Michelle Obama’s Girls Opportunity Alliance Provides $500,000 to Chicago Organizations Serving Girls
September 3, 2026 at 9:00 AM CDT
Announcement comes after nearly 100 GOA leaders gather at the Obama Presidential Center for the 2026 Chicago Network Convening
CHICAGO – Michelle Obama, former First Lady and Founder of the Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance, today announced the organization will commit to give an additional $500,000 to 10 organizations serving and empowering girls in Chicago. The funding will reach more than 2,200 girls between the ages of 10 and 19, supporting work that spans mental health care, arts training, athletics, refugee support, and more.
The announcement comes as nearly 100 leaders from the Girls Opportunity Alliance Chicago Network gathered at Home Court last Friday on the Obama Presidential Center campus for the 2026 Chicago Network Convening. During the convening, leaders focused on building trust and strengthening collaboration, using practical tools and case studies to explore new ways to work together more effectively.
“I’ve seen firsthand what happens when girls have the support, encouragement, and opportunities they deserve,” said Michelle Obama, Founder of the Girls Opportunity Alliance. “That’s why I’m so excited that we’re supporting these extraordinary organizations in my hometown that do this work every day — meeting girls where they are, believing in their potential, and helping them reach for futures they might not even see for themselves today.”
The Girls Opportunity Alliance works to empower and educate adolescent girls so they can reach their full potential and drive lasting change in their families, communities, and countries. Through its work, the Alliance connects leaders, strengthens grassroots organizations, and raises awareness about the importance of investing in girls. To date, it has supported more than 265 grassroots projects across 50 countries, reaching more than 190,000 girls.
“Chicago has so many extraordinary organizations doing meaningful work to support our girls, and our goal is to help make that work even stronger and more impactful,” said Valerie Jarrett, CEO of The Obama Foundation. “That means providing resources, but it also means creating opportunities for leaders to learn from one another, build relationships, and find new ways to work together. That’s what this convening — and this Network — is all about.”
The full list of 2026 recipients, who work across the South and West Sides of Chicago, includes: A Long Walk Home, Box United, Cent(HER)ed Collective Girls Inc., the Coalition on Urban Girls, the First Ladies Health Initiative, GirlForward, HEART Women & Girls, Praize Productions Inc., Sista Afya Community Care, and Youth Guidance's Working on Womanhood.
With the support of the Girls Opportunity Alliance, the 10 organizations will expand their programing and impact, for example:
Box United will use its grant to expand Fight Like a Girl, a 20-week program that pairs boxing fundamentals with a trauma-informed curriculum on stress, mindfulness and mentorship. The program will enter five new South Side schools, including sites in South Shore, Woodlawn and Washington Park, reaching up to 125 additional students.
Praize Productions Inc. , a Bronzeville arts collective serving Black girls ages 5 to 18, will use its grant for a strategic expansion it calls “A Holistic Approach to Impact.” The organization will add health and wellness workshops, formalize its Big Sis/Little Sis mentorship program, develop classes for teens, and increase enrollment to 75 girls.
Sista Afya Community Care will launch Black Girls Blossoming, a quarterly group therapy series run in partnership with the Gary Comer Youth Center. Sista Afya provides free therapy to Black girls ages 13 to 17 on the South Side through clinicians who share their clients' lived experience. The new series will reach 60 girls through group therapy and community events, alongside 20 girls served through individual and family therapy.
Organizations like these were celebrated at the convening, which opened with a performance by dancers from four Network organizations and spoken word artist Jasmine Sims. This was followed by a panel of women leaders from the Aspen Institute, YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, the Chicago Community Trust and the Chicago Public Library Foundation, moderated by Keenya Brown Lambert of the Chicago Foundation for Women.
Eight breakout sessions ran through the day on fundraising, storytelling, shared evaluation and executive leadership, giving participants new resources and connections to bolster their work.
About The Obama Foundation
The Obama Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world. That mission begins on the South Side of Chicago, the home of the Obama Presidential Center. But that approach extends to all our work, whether it’s holding leadership training sessions in communities throughout the U.S., bringing local leaders together in countries around the world, working to support the global education of girls, or ensuring young men of color have pathways to opportunity. From every corner of the globe, our program participants are working together to address some of the biggest challenges of our time—from renewing our democratic institutions, protecting LGBTQ+ rights, fighting climate change, and so much more.
###
Contact: Emily Bittner, press@obama.org