Thanks to the kindness of our donors, Girls Who Click has had an incredible first year. From the start, we had an overwhelmingly positive response from the nature photography and conservation community, which reaffirmed the need for our work and the timeliness of it. We ran workshops this year in California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Oregon. It takes a lot of work to pull off each workshop. We help our photographer instructors plan the workshop, and then GWC works hard to organize the logistics, secure necessary permissions, promote the workshop to local schools and youth groups in order to recruit girls, distribute application materials to interested students, review the applications, select candidates, and communicate with parents about preparation. This year we have been able to develop a team of talented volunteers, which has helped us adhere to our small budget and keep spending to a minimum.
Our girls come from all walks of life, and we are pleased to say that we had many minorities and low income students go through our workshop this year. It means the world to us that these workshops are accessible to all teen girls, regardless of cultural background or economic status.
After receiving a lot of interest from girls living outside the USA, we created a program called Global Photo Challenges. These are simple photo assignments that we post on social media and encourage girls all over the world to share their photos.
Looking back on the year, our greatest achievement is that we have managed to reach so many girls, not only through our workshops, but through our social media outreach, Global Photo Challenges, and the media.
Next year we have plans to increase the number of workshops offered throughout the USA and offer our first international workshops to girls as far away as Germany and Mozambique. We also plan on offering girls the opportunity to apply for and receive a free portfolio review or career advice consultation with professional female photographers over video Skype.
If you would like to offer your financial support, please visit https://girlswhoclick.org/donate/