Our Mission and Vision

MISSION AND VISION:
We envision transformation where the unique voices of high school girls are amplified, and where girls are activated to create social, economic, and political change. 
 
Our mission is to amplify the voices of girls, inspiring them to courageously address systems of inequality and drive social change.

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Our Model

MODEL OVERVIEW:
The Blossom Project uses a leadership, learning, advocacy, and philanthropy model encouraging girls to learn about their world in the process of changing it. Girls, ages 15-19, participate within cohorts for two years, with the option of continuing for a third year.
 
The development of leadership skills is interwoven throughout the program. Participants also lead social change efforts by engaging their peers.

Learning sessions start with participants’ lived realities. The participants identify issues that are important to them, such as poverty, human trafficking, the environment and education. The Blossom Project mobilizes around these issues, creating a learning network to use participants’ experiences and participants’ solutions to address issues. Inspiring women leaders who are experts in their fields, provide a deeper understanding of the issues. The issues are explored as they exist in Colorado, the US and across the globe. Based on what each cohort learns about, a national or international trip is arranged to increase education, and awareness.

Advocacy - participants create advocacy/awareness plans around the issues. An example is the "Bring a Boy" event, where participants invite the boys and men in their lives (brothers, boyfriends, dads and uncles) to learn about violence against women, so that they can be allies in ending gender-based violence.
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Philanthropy - participants raise money to fund organizations that are working to address the issues they identify. They create funding applications, invite proposals, read and rank applications, conduct site visits, and make funding decisions. Of course, philanthropy extends beyond investing money, and the participants also engage in volunteer projects to better understand the full cycle of and impact of philanthropic efforts.

Our Framework​

Our approach is based on six guiding principles:  

1. Gender Specific - We emphasize gender-specific spaces because the life experiences of girls occur in multiple and compounding spheres.
2. Popular Education begins with a personal experience and moves towards collective action. Unlike traditional hierarchal education, where experts hold and disseminate knowledge, this model is grounded in the belief that everyone is an expert. It affirms that learning is not a top-down process.
3. Integrated Gender Analysis - We incorporate and work from an integrated gender analysis framework. We focus on understanding structures of power and systemic issues, and how these factors interact in the lives of girls and women.
4. Transformational Collective Action - Social Justice takes place on individual, community and systemic levels. We support and inspire girls to take action in their own lives, their communities and the world, to influence policy, and systems.
5. Assets-based - The Blossom Project builds on the strength of girls. Rather than positioning girls as passive bystanders, we see girls as powerful activists – able to disrupt the status quo and make change.
6. Continuous Learning - The Blossom Project approach is continuously shaped and reshaped by girls’ input and feedback. An ongoing process of learn, reflect, connect, apply, evolve informs our work on both programmatic and organizational levels.

Outcomes

Blossom Project programs are designed to meet the following outcomes for girls:

• Increased self-awareness and self-esteem
• Decrease isolation
• Promote self-advocacy
• Increase awareness, knowledge, and critical-thinking skills 
• Foster community connections and awareness
• Encourage girls to be leaders and agents of change in their communities
• Allow girls to understand their experience, access resources, and learn from others
• Build intergenerational network and support system

Blossom Project programs are designed to meet the following outcomes for the community:

• Increase individual and community commitment to creating equity
• Contribute toward disrupting negative systems and creating positive, meaningful change
• Create a pipeline of future activists, philanthropists and leaders
• Understand the connection between lived experiences of girls and broader societal issues