Alternatives For Girls (AFG) is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization located in southwest Detroit, Michigan, serving homeless and high-risk girls and young women. Since 1987, AFG has provided critical services to program participants, including safe shelter, educational support, vocational guidance, mentoring and counseling. The goal is to empower girls and young women to make positive choices. AFG helps them repair their lives, rescue their dreams and restore their faith in the future.

Alternatives For Girls helps homeless and high-risk girls and young women avoid violence, teen pregnancy and exploitation, and helps them to explore and access the support, resources and opportunities necessary to be safe, to grow strong and to make positive choices in their lives.

Alternatives For Girls (AFG) emerged in the mid-1980s when a group of southwest Detroit residents, clergy and business people began to share concerns about the alarming increase in drug use, homelessness, prostitution and street activity by girls and young women. The organization originated as a small, volunteer-run program, operating a five-bed emergency shelter in a neighborhood church. Twenty years later, AFG has evolved into a multi-service agency with nearly 50 employees. It is housed in a two-story, brick building constructed in 2002 following the successful completion of a $4.5-million capital campaign.

AFG Prevention
Finding self-esteem, improving a grade-point average, rejecting drugs and alcohol, choosing abstinence, connecting with a mentor, discovering untapped talents — these are some of the experiences girls have when they take part in AFG Prevention programming. These experiences can happen in a summer (through the Rise-N-Shine program), during the course of a school year (through after-school workshops, study groups and girls’ clubs) or across the span of several years as girls mature from f5 to 18 years of age, building their characters on a foundation of positive choices.

AFG Shelter
New ideas, new paths, new people emerge from the AFG Shelter. It is a place where young women (16-21) who live in the present — without goals for, or a belief in, the future — discover abilities and callings that lead them toward meaningful careers and otherwise productive lives. It all begins with finishing diplomas and advancing toward degrees, developing a strong work ethic, becoming good mothers, acquiring financial literacy, learning cooperation and respect for others, and the growth of self-esteem. Participants redefine themselves and reshape their futures.

AFG Outreach
AFG Outreach serves as a lifeline to many young women seeking to remove themselves from situations and activities that threaten their physical and mental well-being, their futures, their lives. Staff and volunteers encounter young women on the streets, in all seasons, during daylight and after dark, providing harm-reduction kits, a ride to AFG and other safe places — links to life-saving and support services.

Program Statistics

In FY 2006/2007, Alternatives For Girls:
•Provided 6,995 nights of care to homeless young women and their children
•Served 134 homeless young women through the Shelter program
•Secured permanent housing for 31 residents
•Engaged 171 school-aged girls in ongoing after-school academic and cultural enrichment programming
•Connected 72 mentors with AFG participants
•Provided information and resources to 7,489 youth and women on the streets and in the community
•Distributed 34,570 harm reduction kits

•Focus on the involvement of parent with elementary school girls to strengthen the families and uphold the AFG success rate
•Attempt to increase funding in order to increase the number of staff service coordinators
•Recruit a large number of children with incarcerated parents/caregivers for our mentoring program
•Run the shelter at full capacity, with all 31 beds for young women and 14 beds for their children full
•Increase opportunities for donors to connect with participants and programs

Amy Good received a Master’s of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan and worked at the Barat House in Detroit. She got married and had two children – now teens. And, she took the lead role as CEO of AFG. Since then Amy has brought a laser-focus to the job of nurturing AFG. She has raised funds, hired staff, created programming and above all, been tireless in expanding the services that AFG offers the community. Her work has not gone unnoticed. We are extremely proud of the awards and recognitions that Amy has received.

They include:
•The Leadership Challenge awarded, presented by Leadership Detroit
•Mother’s Day Peace Award, presented by Women’s Action for New Directions
•The Oprah Winfrey’s “Use Your Life" award
•United Way “Executive Director of the Year" in 2005

But I am sure if you asked her, she would say that beyond the love of her family, the greatest award Amy has ever received has been the knowledge that AFG has changed the lives and created positive outcomes for hundreds of women in SE Michigan.

CHAIR
Agnes Hagerty, Trinity Health

VICE CHAIR
Princella Graham, St. John Health

TREASURER
Marcella Holmes

SECRETARY
Joya Harris-Sherron, Carlson Marketing Group

CHAIR EMERITUS
Catharine LaMont, LaMont Title
Shirley Stancato, New Detroit Inc.

Susan J. Berman, SJ Berman

Jaz’Mine (Jay) Browner

Randye Bullock, Bulls-Eye Consulting

Linda Butler

Joy Calloway, St. Joseph Mercy - Oakland

Aimee Cox, University of Michigan

Joseph Dillon, Giarmarco, Mullins, & Horton, PC
Nida Donar, Wayne State University

Linda Jimenez, Wayne State University

Polly Ledyard, Community Volunteer

Chrystal Roberts, Health Alliance Plan

Rosemary Sarri, University of Michigan

Debra Walker, Daimler Chrysler (retired) / owner Ladels Books

Keila Walton, UAW-GM Center for Human Resources

United States

Michigan

903 W GRAND BLVD

DETROIT, MI 48208-2365

Phone: (313) 361-4000

www.alternativesforgirls.org

EIN: 38-2766412