Teen Voices

CONTACT:

80 Summer Street, Suite 300
Boston, MA 02110
617-426-5505 x15
www.teenvoices.com

Jenny Amory, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

Here is another ingenious idea that shows how Massachusetts philanthropies have national influence, and how operating a benefit institution can be that institution's program. Women Express was founded in 1988 to empower disadvantaged and high-risk teenage girls with the tools, skills and confidence to succeed in life — to avoid premature pregnancy and parenthood, and to break out of the cycle of poverty for them and their future families.

In 1988, Women Express created Teen Voices, a national quarterly magazine, as a public forum by, for, and about girls like themselves. Material for the magazine is submitted by teens from all over the world; with volunteer mentoring by professionals in the field, the girls plan, research, write, photograph, edit, layout, have printed, sell, and distribute, issues on subjects of immediate practical interest to themselves. They learn to be journalists, and they gain enormous confidence from seeing their work in print, and that teens everywhere learn from them.

Since 1988, the organization has flourished, and now goes by the name Teen Voices. A volunteer organization then, it now has 12 staff; then a subscriber-based model of giving, they are now an intergenerational membership organization; then all print media, now they are increasing their impact on the web; then solely a journalism mentoring program, now they have expanded to a variety of programs, serving increasing numbers of girls in Boston.

(1997: HUMAN SERVICES: Girls and Women: General)