Unidas, a feminization of the Spanish word unidos (united), teaches young women about leadership, philanthropy and social justice issues. The Unidas program is designed to give high school-aged girls hands-on experience in grantmaking. Participants have $10,000 to grant to community organizations that serve young women and/or girls.

Under the auspices of the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona, Unidas participants research and analyze the social justice issues facing girls in their community, and walk through a grantmaking process, including creation of a request for proposal, application review, site visits, and allocation of funds to local agencies totaling $10,000.

In 2005-06, through a consensus process, the Unidas girls selected rape and sexual assault as their grantmaking issue. After reviewing grant applications and conducting interviews, the participants awarded $10,000 to ELLA Group. ELLA (“Empowering Lives of Latinas in America”) Group is a newly established nonprofit organization focused on creating a safer environment for women and girls, particularly Latinas. The organization will use the $10,000 to fund its Unidas for ELLA program that will offer classes in the Rape Aggression Defense Systems (R.A.D.) for women and radKIDS ("Resist Aggression Defensively") for children aged 5-12. Both are nationally recognized safety and empowerment programs. Courses include physical technique training combined with awareness education delivered in English and Spanish. All courses are taught by certified instructors at low or no cost to participants.

For more information on the Women’s Foundation and the Unidas Program visit www.womengiving.org.

To learn more about ELLA Group and the R.A.D. program visit www.ellagroup.org.