GirlUp GVL is built on relationships.
After all, it was because of the relationships she had formed as a mentor to students at the Frazee Center that inspired Kim Mogan to start her own nonprofit, which offers free after-school programming, weekly enrichment classes and individual success planning for at-need middle and high school girls.
Put simply, it’s women building up women.
“Our whole goal is to help these girls reach their full potential and know their worth and value,” says Mogan, who founded GirlUp GVL in fall 2019.
Girls get help with homework or SAT prep and college applications, financial literacy, time management, job internships, even driving instruction — whatever they need.
“We work with each student to make sure they’re paired with opportunities in the community and doing things that are related to their individual goals,” Mogan says.
While many nonprofits start out small and then build momentum, GirlUp GVL mobilized quickly once Mogan saw that the girls she had taken under her wing as a program coordinator at the Frazee Center had needs that couldn’t be met.
“Because I knew them, I knew the needs that they still had, and I wanted to make that happen,” she says. “It was just larger than myself. It wasn’t like I had time to put together this beautiful business strategy or plan or anything because the girls were there and had needs then.”
Despite her commitment to pursuing a degree in human resources at Anderson University, Mogan was able to pull together the resources her girls needed, and GirlUp GVL was born.
Today, the nonprofit serves 19 girls ages 11 to 18 with the capacity to reach more. It also runs entirely on individual donations and support, so Mogan is always on the lookout for strong local partnerships, especially within the medical community.
“Just today two of our girls who were supposed to try out for basketball couldn’t because they didn’t have a physical,” Mogan says. “Those are just some of the random barriers that exist for our students.”
More opportunities to provide internships and mental health counseling are also welcome.
For more information, visit girlupgvl.org.
