ABOUT THE FOUNDER

The GLOW team is led by Dawn Harris Jeffries, Ph.D., founder and President of Girls Light Our Way. She is a former banker examiner, global compliance officer, and wealth manager where she was responsible for oversight and compliance of more than $1 trillion. Dr. Jeffries conducted two research studies and various successful pilots. The first study published investigated girls born in poverty in Peoria and the factors that contributed to and detracted from upward mobility to the middle class. The second study is underway. It is a 10-year longitudinal study of eight young women who were born in poverty. The young women who were participants of the original pilot program are the current dynamic leadership team.

They are law school students, therapeutic recreation teachers, math tutors, virtual gig professionals, social graduate students, nursing students, and business managers in a national hybrid care company. Together the group uses all of their experiences to support GLOW programming and innovation. Dr. Jeffries spent just over a year at the local urban league where she, as CEO piloted several innovative programs and her overarching strategy called “The Pipeline to Prosperity” which leveraged all aspects of the organization to reduce barriers of mobility. She relaunched the organization’s daycare for parents who needed childcare for work. She expanded youth programs to include Pre-K through college. She launched innovative work programs and added social emotional sessions for women-only and men-only. Dr. Jeffries and the team added meaningful and strategic partnerships to provide wholesale and access to wrap around services for every client. The program most applicable to this funding opportunity was called “The League as the Lab” where all apprentice level training was led by a certified professional who taught women and men in poverty the skills they needed to assist with running the organization.

ABOUT GLOW

Girls Light Our Way (GLOW) founder Dr. Dawn Jeffries began working with teens in 2007. In 2012, she launched a successful pilot project and GLOW was officially founded two years later in October of 2014. The GLOW team works to reduce inequity and inequality and improve economic access through community-based activities and leadership skills training. The mission of GLOW is to provide mental, physical, and nutritional wellness, self-efficacy, and the literacies of power - such as health, financial, media, digital, technology, and political - to girls and young women. The goal is to equip them with the skills they need to create a pathway out of poverty. GLOW activities also empower girls and young women who experience poverty, racism, sexism, and classism with the tools needed to direct their lives to upward social and economic mobility and to become contributing, engaged members of their community. GLOW uses self-efficacy to give girls and young women experiences in a middle-class habitus, helps them make educated and informed decisions, and provides a variety of programming to educate, enrich, and expand their worldview.

GLOW partners with the local public schools and other social services organizations to provide activities-based leadership and educational programming to girls from pre-kindergarten through age 24 to improve their social mobility. GLOW also provides similar age-appropriate training to their mothers and grandmothers. GLOW helps girls and their families address food insecurity issues, provides literacy training and appropriate clothing for interview and work. GLOW assists girls entering the workforce by preparing them with the skills necessary to apply, interview, and secure and maintain employment. The girls learn professional etiquette and the value of stimulating and knowledgeable conversation. GLOW provides girls with access to specialized tutors and homework assistance to help reduce their educational gaps. They learn the value of giving back to the community through volunteering. GLOW connects girls with caring, adult mentors in their respective fields of interest to help guide them in the business and culture of the profession they would like to pursue. GLOW girls visit the local community college, Illinois Central College, to complete admissions and annual scholarship applications. GLOW graduates have proceeded to attend colleges around the state and country, as well as the United States military. GLOW works to end systemic inequalities that affect the lives of local young women, seeks to build girls who are confident, disciplined, and always learning. GLOW helps girls heal from trauma or violence and grow into adults with healthy minds, bodies, and spirits. GLOW young women become independent in their professional, academic, and personal lives. Because GLOW targets students who are living in poverty, the organization aims to equip girls with the necessary tools to find financial success and become active citizens of the community. In a culture that gives the most respect to the loudest voices, GLOW is an advocate for racial justice and equity for the unheard.