On the surface, Sally Baker”™s job might seem overwhelming.
After all, as executive director of Girls Inc. Westchester, she is charged with ensuring that the local affiliate of the national nonprofit continues “Inspiring all girls to be strong, smart and bold.”
But on a recent afternoon in the group”™s cozy headquarters, a handful of rooms nestled within a grey Victorian steps away from downtown White Plains, Baker seems perfectly at ease, having just finished a staff meeting.
“I”™ve always wanted to live in a Victorian and never will, and now I get to work in one,” Baker said with a laugh before sitting down to discuss Girls Inc.
Last month the local organization celebrated its fifth anniversary with “Power of the Purse.” (The event name is inspired by a quote from women”™s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton: “Woman will always be dependent until she holds a purse of her own.”) Held at the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor and billed as “A Gala Evening to Celebrate Girl Empowerment,” the third annual event raised $150,000 in pledges.
It was an important moment for the local affiliate that, Baker said, operates on a $450,000 budget. The organization is one of nearly 100 affiliates of Girls Inc., which has been around for nearly 150 years.
Programming, which Baker stressed is research-based, focuses on issues related to girls”™ positive development and includes topics such as economic literacy; health and sexuality; life planning, leadership and community action; media literacy; STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics); and violence prevention and safety. It”™s all designed to reach girls ages 9 through 18, though the local efforts focus on girls in middle and high school.
“Eight-year-old girls are pretty great,” Baker said. “You see that same girl at 13 and she”™s questioning things.”
To guide girls in coping with everything from body issues to staying committed to higher education, Girls Inc. offers programming that ranges from daylong conferences to 12-week sessions.
“One of the things we do, I”™ve come to realize, is we create a positive sisterhood in a world where girls aren”™t getting that message,” Baker said.
For Baker, that”™s a big reward of the job she”™s held since 2007 when the local organization officially launched.
It was, it turns out, a natural progression for the woman who spent her first 13 years in Armonk before her family relocated to Wellesley, Mass. Baker would go on to graduate, as a day student, from a private girls school there.
“Those all-girl experiences were really formative,” she said, mentioning “how supportive, how restorative” they can be.
She would go on to earn a bachelor”™s degree in sociology from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania before working in international student exchange and then as a consultant for years, along the way getting a master”™s of public affairs, education and social welfare policy from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
“Looking back, I”™m like ”˜Oh right, it”™s a linear path,”™” she said, noting all her jobs were tied to “kids, education and evening the playing field.”
She joined Girls Inc. NYC in 1997, working in the local affiliate that served the city”™s five boroughs.
Baker worked at Girls Inc. NYC until 2004 and spent the next couple of years transitioning back to Westchester after moving to the county in 2002.
“I thought how could I live in my new community and still do what I love?” Baker, a Hastings-on-Hudson resident, said. Soon, she was investigating the feasibility of starting a new affiliate for Westchester County. She began networking, assessing needs, forming committees and things steadily progressed. A board of directors was established; Eileen Fisher, the Irvington-based fashion designer, made a three-year commitment of $75,000 per year in seed money; and Baker was appointed the first executive director. In 2009, the local organization went from a provisional to a full affiliate of Girls Inc.
Over the years, Baker has been tasked with determining the focus ”“ to go deep in several communities or broad, reaching a wider audience.
“Given it”™s Westchester and a lot of type-A personalities, we said ”˜both,”™” she said with a laugh.
That means there are intensive programs, such as the new efforts to help fifth-graders in Ossining transition to middle school, but also countywide programs on topics such as financial health or body image.
The goal, Baker said, has always been to see what the community already has ”“ and supplement, not duplicate, that.
“We only wanted to go where we were value-added,” she said.
In five years, Baker said, the organization has served almost 2,000 girls through a “paid, trained youth development staff.”
Her job not only includes overseeing the staff of six but also overseeing funding and building relationships with corporate, foundation and community partners.
“We”™re trying to develop a community of people who care about and invest in girls,” she said. “I have to be involved in all of it.”
The philosophy of the programming ”“ “start early, stay late” ”“ also seems to reflect the day-to-day work.
Motivating staff and volunteers while keeping an eye on the bigger picture is what it takes.
“Whatever we do it”™s all hands on deck,” Baker said of her approach.
The affiliate is looking forward to beginning to participate in the national scholarship program and also the launch of Eureka!, the STEM program launching next summer at the College of New Rochelle.
Throughout, it”™s all about connecting with the local girls who will most benefit from the programs.
As Baker said, “You do that, and it”™s magic.”
For the Winners Circle, please contact John Golden at jgolden@westfairinc.com.
