2024: A Milestone Year for Girls For A Change

This year marked a monumental chapter in the history of Girls For A Change. From celebrating long-standing programs to receiving prestigious accolades, launching impactful initiatives, and fostering meaningful conversations about Black girls’ empowerment, 2024 has been a year of extraordinary growth, recognition, and impact. We proudly celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Camp Diva Leadership Academy, a program that has shaped countless young women’s lives by fostering leadership, self-confidence, and community engagement. Our Peer Advisor program expanded with a new cohort, creating even more opportunities for young women to lead, mentor, and inspire their peers. Additionally, Girls For A Change secured two multi-year sustainability grants, ensuring the continued success of our programs and mission. 

A highlight of the year was the widespread recognition of Daughters, a documentary co-directed by our Founder and CEO Angela Patton. Premiering at Sundance and launching globally on Netflix in August, Daughters has sparked important conversations, inspired advocacy, and expanded the impact of initiatives like A Date With Dad, while addressing critical issues around visitation practices and reshaping perceptions of Black girls. We also established new partnerships with key organizations, further expanding our reach and strengthening our impact. These achievements mark a transformative year for Girls For A Change as we continue to build a future where Black girls thrive and lead.

Daughters Documentary Premiere

Daughters Documentary, the film that follows four young girls as they prepare for the GFAC Date With Dad dance, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival – one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. After a standing ovation and a ton of press surrounding the film, it took home two awards: Festival Favorite and Audience Choice: US Documentary! Since Sundance, Daughters has received accolades from multiple film festivals and was purchased by Netflix, where it premiered on the streaming platform this August. 

Film Awards include:

• African American Film Critics Association Award: Best Documentary
• BAFTA Breakthrough USA Cohort
• Bentonville Film Festival: Best Documentary Feature
• Cinema Eye Honors Nominations (Awards TBA): Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking, Debut Feature Film, Audience Award
• Cinetopia Film Festival: Audience Award, U.S. Documentary
• Critics Choice Celebration of Black Cinema: Documentary Award
• Critics Choice Documentary Awards: Best New Documentary Filmmakers Award
• Daddying Film Festival Award
• Full Frame Documentary Film Festival: Sally Robinson Audience Award
• Hamptons Doc Fest x Women In Film Breakthrough Awards: Breakthrough Director Award
• Indiewire Honors: Magnify Award
• Miami Film Festival: Documentary Achievement Award
• Shine Global: Grand Prize Winner of Resilience Award
• Sing Sing Film Festival: Honorable Mention

Since Sundance, Sistah Angela Patton has appeared on NPR, CNN International, MSNBC, Good Morning America, Tavis Smiley, MSNBC Morning Joe, PBS News Hour and other National and International news shows, and Daughters has been featured in the New York Times, Essence, Washington Post, The Gaurdian, Independent, and other major sites and papers. This documentary has catapulted the work of Girls For A Change into the global spotlight, sparking vital conversations about family, connection, and resilience. With this global awareness, we aim to continue sharing the film’s powerful message and its potential to inspire change.

We’re excited to announce that this program will expand to more jails and prisons nationwide in 2025. You can help us make this vision a reality by supporting our Impact Campaign —every contribution helps us reach more families and create lasting change. Don’t forget to watch Daughters on Netflix (and ive it two thumbs up) to learn more about the incredible work behind this program and its impact. 

Launch of the Peer Advisor Restore Program

This year we launched a new Peer Advisor program in collaboration with BareSOUL yoga & wellness. The Peer Advisor Restore program is centered on wellness and healing – two things desperately needed in our schools and communities. Participants in the program learn how to strengthen their own self-care practice and simultaneously use it to engage in the movement of community care. Upon completion of the program, participants receive a certification that gives them opportunities to facilitate healing circles in their communities. The inaugural cohort took trips to the Gloucester Institute and got to lead healing circles with Girl Ambassador Program participants and MLK Middle School girls. We’re so proud of our Peer Advisors this year, who grew and blossomed over the course of the program. Read more about it through the eyes of Peer Advisor Afryea Williams here.

“I’ve had an amazing time. As mentioned before, I want to work in mental health. This program has allowed me to foster my passion for helping others into a concrete goal.  I’ve gotten to learn what it means to be a servant leader and foster relationships with more people in the community.” – Afryea Williams

Camp Diva Leadership Academy Celebrates 20 Years

Camp Diva Leadership Academy celebrated its 20th anniversary this summer! Camp Diva was named in honor of Diva Mstadi Smith-Roane, who died in a firearm accident at the age of 5. Diva and her mother Clover Smith (who has also passed), were an important part of the community, and Camp Diva would not exist without both of them. 

