Grant Overview
The SouthCentral Girls Collaborative Project (SCGCP) is dedicated to supporting girls' endeavors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). SCGCP extends the success of the National Girls Collaborative Project to Texas and the surrounding states. Efforts in the SouthCentral region will continue to strengthen the capacity, impact, and sustainability of existing and evolving projects serving girls in STEM activities. SCGCP goals are to connect existing organizations to maximize access to shared resources within projects, and with public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls' participation in STEM and to strengthen capacity by sharing research and program models, outcomes, and products.
The objectives will be fulfilled through the following activities:
- Implementation of a Collaborative Model: Create a STEM-related regional collaborative that brings together groups to share resources, promising practices, and research, while maximizing regional resources and scaling up services within and among girl-serving projects.
- Dissemination and Outreach: Hold a minimum of five face-to-face meetings and Web conferences to support the collaborative and disseminate information among girl-serving STEM programs throughout the region. Promising practices and resources will be hosted on the project's Web portal. Multimedia modules featuring important issues about gender equity will be created and disseminated through the Web portal and by CD. Additional dissemination about the project will occur at appropriate conferences and meetings.
- Collaboration Support: Offer mini-grants of up to $1,000 to 25 girl-serving STEM-focused programs as an incentive to collaborate and to assist them in assessment activities and projects related to addressing gaps and overlaps in service.
- Evaluation: Evaluation of SCGCP will be conducted to determine the effectiveness and impact of the collaboration on strengthening and sustaining STEM-related activities at regional and local levels. Recommendations for improvement will be incorporated into SCGCP activities.
Intellectual Merit:
Many groups share the common goal of supporting girls and women in STEM fields, yet there is limited communication among the groups. Because these groups have common target audiences, activities, and research bases, each group's independent work could be strengthened through collaboration. The SCGCP supports collaboration among non-profit groups focused on increasing female success in STEM fields to educate each other, and then a broader audience of other groups with similar missions, bringing together like-minded organizations, assisting in communication among leadership of the organizations, and providing a central source of information concerning research and activities to provide opportunities for advancing the field beyond what is currently evident on a more individual and disparate basis.
topBroader Impact:
By reaching the leaders of numerous local organizations that are focused on increasing girls' interest in STEM disciplines, the SCGCP will exponentially impact the power and success of each group, through the sharing of experiences and resources. As part of this, the project provides a central location for dissemination of current research, knowledge, and practice to increase participation, retention, and advancement of girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These resources will be shared through a series of conferences, forums, and other interactions, and publicly available via the World Wide Web. It is intended that the results of the efforts of the SC-NGCP will result in a sustainable community of leaders from non-profit organizations dedicated to the future of girls in STEM in Texas and the surrounding region.
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