This afternoon we were lucky enough to meet with one of the Founders of Girls Action Foundation, Tatiana Fraser, at the lovely cafe, “Café, Moi, et Toi”. I think it’s safe to say that talking with her was one of the weirdest but most interesting experiences we’ve had. Why you ask? Because while listening to Tatiana share her story about how Girls Action Foundation grew as an organization, it dawned on us how much we have in common. It definitely opened our eyes to the possibilities ahead of us.

The Girls Action Foundation started out with Tatiana and two of her friends in her Women’s Studies program at the University of Ottawa running “POWER Camp”, a summer day camp for girls empowerment. Since 1995, they have grown to the Girls Action Foundation, a national charitable organization leading and seeding girls’ programs across Canada. With a network of over 300 partnering organizations and projects, Girls Action reaches over 60,000 girls and young women. Tatiana lent us her advice on funding, programming, and goals. We are looking forward to CSP becoming a member of Girls Action! Check out their website to get involved and for tons of great resources from girls’ physical and emotional health to the effects of media on girls.

Three hours, that’s all it took for the fantastic Joe Neuhaus to show us the ropes on how to construct, design, and edit our website! Growing up in the generation of smart phones and iPads, we like to think we are fairly technologically-savvy. However, working a website, we learned, can be much more complex than editing a Facebook page or sending a text message. Luckily for us, Joe was able to explain how to use all of the editing and design tools simply. With the motivation of cinnamon buns (courtesy of Lisa!), Aunt Z’s famous chai tea lattes, Joe’s determination, our excitement, and the encouragement of Oreo and Marshmallow (the cats), we learned about all of the different settings and tools! There’s still lots to upload and more pages to create, but we’ve got the basics and the knowledge to do the rest. So tell us – what do you think?!