LOCAL NONPROFIT PETITIONS CITY TO RECOGNIZE CHICAGO DAY OF THE GIRL

Girls Like Me Project, Inc. will soon host its annual Day of the Girl Celebration for 30 young girls in Chicago. The organization’s founder, La’Keish Gray-Sewell, recently created an online petition to ask Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot to recognize Oct. 11 as Day of the Girl in Chicago. Photo Credit: Girls Like Me Project, Inc.
Girls Like Me Project, Inc. will soon host its annual Day of the Girl Celebration for 30 young girls in Chicago. The organization’s founder, La’Keish Gray-Sewell, recently created an online petition to ask Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot to recognize Oct. 11 as Day of the Girl in Chicago. Photo Credit: Girls Like Me Project, Inc.

Local Nonprofit Petitions City To Recognize Chicago Day of the Girl

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Girls Like Me Project, Inc. is a local nonprofit organization that focuses on providing young girls in Chicago, specifically from the south side, with mentoring opportunities. The organization is preparing to host its annual Day of the Girl celebration on Oct. 11 and the organization’s founder, La’Keisha Gray-Sewell, recently created an online petition requesting that Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, declare October 11th as Chicago Day of the Girl.

International Day of the Girl was first declared by the United Nations on Oct. 11, 2012, and Girls Like Me, Inc. has celebrated Day of the Girl every year since then.

When the United Nations declared that Oct. 11, 2012, would be the first International Day of the Girl, Gray-Sewell went online to search for any events in Chicago that would be taking place to celebrate Day of the Girl. Sadly, she found nothing in Chicago. She reached out to other organizations that work with young girls in the city and found that many people weren’t aware of International Day of the Girl.

“I realized I wasn’t going to be able to go to anybody else’s event, so I created my own,” said Gray-Sewell. “We had about 75 girls attend the first event and it’s taken off from there.”

While the United Nations recognizes Day of the Girl every year, Gray-Sewell is calling on the Mayor of Chicago to recognize Day of the Girl in Chicago.

“We are simply asking the Mayor to declare and acknowledge this in an official capacity. We don’t need the City to host any special event, even though it would be great if they did, we just are asking her to acknowledge this in an official capacity,” said Gray-Sewell. “It’s the perfect time for this because we have seen so much girl power with the first black woman becoming the Mayor of Chicago and there are a number of women who are in the City Council right now and a number of women legislators who are in the General Assembly and in the Senate. I think that sends a message.”

Over the years, Girls Like Me Project, Inc. has hosted Day of the Girls event with a variety of activities including spoken word, film and documentary screenings, drum circles, and other activities that are meant to help young girls celebrate their culture and creativity and encourage them to be civically active.

This year’s event will again take place on Oct. 11 and will be slightly different than previous years in that they are only opening it up to 30 girls. Gray-Sewell decided to make this year’s event smaller to hopefully have more engagement.

“This year will be much more intentional in terms of what the girls will be inspired to do for themselves and for the other girls in the world. We will be trying to connect them to an issue that they can commit to using their voice and using their activism in their social networks to support for the remainder of the year,” said Gray-Sewell.

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