Explore AFG

What We Do

Alternatives For Girls helps homeless and high-risk girls and young women avoid violence, teen pregnancy and exploitation, and helps them to explore and access the support, resources and opportunities necessary to be safe, to grow strong and to make positive choices in their lives. AFG accomplishes this mission through three key services: AFG Prevention, the AFG Shelter/Transition to Independent Living Program (TIL) and AFG Outreach.

AFG Prevention

“This is not the last time that you will hear from me. Some day, I will be president.”
Lawnya, Prevention participant

Finding self-esteem, improving a grade-point average, rejecting drugs and alcohol, choosing abstinence, connecting with a mentor, discovering untapped talents — these are some of the experiences girls have when they take part in AFG Prevention programming. These experiences can happen in a summer (through the Rise-N-Shine program), during the course of a school year (through after-school workshops, study groups and girls’ clubs) or across the span of several years as girls mature from five to 18 years of age, building their characters on a foundation of positive choices.

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AFG Shelter/ Transition to independent Living Program

“For the first time, my eyes were open to true respect, love, faith, hope, peace and grace.”
Danielle, former Shelter/TLP participant

New ideas, new paths, and new people emerge from the AFG Shelter. It is a place where homeless girls and young women (age 15-20) who have faced tremendous obstacles and found themselves without a home or a family to provide for them, discover abilities and callings that lead them toward meaningful careers and productive lives. It all begins with finishing high school and advancing toward degrees, developing a strong work ethic, becoming good mothers (for those who are pregnant or parenting), acquiring financial literacy, learning cooperation and respect for others, and the growth of self-esteem. Participants redefine themselves and reshape their futures.

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AFG Outreach

“Each day I come I know I am changing someone’s life one step at a time. It started with me now I must continue the change.”
Sharonne, Outreach participant

AFG Street Outreach serves as a lifeline to many young and adult women seeking to remove themselves from situations and activities that threaten their well-being, their futures, their lives. Staff and volunteers encounter girls and women on the streets, in all seasons, during daylight and after dark, providing harm-reduction kits, a ride to AFG and other safe places, referrals, and direct services — links to life-saving and support services.

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Additional Services

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Below is the personal story of a Shelter and Transition to Independent Living (TIL) Participant...

A strong black woman is what I’ve become and is what I’ll forever be. I remember the days when I allowed myself to believe I was weak. I allowed myself to fall into the pits of no man’s land, where I was unemployed, on welfare, and the mother of a child whose father died at a young age from a gunshot. I was left feeling like I had to fight for mere physical survival.

I was seeking emotional wholeness. With no one to turn to in my time of need, I was referred to a shelter by the name of Alternatives For Girls. At AFG, I met other girls who were on the same mission to change their lives around for the better. Bonding with these girls introduced me to a sisterhood far better than any of my past relationships.

AFG wasn’t just a place where you could rest your head at night. It was a place where you truly received a helping a hand. It was a place where you could find true friendship. When I entered this center, I had hit rock bottom and was feeling hopeless. This center provided me with individuals who showed me they cared. I enrolled in the TIL Program with my mind in a new state, and I knew I was making a better way for my unborn son. With my mind mentally awake, I arrived to class every morning ready to learn and ready to accomplish. I completed the program and felt very proud of myself. Not only did the TIL Program provide me with vital knowledge of how to make it on my own, it also provided me with such things as fur niture and housing assistance. I had found new confidence in myself thanks to AFG, and I was ready to enter back into the real world again