“For 20 years, Camp Diva Leadership Academy has been a safe and brave space for so many Black girls in the Richmond Region. I am proud to be celebrating such a huge milestone this year and am grateful to all participants, partners, and families who continue to trust Girls For A Change and who stay the course with us as we grow and evolve. In its twenty years, Camp Diva has navigated borrowing space, renting space, grown its offerings, survived a pandemic, and welcomed back alumnae as Camp Coaches and facilitators.” – Sistah Angela

In over two decades of serving Black girls, we have learned a lot. We’ve learned how to listen, how to create safe and brave spaces, and how to support, play, and have a good ole time to celebrate Black girls as they transition into a new school year every summer. Read more about the history of Camp Diva Leadership Academy here.

Grants

This was an incredible year of support for Girls For A Change, with new partnerships and sustaining donors. In January, coinciding with the premiere of Daughters Documentary, we were awarded a $25,000 grant from Subject Matter, those funds, along with funds from Daughters Producer and founder of Epoch, Mindy Goldberg, made it possible to establish the Education Fund. This fund not only offers scholarships for continuing education resources for the four girls featured in Daughters it also supports scholarships for participants who complete four years of the Girl Ambassador Program. 

We are so grateful for being chosen as a 2024 Bank of America Neighborhood Builders grant recipient! Thanks to this grant, we can expand our team, enabling us to serve even more girls in our new facility. This transformative funding ensures that while we continue to raise awareness and funds for our Building Campaign, our essential programs and operations remain strong. As a token of our appreciation, we named them our Big Impact Partner of the Year. 

Richmond Memorial Health Foundation has been an incredible supporter of our mission over the years. This year was the first year of a three-year grant they awarded us. Their commitment to advancing health equity and empowering our community has been instrumental in sustaining programs at GFAC. Most recently, they generously sponsored the Richmond Impact Screening of Daughters. We honored them with the 2024 Sustaining Partner of the Year Award.

Capital One continues to be an amazing partner, sponsoring the Daughters Afterparty at Sundance, supporting travel for the families featured in the film, and sponsoring four Impact Screenings, one of which they hosted on their campus in McClean, Virginia.

In addition to these amazing grants, we want to shout out our “New Partner of the Year,” the Weissberg Foundation, for supporting our Daughters Richmond Impact Screening. We are also so grateful for the support of Jessica Seinfeld, who donated to Camp Diva Leadership Academy and supported other initiatives, and Sam Bisbee and Jackie Kelman Bisbee of Park Pictures, who have been amazing supporters of Daughters and Girls For A Change.

Kerry Washington Visits Richmond

What an honor it was to host Kerry Washington and the Simpson Street team at Girls For A Change before they headed to our screening of Daughters at Altria Theater. Sistah Kerry surprised GFAC participants while in a sistah circle, sharing her Girl Power: peace. Her words were powerful, and we are sure each girl will take that experience with her for the rest of her life.

The Daughters Richmond Impact Screening was a huge success! It was great to see so many community members in attendance. The Pervall family, whose daughter Myasia is an alumnae of our Girl Ambassador Program, was interviewed by CBS 6 News. They shared their touching reaction to the film as children of a formerly incarcerated parent. Watch the interview here.

It was also a treat to surprise former Richmond Sherriff C.T. Woody with “The Power of Yes” Award for listening to the needs of Black girls and saying yes to something that has become a powerful movement. Thank you to our sponsors, Capital One, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation, Community Foundation for a greater Richmond, The Just Trust, and Weissberg Foundation. Read all about the screening here.

Unique Experiences

The more experiences participants in our programs have, the more they will shine and thus contribute to our community. We love to offer special trips both in and outside of the community. Traveling with participants reduces the fear of the unknown. It encourages exploration and helps ease the anxiety young people may feel around travel.

For Spring Break, we took the Outreach Peer Advisors and some of the girls featured in Daughters to New York to attend the Her Dream Deferred conference, where we screened Daughters. In the Summer, we took Mission In Bloom participants on a retreat to Wintergreen to relax and restore before transitioning into High School. We took girls in our High School programs on college tours of Virginia Tech and A&T University, and we treated participants’ mothers to a Tina Turner Broadway Show. 

This Fall, we were invited by Kerry Washington to attend the DC screening of Six Triple Eight before it hit Netflix! Girl Ambassador Participants, Peer Advisors, and GFAC coaches and staff had a great time meeting some of the cast backstage and LOVED the movie. 

A milestone moment for GFAC Staff

To round out the year, we are excited to announce a promotion for longtime GFAC staff member Na’Kera Richardson. Na’Kera will be joining the C-Suite as the Head of Programs and Operations. Coach Nickey lovingly refers to Sistah Na’Kera and the iOs of our organization. Meaning, she’s all the apps that run in the background to keep us moving. Over the past eight years, Sistah Na’Kera has been an integral part of growing and expanding Girls For A Change while also supporting parents and participants. We are so grateful for all that she does! 

We are also excited to share that three new board members have joined the Girls For A Change Board: Steven Anderson, Tracey Walker-Cloyd, and LaMeisha Wilson.