25/26 Program Year Volunteers
Position Type: Part Time / Education
Pay: Volunteer
Location: 1208 Green Street, Norristown PA, 19401
Start Date: Monday, October 6, 2025
End Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2026
ABout THe Role
Girls First is seeking volunteers to support our 2025-2026 Program Year! Volunteer responsibilities include, but are not limited to, sitting with a group during snack/meal time and facilitating conversations, encouraging engagement during movement & stretching, providing support to teaching artists during activities, helping with homework or leading learning games, and above all, providing positive mentorship, building nurturing relationships with students, and possessing the ability to be youthful and have fun. Volunteers may choose one or more days of the week to volunteer, but we ask that all volunteers commit to their selected day(s).
Social Emotional Learning
Our trained Teaching Artists will provide after-school instruction to support your 1st through 4th grade students’ development in social and emotional skills.
Outreach Programs
Let Girls First bring its creative and research-backed social and emotional (SEL) curriculum to you! Our Teaching Artists use trauma-informed techniques to help students build their SEL skills while learning through the arts. It is lifelong learning meets FUN!
Artsee© For Your Organization
We will draw upon our proprietary curriculum, Artsee©, which utilizes the engaging power of drama, dance, music, and visual art to cultivate self- regulation, agency, self-efficacy, and empathy.
TIER 1
Weekly participation for the program year
TIER 2
As frequent as possible participation for the program year
TIER 3
Acting as a substitute for the program year
Foundation For The Future
Today, Girls First stands at a critical moment. Our recent growth, as well as the new frontiers presented by the BOOST Program have amplified the need to reinforce our financial foundation.
This campaign is essential to ensuring that Girls First begins the upcoming school year on a strong footing. It will also set the stage for our Board to launch a three-year strategy to expand our programs, grow reserves, and create lasting impact.
Your support helps Girls First:
- Retain our exceptional professional staff, whose dedication shapes transformative experiences for our students
- Provide cost-of-living increases essential to sustaining long-term commitments from talented teaching artists
- Recruit and train Teaching Artist Apprentices who bring fresh perspectives and energy to our program
- Build organizational reserves for greater stability and resilience in an increasingly unpredictable funding landscape
If you’ve ever believed in the power of creativity, the importance of consistency, or the promise inside every child—we invite you to consider a donation to Foundations for the Future.
Your support today ensures our exceptional staff continue their essential work, our students continue growing and thriving, and our organization remains strong for years to come. Consider making your most impactful gift today—cash donations, gifts of stock, IRA distributions, or donor-advised fund contributions are all deeply appreciated.
Since its beginning, the goals of Girls First have been quite specific; to enrich the lives of young girls through exposure to visual arts, music, dance, drama, creative writing, culinary arts, painting, and more. In addition, homework support and a full meal are given to the girls. Above all, Girls First wants to create a safe place where girls can discover their creative gifts and build their self-esteem.
During the 2023-2024 school year, Girls First expanded our reach through Outreach Programming at two additional sites in southeastern Pennsylvania – The Chester Charter Scholars Academy (CCSA) in the city of Chester as well as The Gesu School in Philadelphia. During the Fall of 2024, Girls First established an outreach program partnership with Chester Exchange and Chester Eastside, Inc. to launch Kids First, an inaugural co-ed afterschool program using the Artsee Curriculum.
Girls First of Norristown (then known as St. Augustine Academy) opened its doors in 2009, as an outreach endeavor supported financially by St. David's Church in Radnor. The idea originated with a young woman serving as the Deacon of St. Augustine’s Church in Norristown. A fundraiser provided the seed money for our independent, non-religious after school program to be launched.
The Girls First program originally operated just one day per week working specifically with second graders. Over time, our program grew. Additional program days and grade levels were added and it continued to evolve. Girls First now provides academic and social-emotional support through a trauma-informed, arts-based after school curriculum and a two week summer camp.
Our Approach
We Use Arts As A Vehicle
Arts are a vehicle by which we teach our students life skills and coping techniques. Students who have access to the arts have better academic results, workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement. Our curriculum provides interventions for students who experience overwhelming feelings of stress, anxiety, and anger, delivered in a universally beneficial way
Feel Supported & secure
While building positive
relationships
Learn New Skills
Social, emotional, academic, and creative
Build Their Confidence
Regulation, efficacy, empathy, and agency
Break Cycles of Adversity
By increasing resilience and perseverance
