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Meet Claudia Copley of 4GIRLS Organization in Long Beach

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudia Copley.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Claudia. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
In 2010, I founded 4GIRLS Organization. I was inspired and empowered by the California Women’s Conference, hosted by then-First Lady of California, Maria Shriver. Ms. Shriver spoke in an arena with thousands present, but I felt if she was speaking directly to me when she asked to consider what I could do bring change in my community?

“All that is required to bring about change,” she said, “is to be bold, which requires self-confidence.” I felt inspired and empowered after hearing her speak and asked myself, “what can I do to create change for my community?” “How can I use my talents and voice to help others?”

Then, past negative thoughts, such as worthless, dumb, ugly, etc., that I felt about myself in middle school crept in. I was born into a dysfunctional environment, so I did not learn self-confidence and the power of using my voice until I was an adult woman. I knew in that instance that I wanted to create something similar to the women’s conference but to target young girls.

I was incited to create a program that would give young girls a positive and safe environment for them to learn (or increase) their self-worth because I know personally that it is much better to learn esteem at a young age, instead of waiting like I did, as an adult. After the Conference, I began informally polling girls and women about their own experiences to see whether my experience was similar.

Unfortunately, the consensus was that middle school was a time of profound poor self-esteem and negative self-talk. Many women shared that they lacked positive role models in their families, schools, neighborhoods, and communities. I began reading more studies about the link between self-esteem and gender and overwhelmingly, studies have shown that girls are more likely than boys to struggle during this time of their development, particularly when it comes to self-esteem.

Based on this feedback, I knew that I would not lack for women who could support my solution: a nonprofit to combat poor self-esteem. Inspired by Maria Shriver’s conference model, I designed a two-day annual workshop for middle school-aged young women.

However, the difference to Ms. Shriver’s conference is that there is no fee to attend a 4GIRLS workshop because I would have been prohibited to attend such a workshop if it had existed when I was in middle school. I also realized that young women need ongoing support after a transformational experience, so the program expanded to include quarterly empowerment events throughout the year.

Has it been a smooth road?
4GIRLS began with a simple and focused idea – to inspire and empower middle school girls. Based on personal experience and the feedback received from women and girls that were queried, I knew there was a gap in the market in that I could not find another organization that catered to middle school girls in the manner in which I had envisioned for the program.

4GIRLS is a grassroots organization – it started small, and the directors and I have been very deliberate in how we expand and evolve. The organization expanded to Orange County in 2015 furthering the reach of empowerment and inspiration to a different community. In the course of the past eight years, we have built a successful program and positively influenced hundreds of middle school girls.

However, all has not been smooth sailing, and throughout our journey, we have experienced some setbacks. The biggest challenge we continue to face is lack of sufficient funding to pay for staffing resources and to expand the program further. As of January 2018, a long-time volunteer of 4GIRLS agreed to become our part-time Executive Director on a volunteer basis.

We have a few individuals doing the bulk of the work – all without pay – and we have lost a few outstanding volunteers because they could not continue to dedicate the necessary time. The goal is to raise enough general operating funds – from grants, individual and corporations – to overcome the challenge which stops us from growing beyond the two counties we currently impact, Los Angeles and Orange.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
4GIRLS’ mission is to empower and inspire middle school girls to identify themselves as confident, authentic and resilient, preparing them for real-life success. Through our annual workshops and ongoing empowerment events in between workshops, 4GIRLS teaches middle school girls new skills that encourage and motivate them to make good choices. The 4GIRLS workshop brings together a cross-section of middle school girls for a weekend of inspiration and gives them an opportunity to thrive.

All 4GIRLS programs are offered at no cost to the girls and provide a safe place for them to accept and appreciate themselves for who they are and discover their potential The workshop is an intensive, 2-days of hands-on activities, followed up with quarterly empowerment events, to increase their confidence. The workshop is planned by a team of 15 community leaders who are educators, youth-serving professionals, parents and women committed to empowering the next generation of women.

Topics and activities covered in our annual workshop include leadership skills, goal-setting, self-defense, anti-bullying, female growth and development, creative expression and the power of kindness. Quarterly empowerment events are generally three hours, and some past topics have included a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) class where girls learned coding and robotics, museum visits, community service, tennis lessons, jewelry making, self-defense, painting classes, dance class, and an anti-bullying assembly.

The goal is to expose the girls to a diverse range of activities, in many cases for the first time, encourage them to challenge themselves and the status quo and provide them with educational and stimulating opportunities to expand their future possibilities. Our program brings together a cross-section of girls and provides them with a safe place to learn about and appreciate who they are as individuals, while at the same time exposing them to different perspectives and ideas.

We are most proud of the hundreds of young women we have impacted. Many of the girls walk into the workshop being self-critical or lacking in self-esteem then experience a change in perception and leave the workshop knowing that they are inherently valuable, powerful and beautiful. We have qualitative measurable data as well as personal testimonials confirming the significant increase in self-esteem.

What sets us apart from others is that all our programs are offered at no cost, and we are a 100% volunteer organization. The fact that our attendance numbers continue to increase and all survey results continue to be overwhelmingly positive is evidence that our program is having a meaningful impact.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
If tomorrow all young women identified themselves as confident, if they could be their authentic self and believed in their inherent power then I would be happy to be out of business.

For that to happen there would have to be a world where bullies no longer existed, or girls did not compare their appearance to other girls, or they each grew up in a secure, supportive and resourceful household, where there weren’t abusive relationships and on an on. In the short terms, 4GIRLS will continue to do what we do to impact our community.

In the next year, we hope to have enough funding to pay our Executive Director. In the next 2-3 years we hope to have committed, compassionate volunteers in other cities supporting 4GIRLS’ mission and operating chapters in their own communities.

When girls are empowered, they tend to make better life choices, which leads to better life outcomes that benefit not only them individually, but their future families and communities, thus changing the demographics around them for the better.

Pricing:

  • – $10 donation buys a pair of workshop themed socks for one girl
  • – $25 donation covers the cost of a journal, writing supplies & a logo canvas bag
  • – $125 donation covers the cost of one girl to attend the 4GIRLS workshop
  • – $250 donation covers the cost of an empowerment event

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Raquel Landworth-Kleinhenz

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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