Quality in Action: Wild Whatcom's Girls Explorers Club
Over the past year, School’s Out Washington (SOWA) has joined Women’s Funding Alliance in their mission to advance leadership for women and girls in our state.
As part of Women’s Funding Alliance’s Girls Leadership Organizations of Washington (GLOW) Initiative, SOWA has provided quality improvement training to a cohort of leaders from fourteen girl-serving youth programs. Together with Women’s Funding Alliance and their GLOW cohort, we are providing girls across Washington State with a wider range of quality leadership development experiences.
“Working with School’s Out Washington to deliver the Youth Program Quality component of our GLOW initiative has allowed our cohort members to develop strategies and shared language around quality in their programming,” says Women’s Funding Alliance President & CEO Liz Vivian. “We are thrilled to be working with SOWA and our GLOW cohort to strengthen the girl-serving ecosystem in Washington State.”
Hannah Thomas Plant, Girls Explorers Club
Program leaders at Wild Whatcom, a youth organization based in Bellingham, shared how their experience in the GLOW cohort and quality improvement process has shaped the culture of their programming.
“Wild Whatcom already had a strong approach to working with kids, but through the Youth Program Quality Assessment, coaching and peer learning, we have been able to come together with shared intention and a shared language around how we want to interact with the girls in our program and build a culture that is impactful," explains Hannah Thomas Plant – Girl’s Explorers Club Coordinator for Wild Whatcom.
Wild Whatcom engages more than a thousand children and families in a variety of year-round programs, with a goal of helping bring the joy of the outdoors to children and families throughout Whatcom County. At the heart of the organization’s work is helping to create a community who really cares about connecting to nature.