Our History
Girls Inc. is the longest-running girls’ leadership organization.
For 160 years, Girls Inc. has been evolving with girls.
We not only support girls, we also equip them and give them the opportunity to envision, and then create, a more equitable future.
Girls Inc. of Boston and Lynn first opened in 1942.
In May 1945, the Lynn Club joined the Girls Club of America, whose purpose at that time was to build character and provide instruction in arts, crafts, and domestic sciences to girls.
Girls Inc. of Boston and Lynn is building the new generation of strong, smart, bold leaders.
In 2002, we embarked on our first-ever Capital Campaign and began creating a new kind of headquarters at 50 High Street, the original Lynn High School building erected in 1850. Most recently, Girls Inc. of Boston and Lynn has expanded to include the local organization Strong Women Strong Girls, and will now serve over 400 more girls in programs across the North Shore and Greater Boston area.
Girls Inc. was founded in 1864 to serve girls and young women who were experiencing upheaval in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Across the decades, we adapted to meet the specific environmental challenges facing girls and young women, always working in partnership with schools and communities, and guided by our founders’ fundamental belief in the inherent potential of each girl. Woven into those early girls’ clubs are the same core values of Girls Inc. today: the importance of creating a safe gathering place for girls to learn and to share in a sisterhood and a strong premise that each girl can develop her own capacities, self- confidence, and grow up healthy, educated, and independent.