glow Night-A program designed to connect girls with strong positive female leaders in their community and introduce them to a variety of careers and jobs in their community, Girl $mart Girl $ense - A program designed to teach financial responsibility and skills that will be useful post-graduation, You Glow Girl Summer Camp - This program offered experiences and opportunities to girls while focusing on self-esteem, confidence and mental health, and our after-school drop-in program - which provides a safe space for girls after school where they can receive help with homework, have snacks, learn culinary skills, engage in structured and unstructured activities, learn new skills, participate in book club, and explore a host of interests in a kind, compassionate environment. For the past three years, our Girls Leading Our Way Through Unlimited Potential school-based program has worked with girls as part of their after-school program options, teaching confidence through direct instruction, fun activities, team-building experiences, and leadership training.

Looking ahead, we are excited to launch our Legacy Program, which will provide a range of leadership opportunities for older girls. Additionally, we are introducing Girls on the Go, a program designed to help girls find fun, non-traditional ways to engage in physical fitness within their communities.

These initiatives, along with the many successes we’ve seen in student growth, leadership development, and emotional well-being, position us to bring valuable perspective and resources to the table.

Our most recent You Glow Girl Summer Program produced the following results:

• Stronger sense of belonging: Connection to peers increased from 3.84 to 4.35 on average.

• Improved self-confidence: The statements “I believe in myself” and “I like who I am” both showed an upward trend, indicating a healthier self-image.

• Empathy reinforced: Already high levels of caring about others grew even stronger.

• Persistence skills improved: More girls said they try to solve problems without giving up.

• Public speaking confidence grew: More participants reported higher comfort speaking in front of others.

• Mixed results in reading enjoyment: Scores stayed steady overall, but individual responses varied—some grew in enjoyment while others lessened.

• Overall trend: The program is effectively building community, resilience, and self-worth in participants.

• “Big emotions” when redirected dropped from daily to infrequent (weekly or less).

• Girls showed improved participation with the end of the program, no refusals to participate across all activities, and often encouraged peers to do well.

• Increased use of problem-solving and seeking help rather than shutting down when challenged.

• Growth reflects stronger self-regulation, resilience, and leadership skills.

We believe strongly in collaboration. We currently work with numerous community partners, including, but not limited to, Wayne County Community Schools-Optimum Health, Wayne County Cornell Cooperative Extension, WARE, Chase Bank, Wayne Behavioral Health Network, Lyons, Sodus, North Rose-Wolcott CSD, Simply Equine LLC, and Wayne County Public Health.

We have strived to participate in the Partnership Work Groups of Wayne Wellness and the Family and Community Connection, but due to conflicting schedules, we've fallen short of expected attendance. We appreciate opportunities to collaborate and know that together we can deepen our collective impact for students in our community.