CanvasRebel | August 21, 2023

Meet Erin Ross

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erin Ross. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Erin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success in your non-profit organization and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

Research shows that building relationships with trusted adults is crucial to support adolescent girls, especially given the mental health crisis facing that population after the pandemic. At Girls Inc. of Los Angeles, our mission is to empower the girls of Los Angeles to tap into their strengths and amplify their talents, transcending stereotypes and systemic barriers to become leaders of today and tomorrow. With such a big mission, we are incredibly intentional about hiring staff that can connect with our girls on a meaningful, personal level and create a space where girls feel empowered to be themselves. As a small team, it is imperative that all staff members can step in and create a safe and engaging space for girls, no matter their role. Some of my favorite times as CEO are sitting with girls making slime while I learn more about their lives and what they enjoy about Girls Inc.

In hiring program staff, we are looking for individuals with youth development experience, demonstrated cultural competence and a commitment to our vision to inspire our girls to be strong, smart and bold. We have been fortunate to attract talent who care deeply about our girls and often remark that they wished they had this type of program when they were growing up. We encourage our staff to bring their whole selves to work, sharing their own experiences with the girls to deepen connections. Our staff are not just educators, but mentors and role models as well. As part of our recently completed three-year strategic plan, we developed a companion three-year staffing plan. This provides our staff with a road map of new positions and possible opportunities to move up in the organization if they succeed in their current role.

We also rely heavily on a dedicated cadre of volunteers who commit to supporting our girls at least once a week for a semester. It is critical to have a strong adult to student ratio so that all girls feel seen and heard during programs. Our volunteers range from college students to professionals who use their lunch break to come help to freelancers looking for an excuse to get away from their desk once a week. If you are interested in volunteering, please visit https://www.girlsincla.org/volunteer.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have worked in the non-profit sector for more than 20 years at start-ups, a local site of a major national organization and now Girls Inc. of Los Angeles, which has served the girls of LA since 2016. As the first CEO, I was charged by the board to create a new strategy to help the organization emerge from the pandemic. To increase our impact and sustainability, we narrowed our focus to serve schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District in intentional feeder patterns in key neighborhoods, Watts, South LA and Venice. This new direction allows the organization to have a sustained impact in communities with significant demonstrated need with the opportunity for girls to grow up with Girls Inc.

We believe deeply that our girls are inherently strong and talented and that is our role to help them tap into those strengths and amplify their talents. We serve 100% girls of color (including youth identifying as female), ages 5-13, who live in under-resourced LA neighborhoods, facing intersecting systemic inequities that limit the resources and opportunities they need to succeed.

Girls Inc. LA currently serves at six Los Angeles Unified School District elementary and middle schools. All schools are Title I schools and most rank “high” or “highest need” on the Student Equity Needs Index, a holistic measure that goes beyond just free and reduced lunch rates to look at the environmental and other community factors that impact students’ ability to learn and thrive.

We provide programming that inspires girls to defy limitations and stereotypes and envision a positive future. Our programs are designed to supplement the curriculum at LA Unified with an emphasis on experiential enrichment to deepen our girls’ love of school and learning by applying Girls Inc. core program tenants: Strong (physical and mental wellness), Smart (hands-on STEM programs sparking curiosity and creativity) and Bold (life skills focused on leadership and independence).

Our work is more important than ever. Research shows that girls begin to doubt their intelligence and abilities as early as age five, leaving them to aspire to less ambitious careers than their male counterparts- a phenomenon known as the “dream gap.”

Girls growing up in under-resourced communities have been particularly hard hit the last several years. Most recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data issuing a strong warning about the mental health of our youth, girls in particular. It revealed that nearly 3 in 5 girls reported feeling “persistent sadness” in 2021; double the rate of boys and that one in three girls considered suicide. While these numbers feel dire, the head of C.D.C.’s adolescent and school health program shared that young people who feel connected in middle school and high school 20 years later have better mental health, are less likely to be perpetrators or victims of violence, are less likely to use substances and are less likely to attempt suicide. They stated that school connectedness is a very powerful protective factor, which Girls Inc. offers our girls by building a connection with caring adults and a positive peer group.

We know that Girls Inc. does strengthen girls’ academic and social-emotional confidence. Girls Inc. National did a rigorous comparison study a few years ago and found that girls who participated in Girls Inc. programming performed better on standardized math tests, are more engaged in school, exhibit postsecondary readiness and confidence and believe in their ability to do challenging math, reading and science.

In Spring 2023, the board of Girls Inc. of Los Angeles rolled out a Strategic Plan that will drive the organization through 2025. The long-term goals of the three-year strategic plan are focused on expanding our reach, deepening our impact, developing strong relationships in the community, staffing the organization appropriately and growing and diversifying funding.

We have already made progress towards achieving our strategic plan and are excited for what the future holds for our organization and the girls who are at the heart of our work.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

When you are leading a small team at a mission-driven organization, building a culture of transparency, accountability and fun is key. We spend the time to get to know each other- we include team builders in meetings whenever possible- sometimes serious and sometimes silly. It especially helps build a sense of community when we are working across the city at different schools and remotely.

I also work to be as open with the team as possible, sharing the same presentations I do for the board with the staff so they understand the direction of the organization, the big questions we are wrestling with and more. I want the team to feel like they are part of something bigger and to understand their important role in achieving our overall mission.

We can’t pay the same as the private sector, so we have added benefits to make sure our employees feel valued. We updated our policies and added a 401k match, 12-weeks paid parental leave, pregnancy loss leave, even a personal day off on your birthday.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We are fortunate to be an affiliate of a national organization that has been around for nearly 160 years, so some people are familiar with our work from their own youth. But in a big noisy non-profit market like Los Angeles, it takes a lot to stand out. We have been intentional about building partnerships with brands that help amplify our message and help us raise money at the same time. We have been the beneficiary of great brand activations from Citizens of Humanity, Free People Movement, Thirteen Lune, Kendra Scott, Lucky Feather, Kayo Body Care, ban.do and others. Partners like Armadillo, Meridith Baer Home, Revolve, Mattel, The Office of Angela Scott and others help support our programs and share our work to their networks. As a small non-profit, partnering with these major brands helps get our name out and build our credibility in the community.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.girlsincla.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlsincla/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/girlsincla/