Girls and Youth Blogs
This summer, 14 incredible teens—rising 8th through 11th graders—stepped into leadership in a big way. They became trained peer sex educators, ready to spark change in their schools and communities. Their mission? To build confidence, spread knowledge and help their peers make healthier choices as they navigate high school and beyond.
On May 10, 2025, we gathered at YWCA Minneapolis to celebrate the accomplishments of twelve incredible young women in our Eureka! program—a transformative initiative designed to build leaders, changemakers and well-rounded young women.
Nine students from South High School, members of the YWCA Minneapolis Youth in Action Program, joined nearly 500 youth at Youth Day at the Capitol—an empowering event where they built advocacy skills, explored the civic process, and met with elected representatives to champion the issues that matter to them.
We challenged Girls Inc. Eureka! participants to engage in artistic engineering by building kinetic sculptures during a unique bike engineering camp.
Participants learned STEM engineering skills and used their creativity to design and build moving sculptures on bikes.
Learn more about the camp from a participant and the volunteers who made it happen.
Michelle, a 17-year-old senior at Blake, recently traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of Girls Inc.’s eighth cohort of the Teen Advocacy Council.
The group flew to Washington, D.C. for a four-day event to voice their desire for change at the highest levels of government.
Read more about Michelle's experience as a youth advocate.
Our Girls Inc. Eureka! youth recently visited Brooklyn Center. They toured city facilities and discussed government careers with several influential women.
The Youth In Action (YIA) group at South High School (students who identify with girlhood — freshman to senior) meets every other week to share their views and experiences, learn about social injustice and discover how their values and identity can be transformed through advocacy and activism. By the end of the year-long program, the YIA cohort will implement an advocacy project that improves their community in a tangible way. YWCA has structured the TAC experience around community building, shared expectations, and learning through activities, field trips, and guest speakers.
Franklin Middle School Beacons is moving full STEAM ahead with engaging students into project-based learning. Evidence of this was shown at Franklin’s recent 1st Annual STEAM Fest where students, families, and staff all participated in fun and engaging STEM and STEAM learning activities.
Carliene Quist, Girls & Youth Program Manager, arrived in Milwaukee for the October 2023 Women’s Convention with a suitcase and her work laptop. She returned home to Minneapolis with a truckload of donations for participants in Girls & Youth programs!
During the current school year and into summer 2024, YWCA Girls & Youth will serve upwards of 850 youth in Beacons afterschool programming. Among them are 450 students at YWCA’s new Beacons Learning Center: South High School!
As the largest all-women triathlon in the country, the race attracted participants ages 11 to 80+ with varying levels of experience, diverse backgrounds and powerful stories.
Over five days, ten of our Girls Inc. Eureka! youth put their science, engineering and creative minds to work and created milk carton floats!
YWCA Minneapolis Beacons Summer Program and Strong Fast Fit (SFF) collaborated with GoSolar! Kidz this summer! They learned about solar energy, how to cultivate it, its different uses and how to store it.
Last year, The Posse Foundation partnered with YWCA Minneapolis Girls and Youth Department. The foundation is a national organization identifying public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who traditional college selection processes may overlook. This allows students to pursue personal and academic excellence by placing them in supportive, multicultural teams — "Posses" — of ten students.
