Kristen Woolf’s Post

"As funders, it is not enough to declare support for youth programming and girls’ empowerment initiatives. We must invest in transformative change that starts with, and revolves around, young people's ideas, voices and demands. This means seeing young people as the experts in their own lives." In a powerful new op-ed for Inside Philanthropy, Jayanthi A Pushkaran, Senior Programme Officer for Adolescent Girls, discusses EMpower's highly participatory approach in listening to girls and young people and the impact it is having in Rajasthan, India. #girlcentred #girlslead #participatoryapproaches

Something exciting has been brewing at our end! 🎉 Next week, on December 14, we kick off the first in a series of three webinars seeking to engage funders and peers in reflecting around best practices on participatory work with young people—especially girls.    For the first one, we will deep dive into EMpower's journey in participatory approaches for over a decade. What we're most thrilled about is that the webinar will be moderated by Seema Dosad, who has had a fantastic journey with EMpower, from a girl leader in the Learning Community to now an Alumnae Engagement Intern with us. 🙌   We're stoked to introduce you to the panellists who we have co-conspired and collaborated with over the years, to make significant strides in centring young people! Prabhleen Tuteja, Executive Director at The YP Foundation, Puja Roy, Programme Advisor India at Girls First Fund, suniti neogy, Senior Technical Advisor Gender and Systems Change at CARE USA and Tanya Dikshit, Associate at 10to19 Dasra Adolescent Collaborative.   Save the date in your calendars and we hope to see you there. Register here: https://lnkd.in/dfUQ6F7b

We are thrilled to announce that EMpower has reached a significant milestone: since our inception, we have awarded $50 million in grants and have directly impacted the lives of 1 million young people around the world! We couldn't have done this without our dedicated donors, supporters, and friends and our grantee partners, who effectively and expertly integrate the voices and perspectives of those most marginalised. Thank you, and we look forward to building on this momentum—to effect change among even more young people and communities—in the days and years to come. 

The programme team at EMpower play a strategic and pivotal role across three strategic aims: grant making, sector strengthening; philanthropic partnerships and influence. EMpower’s global programme team comprises of 18 team members based across 9 locations (7 in country or regions where our grantee partners are based). We are currently hiring for a few critical roles within the programme team. Come work with us and help us with our vision to build a world where all young people at the margins, especially girls, have the skills, opportunities, and power to live their full potential. Open roles: 1. Regional Programme Director, E/SE Asia—https://lnkd.in/d-u5cbnE 2. Regional Programme Director, Africa—https://lnkd.in/d8bysmhn 3. Programme Officer, Africa—https://lnkd.in/ds7V4RgN Feel free to reach out to our hiring team should you need further information. Suvidha Hughes (Assoc CIPD, SHRM SCP, IHRP-SP) Lindsay Prybylski, Kristen Woolf and Deborah Diedericks.

“Such a long cycle is key to assisting young organisations’ growth...so many funders only focus on restricted funding for programmes, and as a result, the organisation has no room to grow its capacity and ability to secure the future of its operations and rather creates a hand-to-mouth tendency of living year-to-year, based on what programme funding can be generated from one year to the next.” –EMpower grantee partner At EMpower, we believe in nurturing potential and enabling sustainable impact. Our 10-Year Partnership Model does just that! Through an investment of up to 10 years, we offer our grantee partners funding, capacity strengthening, connections to other organisations, thought partnership, technical assistance, and opportunities for cross-learning. We recently completed a review of our “sunsetted partners,” those who have received 10 years of funded partnership. We explored in-depth the changes these partners have experienced and assessed EMpower’s contribution to such, concluding with strong reinforcement from these partners' perspectives—that there is a huge value to a long term funding model.💡🌟 Learn more in our Executive Summary.

Passionate about supporting adolescent girls and young people, Kristen Woolf serves as the Vice President of Programmes at EMpower. With eighteen years of experience, she constantly seeks innovative ways to direct resources where they make the greatest impact. 🌟 🌍 Kristen's compassionate and loving nature shines through in her commitment to creating positive change. In her free time, she finds joy in strength training with weights and relishes time outdoors, especially on long walks with her partner, kids, and her dog. 💪🐶 Swipe 👉 to know more fun things about Kristen! #WeareEMpower #EMpowerTeam

Feeling recharged and invigorated after our recent Center for Disaster Philanthropy board meeting. CDP is blessed to have a purpose-driven board, committed to mission above organization, equity and the pursuit of social good. It is incredibly empowering to have a group of astonishingly competent people from differing backgrounds bounce ideas around with each other and staff and demonstrate their support so openly by asking us questions we hadn't thought of and encouraging us to be the best we can be for the communities we seek to serve. We also spent some time having fun, sharing a meal in celebration of Kenneth's tenure as board chair, welcome new board members, confirming our new board leadership (looking forward to working with Tiffany as chair, Heather as vice chair, and welcome to Travis as treasurer) and learning what serving CDP means to each of us, as a song or object (thank you, Kristen, our board secretary, and Desert Island Discs). Thank you to the MacArthur Foundation for hosting us, and the outstanding support, collegiality and behind the scenes magic of Sarah Moss and Michelle Williams. And thank you to CDP's staff for all they do every day.