Girls and gender-expansive youth of color are leading change yet remain deeply underfunded. Here’s what’s at stake.
The Cost of Silence
Across the country, girls and gender-expansive youth of color are advancing movements for racial, climate, and gender justice. But while they are creating our collective future, they remain chronically underfunded and overlooked.
As recent research underscores, girls and gender-expansive youth of color live at the intersection of racism, sexism, and economic inequity and face structural barriers that limit their access to education, mental health care, and opportunity (Tides Foundation, SecondMuse Capital). Yet, the organizations that serve them receive less than 0.5% of total U.S. philanthropic giving. The median grant size to organizations by and for women and girls of color is $15,000, less than half the national median grant size of $35,000.
The result is a widening gap between young people’s potential and the resources available to nurture it.
The pandemic intensified this crisis:
- Black girls ages 13–19 experienced a 182% increase in suicide deaths between 2001 and 2017, a trend worsened by isolation and loss during COVID-19 (Tides, 2023).
- Many youth of color had to leave school or work to care for their families, acting as primary caregivers while navigating grief, financial instability, and racial violence (Tides, 2023).
- Funding still prioritizes short-term programming over systemic change, leaving young people without sustained spaces to heal, learn, and lead (SecondMuse Capital, 2023).
Yet, when youth are resourced, the impact is transformative.
Research from the Future Economy Lab by Grantmakers for Girls of Color and SecondMuse Capital shows that when youth are entrusted to co-design the systems that affect them, and when they are given real resources and decision-making power, they reimagine new economic models, build community-led healing spaces, and envision futures rooted in collective wellbeing.
This research corroborates the vital work that Y-WE has been doing since its inception as a youth-led pilot in 2010.
Investing in youth voice and agency isn’t charity. It’s an investment in the infrastructure of a more equitable future.
The cost of silence isn’t measured in dollars; it’s measured in lost potential, unheard stories, and futures deferred.
Your monthly gift ensures Y-WE’s sustainability as a space where young people can speak, organize, and heal without waiting for permission.
Every voice matters. Sustain one today.
77¢ of every $1 you give fuels youth programs that build confidence, leadership, and advocacy from the inside out.