History of GAP!

In the fall of 1997, middle school teacher Amy Manhart and Julie D’Amours decided start an active club for girls. They were tired of watching traditional gender roles unfold before their eyes. Why do girls shy away from technical skills, afraid of making mistakes in front of a group?

The club grew from eight girls in the eighth grade the first year to twenty the next and has continued to expand its mission and programming to all girls in the Jackson Hole Middle School. They did not want another girl to be defined by society instead of being defined by her own character.

In June 2004, GAP! established its 501© 3 status with nine women sitting on its board making decisions for the betterment of the program.

In 2007, the program celebrated a decade of services in the valley reaching over 400 girls since its inception and changing lives.

2017 marked TWENTY YEARS of GAP!‘s important promotion of confident, competent, community minded women. The development of these three characteristics found in today’s most successful women, are what guide our meetings and propel our focus.

History of Raising Girls

Raising Girls was conceived and developed by Jackson Hole-based mother of two Carrie Kirkpatrick in 2010. Wanting to learn from experts and share with other parents, Carrie convened an initial event with a panel of three local counselors and a very engaged audience. Seeing strong interest in the general topic, she committed to continuing the discussion in a public forum.

Raising Girls and The Equipoise Fund coalesced in late 2010 when Carrie and Equipoise President Mickey Babcock recognized not only the complementary nature of their two endeavors, but also the potential synergy and capacity-building of collaboration.

Past Raising Girls Events: (See Resources for event notes)

• “Emotional Life of Girls” facilitated community discussion

• “1000 2-Minute Conversations community discussion about talking about sex

• Partnership to host Dan Siegel at the high school, center for the arts, and various workshops with teachers and mental health workers

• Presentation and Discussion of film, SCREENAGERS

• Partnership with Community Safety Network to present the Hunting Ground film

• Parent Daughter Workshop to give girls and parents tools for difficult situations.

• Discussions of “Odd Girl Out” and “Curse of the Good Girl” by Rachel Simmons

• “A Path Appears” Screening & Parent-Daughter Discussion

• workshops with Catherine-Steiner Adair, ED.D

• teen panel and parent discussion of a teen’s digital life

• multiple speaker events with Dr. Leonard Sax, MD, PhD.

• speaker event with Dr. Christine Carter

• Book Discussion: Your Daughter’s Bedroom

• Women, Healing & Empowerment Luncheon with keynote speaker Becca Stevens

• Sheryl Sandburg’s “Lean In” Community Book Conversation

• “How Girls Thrive” book discussion

• an evening with Peggy Orenstein

• Guest speaker Meg Meeker

• panel discussion on teen dating, “Common Sense Media” presentation

• panel discussion for fathers.

In 2015, Raising Girls became a program of Girls Actively Participating!