Virtual TPC Grantee Dialogue: Investing in Women and Girls' Female Empowerment

Learn about your philanthropy dollars in action! Hear from two important organizations providing direct service to families and children that improve their physical, financial, and emotional wellbeing. From providing much needed cash to first-time moms to use in ways they deem best, to empowering girls through self-defense training, these two impactful organizations make a positive difference in the lives of Boston-area girls, women and gender-expansive youth every day. Tune in to learn more about how empowering females can lead to enhanced wellbeing for families and girls.

On Thursday, December 4th, 6:30-7:30 pm, Executive Directors from our two TPC grantees will delve into their community impacts, exchange stories from the field, and hopefully find synergies across their work.  Come with your questions. TPC friends and guests are welcome.

Participating Grantee Organizations

• Family Health Project: Gives first-time moms $400 a month for three years, because they know that a child’s first three years of life are crucial for brain development, and that financial stability during this time can shape their future. Moms use the money for essentials like food, rent, childcare, and medical care—whatever their family needs most, no strings attached. Pilot programs in Lynn and Roxbury have demonstrated that this kind of direct service to families can be life-changing.

• Girls' LEAP: Partners with local schools and community centers to deliver empowerment and self-defense training to girls aged 8-18 in Greater Boston. These programs encourage girls and gender-expansive youth to value and champion their own safety and well-being, because they deserve to grow up safe and free from violence. Empowerment is violence prevention and Girls' LEAP’s goal is to provide girls with the tools and skills to keep themselves safe, both emotionally and physically.

Grantee Speakers

• John H. Knowles, Jr., President Family Health Project: Joe is CEO of the Institute for Health Metrics (www.healthmetrics.org), a nonprofit incubator of evidence-based solutions to improve quality and outcomes in healthcare. He is a Trustee of the MGH Institute of Health Professions; Director of Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative (PAARI), Gloucester; and Treasurer of the Evelyn Lily Lutz Foundation, Beverly. He holds an AB (Government, 1979) from Harvard College, an MBA (Marketing, 1983) from Columbia University, and an MPH (Family and Community Health, 2002) from Harvard School of Public Health, where he was a Visiting Scientist in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health from 2002 to 2010.

• May Vaughn, Executive Director of Girl’s LEAP: May joined Girls' LEAP in February 2024. She has a Masters in non-profit management and brings over 25 years of nonprofit leadership experience from her previous roles at YMCA of Greater Boston, Sitters for Scholars, and Roxbury Tenants of Harvard.  She sits on the Boston Children’s Hospital Community Advisory Board,  the Board of The Philanthropy Connection, and is a Site Visit Leader for Cummings Foundation. She is deeply rooted in the community, raised in Roxbury as the daughter of Honduran immigrants, and involved in all aspects of community safety.