Something very special is happening on Friday, August 12 in Los Angeles. An academy designed to cultivate female leadership will be cutting the opening ribbon at Los Angeles High School with a STEAM focus for their first class. The Women’s Institute for Young Girls (WIYG), launched by Senator Holly Mitchell (D- 30th District) is partnering with GALA to offer the “Empowering Leadership through STEAM” program to their first high school freshmen class on the Los Angeles High School campus.
Thirty five percent of women in South Los Angeles live in poverty, 13% in deep poverty and more undocumented immigrants live in greater Los Angeles than any other county. More than 9,000 girls are in the L.A. County foster care system and Los Angeles is a top point of entry for victims of human trafficking, predominantly female minors of color.
Hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Women and Inequality, previously chaired by Senator Mitchell probed, through testimony from academics, program providers, advocates and women who have experienced the travails of poverty, how race, gender and poverty intersect to create exploitative circumstances, highlighting policies and programs that might bring needed change. One recommendations was a call for pathways to more and better educational opportunities and career paths for urban girls of color.
Friday, August 12, 2016 beginning at 9 am, the Los Angeles High School campus is located at 1067 West Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90019 GALA main entrance is on West Blvd., just south of Olympic Blvd.
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