In May, 2020 ninety-nine girlfriends members launched the Spotlight Study Teams to discover more about the priority topics that emerged from our 2019 member survey. Each small group study team will shine a "spotlight" on one of these topics and dive deeper into these issues - on a big picture and local level - to help us become more informed grant makers and community champions.
Spotlight Topics
(1) Climate change / protecting our natural world
(2) Reducing racial disparities
(3) Homelessness / safe homes for all
(4) Mental health / social-emotional wellness
What’s happening?
The study teams will convene (virtually or physically) on their own group schedule from May to mid-July to collect information, learn from people with expertise or lived experience with the topic, and assemble information to share with other members. Teams will get a grasp of the data, identify promising practices and bright spots, note what's happening to advance positive work in our community, as well as opportunities and gaps in services, and investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the topic in our community. The summer effort will conclude with brief reports and presentations to the larger membership at a Discovery Forum, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 30 (subject to change).