WHAT WE DO.
About Us
We help girls from under-resourced communities of color live superpowered lives by helping them foster skills they need to feel emboldened, empowered, and ready to confidently dream new dreams.
A LAUNCH PAD.
Not Just A Level Field,
Girls from under-resourced communities of color face significantly more risk of negative economic, educational, and health outcomes. But if they have the right support, these factors will not determine their futures.
That’s our reason for being. In partnership with Chicago Public Schools, we provide girls, teens, and young women critical life-skills education — and that does more than level the playing field. We aim to serve as a launch point from which our girls take flight into their futures, just as superheroes do, living lives full of options and opportunity.
TO THE POWER OF SEVEN.
Superpowers
Our curriculum focuses on seven key life skills. We call them superpowers, and we’re not talking about the kind you’d see in
a Marvel movie. Our superpowers are real-world skills that give students the agency and options to design lives they dream of. That will take them farther than any batmobile could.
We reinforce and build on each skill over the course of our
13 years with students, spanning Grade 3 through college:
Educational Development
Leadership Development
Financial Literacy
Health and Nutrition
Arts Awareness
Civics and Public Policy
Global Awareness
Too often, people think of the girls and women we serve in terms of limitations. We think in terms of their power. When our students control their destinies across these areas, their potential is far from limited. It’s boundless. As a result, they’ll leave an indelible mark on their communities and the world at large.
Meet Our
TEAM MEMBERS.
Kim Joseph
CEO & Founder
Nashona Haldane
Marketing Director
Aerial McGill
Michelle Reed
Director of Academic Affairs & Learning
Laura Reed-Sallee
Director of Social Services
Courtney Strickland
Director of Development
Semone Thomas
Director of Volunteer Services
Jasmin Benavides
Director of People & Culture
Caitlin Mueller
Director of Event Planning
Our Founding
STORY.
Growing up with educator parents, Super 7 Girls’ founder Kimberlee Joseph understood the power of education. She wanted to know: What if all students had access to everything they needed to succeed in school?
In a quest to answer the question, Super 7 Girls was born. Joseph launched its first iteration as a nonprofit aimed at providing after-school programs to individuals most negatively impacted by a lack of educational support: young girls and teens in under-resourced communities of color.
Joseph’s research led her to identify seven skills that lead to lifelong success. Officially founded in 2012, Super 7 Girls grew to give young women access to these personal development skills across their entire youth, from Grade 3 through college.
Whereas other organizations focus on individual competencies (e.g., leadership or math ),
Super 7 Girls supports multiple competencies to supercharge girls’ lives across every dimension.
Today, Super 7 Girls partners with three Chicago Public Schools, and aims to partner with six by 2024. The program celebrated its first-ever cohort to have started in Grade 3 and to have entered college in 2022.
Year Founded
2012
Girls Empowered
90
Annual Hours of Learning per girl
375
Total Volunteers