Girls Rock DC Inc

At Girls Rock! DC, we want to change the world. We’re foster a new generation of empowered feminist musicians by providing a supportive, inclusive, and creative space for cis and trans girls and non-binary and other gender expansive youth to develop their self-confidence, build community, rise up, and rock out. We want young folks to recognize and use their power to create music and shape the future they want to see.

Girls Rock! DC is changing the music landscape in DC and beyond. We’re both creating a new generation of bold, confident artists through our music education programs, and we’re raising the visibility of current female and non-binary artists by giving them a platform as performers, instructors, facilitators, and coaches. We’re also building an intergenerational community of music lovers by matching adult role models with youth participants. And, we’re providing space for this community to explore the intersection between music and justice and create new ways to be their whole selves and build a better world together.

Every year, Girls Rock! DC serves more than 100 youths and 20 adults through our after-school programs, camps, and workshops. Our participants go on to be more engaged learners, more thoughtful artists, and more confident community leaders. In other words, they become true rock stars.

Girls Rock! DC’s programming has been strategically developed to improve participants’ music performance and appreciation skills; their self-esteem; their collaborative and creative spirit; and their belief in their own ability to lead. We emphasize providing culturally relevant role models and content. Participants have reported that because of this, they can see themselves and their experiences reflected in their instructors, in the workshop topics, and in the music they hear and create. In particular, choosing local role models helps create a sustainable and supportive community of peers and mentors in the DC area that will last far beyond a workshop or summer camp.

Girls Rock! DC is different from most music instruction programs because of our justice, inclusion, and equity lens. We see the struggle for justice and equity as inextricable from the creation of art and music, and give participants space to explore these intersections and build practical life skills. We focus on exposing young people to history, artists, and skills that are too often underrepresented in both mainstream music and the images they see in their daily lives. In our leadership and programs, we uplift the voices of people of color, gender non-binary and/or transgender people, and other folks from traditionally oppressed experiences or who hold multiple marginalized identities. This greatly expands participants’ frame of reference for ‘culture’ and allows them opportunities for self-expression that are missing in traditional music education programs.

We believe in the agency and power of young people, and we prioritize youth leadership. Our Youth Advisory Board contributes to the design and delivery of our programs. We work together to identify ways to shift power to them, amplify their voices within the organization, and ensure that we’re practicing our values in our administration and programming.

Girls Rock! DC is driven by a dedicated community of musicians, artists, and fans with diverse musical backgrounds, connections with local youth, and approaches to grassroots organizing. The organization is run by a team of dedicated Board members, youth advisors, staff, and volunteers. As of January 2020, Girls Rock! DC has a five-member Board of Directors to provide governance and financial oversight of the organization, and a Youth Advisory Board to contribute to the design and delivery of programs. The Co-Executive Directors lead the effective, sustainable, and values-aligned year-round administration and Program Coordinators ensure the implementation of our workshops, camps, and after-school programs. We engage around 100 volunteers each year to carry out our activities, and their gifts of time, talents, and resources are immeasurable.

Girls Rock! DC is supported by a generous family of individual donors and long-time foundation supporters. We are thankful that as we grow, our donor base grows with us. Our income is fairly evenly split between foundation support, individual gifts, program tuition, and merchandise and ticket sales. We also have a strong social media presence that gets our story out into the world and allows new supporters to learn about our work.

Since 2008, Girls Rock! DC has served more than 1000 young folks through our 11 summer camps, 4 adult camps, 15 semester of after-school programs, and dozens of workshops.

We have received consistently positive feedback from participants, their families, and teaching artists that our programs are positive music education experiences. Pre- and post-activity survey results indicate that our programs increase self-confidence and musical knowledge and that youth see it as a beneficial experience. Our participants go on to be more engaged learners, more thoughtful artists, and more confident community leaders.

In Summer 2018 we held our 11th annual summer camp and served 59 campers, including six Youth Leaders who helped plan camp. Campers participated in small-group instrument instruction in electric guitar, electric bass, drums, keyboard, turntables, and vocals and were mentored by local DC teaching artists. They formed bands and DJ crews, collaborated to write an original song or DJ set, and performed at the 9:30 Club for a crowd of hundreds. All of the campers reported benefitting from our music education and power-building programs.

During the 2018-2019 school year, our after-school program GR!ASP held more than 20 after-school sessions with seven students at the SEED School in Washington, DC. They wrote several original songs together, and were excited to continue and grow the program.

In Summer 2019, we inaugurated two new events: a workshops series and an End-of-Summer Celebration. We held a series of eight successful workshops (selected by the Youth Advisory Board and facilitated by local women, non-binary, and gender expansive teaching artists) with 41 total participants. 100% said the workshop was interesting and fun, and 94% said they want to go to another Girls Rock! DC workshop. Our End-of-Summer Celebration (attended by more than 100 Girl Rock! DC youth and friends) was a youth-centered event with family-friendly arts activities in an inclusive and creative space and showcased local youth and adult female, non-binary, and gender expansive music artists of color.

In 2020, we’ll be expanding our programming to accommodate even more young folks who want to express themselves in a creative, inclusive space. We’ll host a summer camp and adult camp, plus we’ll be growing our after-school program and offering more regular workshops for DC’s youth.