b'21SU 1 MMERTOOLS TO 20 9THRIVEThe Pittsburgh Foundation partners with a nonprofit dedicated to developing Black girls to be stronger than the forces working against their success.K ATHI ELLIOTT KNOWS THEIR STORIESshe hears them every day. Stories of girls like Talia, who hopes to travel the world as a photographer. Or of students like Jamaica, torn between architecture and medicine. Stories of strong young womenscholarship holders and sibling caretakers, budding scientists and family torchbearers. Girls who know their potential: I can do anything I put my mind to, says Jamaica. Im powerful.But as executive director of Gwens Girls, Elliott also knows the statistics. The girls she works with are powerful, yesbut so are the strains of sexism and racism that fester throughout the country. The truth, says Elliott, is that for girlsparticularly Black girlsthose strains can turn minor slip-ups into lifelong setbacks.Its a dynamic we see everywhere, she says. From schools to the juvenile justice system, Black girls are disproportionately singled out and punished. And once theyre entangled with the law, says Elliott, it can be all but impossible to get outa problem thats especially pronounced in Pittsburgh.In Allegheny County, Black girls are referred to the juvenile justice system 11 times more often than white girls, despite research showing that neither group commits more serious or more frequent offenses than the other. Moreover, when misbehaviors do occur, theyre often rooted in trauma: Black girls in Pittsburgh are more likely to live in poverty, twice as likely to experience rape and nine times more likely Ashley Dandridge, a doctoralto lose a loved one to violence.student at Chatham University,Our systems are supposed to support these girls and speaks at a meeting of the Black Girls Equity Alliance,give them the tools they need to thrive, says Elliott. But in a program of Gwens Girls.reality, they can be discriminatory and even harmful.The program tackles, throughIts a reality Elliott knows well. Her late mother, research and advocacy, inequities faced by Black girls. Gwendolyn Elliott, was Pittsburghs first Black female police'