Colorado Zontians support local girls through continued program

Since 2011, members of the Zonta Foothills Club of Boulder County, District 12, have been dedicated to one specific educational program: Zonta EducateZ.

The club-wide program supports projects that work with women and girls who struggle with limited English proficiency, low socio-economic status, a lack of formal schooling and gaps in education. Some of these women and girls have also recently arrived in the United States.

Through Zonta EducateZ, Zontians offer funds, mentoring, support and advocacy.

After learning about statistics from the Women's Foundation of Colorado that state that 3 in 10 Colorado women live below or near the federal poverty line, they also learned the numbers correlate with educational backgrounds. 

The club decided to adopt recommended strategies for combating this issue in Colorado. This included advocating for policies that increase access to work, support services for job training, childcare, counseling and transportation and educating girls on ways to ensure successful futures. 

Club members now use Zonta EducateZ to encourage women and girls and facilitate discussion in their community about ways to decrease poverty and support economic security for Colorado women.

Through the program, they also work directly with local schools to encourage girls to stay in school and pursue secondary education. As a direct result, the club successfully supported the chartering of the Boulder High PantherZ Z Club and the Flatirons Golden Z Club. 

Zonta club members also created free lending libraries in the community to support literacy, began multiple scholarship partnerships and programs and started a teen parenting support program.