Nancy Wright

As CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, I lead by example, inspiring teams of dedicated youth workers and subject matter experts to foster meaningful relationships and create key partnerships that help us invest in girls’ overall well-being and recognize their value in a complicated world. Girls’ voices help us identify the issues and challenges they face, and their families help us understand how to better connect with the 245 very diverse communities we serve in our jurisdiction. For years, emerging trends have heightened my awareness and fueled my actions. I recognized that girls needed more support to navigate escalating issues ranging from self-doubt to the idealization of perfectionism in a social-media-savvy world. We identified the power of partnerships with other nonprofits, service agencies, health and wellness experts, and community organizations to ensure that life-changing experiences are accessible to all girls and not limited by challenging circumstances, locations, or funding. Following are highlights of some of the most impactful and meaningful community partnerships we have cultivated in recent years. Center for Childhood Resilience at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago In 2016, I had an insider’s view into the dramatic increase in mental health challenges for our Girl Scouts, families, and communities. People I knew, and many that I did not, reached out to express their needs and grave concerns for girls. The more I spoke to people, the more I witnessed serious challenges to the health and well-being of girls and their families and the neighbors who care about them. I began to build a deeply meaningful relationship with several thought leaders and experts at the Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR) who introduced me to astonishing layers of complexity and practice, as well as methodologies that have deeply changed me and made me a better leader. Together we brainstormed and developed a comprehensive strategy and approach to address the challenges being reflected to us from our communities. We launched a trauma-informed training and certification program for our entire staff; created personal learning communities (PLCs) consisting of staff, volunteers, educators, and community leaders; and prioritized trauma-informed training for our volunteers and other key, caring adults in girls’ lives. As the girls’ and communities’ needs are changing, I am in conversations with CCR to elevate our efforts with another Chicago youth serving organization by creating partnerships in resilience anchored in a healing center strategy. In addition, due to our extensive work with CCR over the past seven years, I serve on the Resilience Supportive Schools Illinois Steering Committee & Advisory Council, focusing on based practices encompassing school-based mental health support structures, cultural responsiveness, anti-racism, equity, integration of social-emotional learning, and capacity for trauma-responsive, healing-centered policies. Lilly Endowment Inc. An historic and groundbreaking opportunity to serve our communities better has emerged from my work as a thought leader, co-creator, and ongoing advisor to the implementation of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar grant from the Lilly Endowment. It is changing the way we think, innovate, and identify opportunities to serve girls from low-income communities – not just in Indiana but throughout the greater Chicago area. These approaches are inspired by and better aligned with each community’s Quality of Life plans and expressed values and priorities. Together with the CEOs of five other Girl Scout councils serving Indiana, I spent more than a year identifying how together we could truly change the landscape and environment around us so more girls could live their best lives physically, academically, emotionally, and socially in a state where girls in low-income and trauma- impacted households face incredible, inequitable challenges in their daily lives. We founded the Girl Coalition, a Lean Impact-inspired innovation nonprofit that is fully funded and in its second full year of existence. Lean Impact is the rapid iteration process identified by author Ann Mei Chang to create high impact innovations for social good. In our first year, we hired staff, developed a roadmap, and worked with the Indiana Youth Institute to publish the first girl-centric version of their annual youth-inspired research. Our report, appropriately titled the 2023 Indiana Girl Report, is a model of collaboration and partnership that I hope to inspire in Illinois. This community-centric work has greatly informed and changed our approach to serving multiple low-income communities in the City of Chicago and surrounding suburbs. AmeriCorps Partnerships in City of Chicago: As the world re-opened after COVID, needs for youth, families and communities increased exponentially. It required us to identify new ways to ensure all girls had opportunities to thrive and access the value-add experiences inherent in Girl Scout programs and curriculum. Due to the unique requirements of each situation, we identified the need for additional people who would serve girls’ needs and provide consistency in a time of uncertainty. We received a grant from AmeriCorps to support the implementation of their VISTA program. This community-inspired partnership gives us the resources to add additional team members to serve the needs of our girls while investing in many youth workers’ early real-life work experiences. After successfully working with AmeriCorps through their VISTA program, we have successfully expanded our support through another layer of service and workforce development programming, AmeriCorps’ State and National program. To date, one of the most rewarding outcomes of the initiative has been the establishment of a partnership with Hope Manor in Englewood, a supportive housing development designed for Veterans and their families who may be at risk of homelessness and economic hardship. Together we are serving girls directly with programs that build self-esteem and life skills, while giving adults in their lives opportunities to learn workforce skills and competencies. Community Group and Organizations Embracing the heart of what all girls need to thrive, we foster great relationships with many community- based organizations that support a variety of missions. The following summaries are high-level overviews of the work we do to support families affiliated with various agencies that address a wide range of issues ranging from medical to fostering safe environments that are free from violence and abuse, as well as housing and food insecurity. Foster Care: We serve more than 120 girls in foster care, primarily at six locations, including three SOS locations on Chicago’s West Side and South Side and Lockport; Lydia Home in both Chicago and Evanston; and Hephzibah Home in Oak Park.
• SOS: World’s largest nongovernmental organization dedicated to the care of orphaned and abandoned children.
• Lydia Home: Christian nonprofit organization serving children and families through programming, as well as support services. Ranked as a level #1 program—the highest ranking given from DCFS.
• Hephzibah Oak Park (newest addition in 2023): Oak Park’s oldest social service agency providing therapeutic residential treatment programs for young children and foster care services for children and their families. Activities offered provide girls with a wide spectrum of fun and learning, ranging from attending White Sox games with foster families, creating stuffed animals at Build-a-Bear, eating pizza, earning badges, selling Girl Scout Cookies to learn personal and financial skills, and even going camping. In November 2023, 43 girls living in therapeutic and traditional foster care and shelter care came to camp to experience hiking, outdoor cooking, singing, and other activities. According to one girl, “This is the best day of my life.” During a long weekend in July 2023, a dozen girls from Lydia Home participated in a full camping experience at one of our properties. In addition, to all the usual camp-centered activities available to any girl, they explored the power of digital photography activities in nature. These are the most recent examples, although these programs have been flourishing for several years. Most powerful for us are the real-time comments that include one girl saying “I feel so confident” after moving from being scared to climbing a rock wall and riding a zipline. Families with Medical, Social, Housing, and Food Insecurity Challenges: Ensuring that all girls have access to friends, activities, and personal learning when receiving medical care, we bring a sense of normalcy to families at pivotal moments. Our partnerships depend on staff, volunteers, and professionals collaborating to ensure girls have access to rewarding experiences and moments to remember. In recent years, we have fostered partnerships with the following agencies and entities:
• Easterseals, serving girls with autism from Chicagoland and Greater Rockford
• Outpatient Spina Bifida Clinic, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
• Rush Children’s Hospital and Comer Children’s Hospital • Primo Center for Women and Children (a family shelter and permanent supportive housing and services entity for homeless families in Chicago)

With our shared commitment to serving youth and the community, we have worked collaboratively with many local funders, including The Woman’s Club of Evanston, to provide programs that support and engage girls in under-resourced areas of Evanston. The programs are all encompassing including spending a day at camp.