Elaine Hamel – Girls at Work
Girls at Work, Inc. empowers girls with the tools to overcome adversity and build confidence to face current and future life challenges. Their vision is a world where every girl feels confident and capable. Only a handful of the girls they meet have had the opportunity to learn how to use power tools safely. They pride ourselves in providing girls with a safe and supportive environment to step out of their comfort zone and to build with other girls. Not only do they discover how capable they are, they also discover how exciting it is to work as part of a team toward a common goal.Elaine Hamel, Program Director and Founder of Girls at Work, Inc., has been renovating homes for nearly 25 years. She started building with young girls 21 years ago and founded Girls at Work in 2000. Nearly 16 years later, more than 8,000 girls have nailed, drilled, sawed and sanded their way through a journey of self-discovery.
Elaine’s passion is driven by a desire to correct the societal narrative that undervalues women in social and economic situations, and reclaim one that regards them as strong and powerful leaders. GAW puts power tools in the hands of girls as young as six and guides them on a journey of self-discovery through which they conquer fears to find their voice by embracing their inner strength.
Girls at Work can bring their program to your location, setting up a workshop on site, and they also offer classes in their own woodshop in New Boston, NH. They provide customized projects based on the needs of each organization or camp. For example, Girls at Work might spend several days at a camp building an entire shed, while another organization may prefer a one day program to build two picnic tables. Girls at Work has built raised beds, benches, picnic tables, chairs, bookcases, tables, bird houses, bat houses, a tennis wall, several sheds, window boxes, storage bins, lockers and much more! As a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, it is the mission of Girls at Work to offer programs to at-risk girls in New Hampshire and throughout New England. They actively seek funding and sponsorships to help subsidize the cost of their program to organizations that work with girls from group homes, families of low income, girls with incarcerated parents or parents in rehab, and they work to build partnerships with youth organizations that focus on girls at risk.
To Donate to Girls at Work CLICK HERE