HOTGIRLS Herstory

2001

• The HOTGIRLS Health Project was founded by Carla Stokes on November 21, 2001, while she was enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of Michigan. Coming of age in the hip hop generation, Dr. Carla founded HOTGIRLS to address health disparities and real life situations experienced by black young women and girls. 
• Founding board of directors is formed and The HOTGIRLS Health Project is incorporated
• Carla Stokes leads hip hop-infused HIV prevention workshop for SistaSteps, an African-centered rites of passage program for teen girls in Ann Arbor, MI
• The HOTGIRLS Health Project launches first Internet-based HIV/AIDS awareness campaign for black teen girls in observance of World AIDS Day

2002

• In partnership with Community Legal Resources, Bodman, Longley and Dahling LLP donates pro bono legal services to help The HOTGIRLS Health Project obtain tax-exempt status, file trademarks, and develop volunteer agreements and legal policies for its web sites
• The HOTGIRLS Health Project becomes Helping Our Teen Girls In Real Life Situations, Inc. (HOTGIRLS)® . Click here for more information about our name.
• HOTGIRLS expands its efforts to reach more girls on World AIDS Day, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, and National HIV Testing Day; HOTGIRLS reaches hundreds of young women and girls via an educational web page and responds to girls’ questions about HIV/AIDS via e-mail
• HOTGIRLS receives 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, allowing the organization to receive tax-exempt contributions and apply for grants from foundations
• Carla Stokes and teen volunteer, Nancy Townsend, begin designing FIREGRL.com, a sexual health web site for black teen girls
• HOTGIRLS receives its first grant from the Third Wave Foundation, which provides seed funding for FIREGRL.com

2003

• Founder Carla Stokes relocates to Atlanta, Georgia
• Carla Stokes leads media literacy workshop and recruits four girls to establish the Girls’ Leadership Council ("Street Team") from the Georgia Young Women’s Health Summit sponsored by the U.S. Department of Human Services Office of Women’s Health
• Carla Stokes and the Girls’ Leadership Council begin partnering with youth-serving programs and organizations to educate teen girls in the Atlanta metropolitan area about HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, body image, dating violence, and media literacy 
• In partnership with Community Legal Resources, Honigman, Miller, Schartz and Cohn LLP donates pro bono legal services to provide medical disclaimers for HOTGIRLS’ web sites and volunteer agreements for licensed health providers
• The official HOTGIRLS web site is launched: www.helpingourteengirls.org (designed by Nancy Townsend)
• FIREGRL.com,an innovative health web site for black teen girls, is launched on World AIDS Day to educate black teen girls about HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections; The Girls’ Leadership Council contributes to the content and created animated digital public service announcements

2004

• HOTGIRLS becomes an affiliate partner of the Black Women's Health Imperative, a leading African American health education, research, advocacy and leadership development institution
• Girls’ Leadership Council begins meeting at the offices of Sista Space Collective in the West End area of Southwest Atlanta
• Girls’ Leadership Council organizes first health and empowerment summit, “Doing The Right Thing,” with a grant from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Educational Advancement Foundation to inform girls about HIV/AIDS, sexual exploitation, and dating violence
• Girls’ Leadership Council recruits 12 new members
• HOTGIRLS receives a seed grant from the Atlanta Women’s Foundation to support the Girls’ Advisory Board, annual health and empowerment summit, and FIREGRL.com
• Girls’ Leadership Council begins meeting at the Centennial Place Family YMCA in Atlanta
• Carla Stokes completes her Ph.D. in Health Behavior and Health Education (with cognate in Social Work) with distinction at the University of Michigan;  Her dissertation research (conducted in collaboration with an expert panel of black adolescent girls including members of the Girls’ Leadership Council), “Representin’ in Cyberspace: Sexuality, Hip Hop, and Self-Definition in Home Pages Constructed by Black Adolescent Girls in the HIV/AIDS Era,” is awarded honorable mention in the 2001 University of Michigan Dissertation Awards Competition in recognition of exceptional and unusually interesting scholarly work produced by doctoral students (selected from 660 eligible dissertations).

2005

• Girls’ Leadership Council begins meeting at the offices of the Lowman Group, Inc. in Southwest Atlanta
• HOTGIRLS is awarded a seed grant from the Time Warner Foundation Youth Media Grants Program to support the Girls’ Advisory Board’s anti-street harassment campaign
• Girls’ Leadership Council organizes second annual health and empowerment summit: “Aye Shawty, Lemme Holla Atcha!” focusing on street harassment, violence against women and girls, and representations of women in the media
• Girls’ Leadership Council recruits six new members
• Girls’ Leadership Council creates digital public service announcements about street harassment and violence against women and girls for FIREGRL.com
• Time Warner selects Girls’ Leadership Council as one of three top programs in the Youth Media Grants final project competition in recognition of their innovative digital public service announcements; HOTGIRLS receives an additional award to support its youth programming

2006

• Girls’ Leadership Council organizes third annual health and empowerment summit, “HIV/AIDS….Whatchu Know About Dat?!” to raise awareness about HIV prevention and testing among local teen girls.  Girls’ Leadership Council leads first workshop for boys (ages 8-13) from the Dare to Dream Foundation, Inc.
• HOTGIRLS receives a technical assistance award from the Atlanta Women’s Foundation and begins working with a consultant from the Georgia Center for Nonprofits to build its organizational infrastructure and sustainability
• HOTGIRLS establishes a formal volunteer program by partnering with the Spelman College Bonner Office of Community Service and Student Development
• HOTGIRLS launches the FIREGRL Club, a unique media literacy, health education, and technology training program for low-income teen girls (ages 13-17) at the Intel ® Computer Clubhouse at the John H. Harland Boys & Girls Club in Southwest Atlanta
• HOTGIRLS is awarded a seed grant from Advocates for Youth’s Young Women of Color Initiative to establish a Young Women’s Leadership Council (YWLC) comprised of black young women enrolled at historically black colleges and universities in the Atlanta University Center (AUC)

2007

• The FIREGRL Club, a unique media literacy, health education, and technology training program for low-income teen girls (ages 13-17) at the Intel ® Computer Clubhouse at the John H. Harland Boys & Girls Club in Southwest Atlanta, received the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s 2007 Georgia Area Council State Program Award for excellence in Health & Life Skills programming. The program also received a 2007 Honor Award for Program Excellence in recognition of our exemplary work in metropolitan Atlanta.
• HOTGIRLS was awarded a grant from the Ms. Foundation for Women to support our youth media production and gender-based violence prevention programming.
• HOTGIRLS was selected by Firelight Media and God Bless the Child Productions, Inc. as the Atlanta partner for the Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes Community Engagement campaign.
• The Young Women’s Leadership Council and Girls’ Leadership Council co-organized our fourth annual health and empowerment summit, Upgrade You: Real Talk for Real Girls, to raise awareness about street harassment, images of black women in hip hop, and HIV prevention and testing.