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Our Mission:

Girls.Power.Tools.

See what happens when you place a tool in a child’s hand and give them the skills to use it. Girls Build™ is a non-profit organization based in Portland, OR, inspiring curiosity and confidence in girls through the world of building. We currently empower girls in Southern Oregon, Portland, the Oregon coast.

 
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Building makes me feel like I can do whatever I want, because I can do whatever I want. I can be creative in my own way, and I can just do anything.""

— Gabii, 8

Our Programs

Girls Build™ offers programming for girls teaching the basics of carpentry, electrical, plumbing, roofing, painting, auto and bike mechanics, sheet metal and more via summer camps (8-15 year olds) and after-school workshops.

 

Summer Camps

We run nine summer camps in various locations around Oregon. During summer camps, participants learn through 20 different workshops over five days.

Classes

Our after school programming is held at our warehouse. We run small workshops through the school year for girls.

We also run the occational Women’s classes, for the building girls in the adult us.

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Our Impact

Growing and growing! From our first year of 60 girls to now close to 500 a summer, we continue teaching and building confidence! Expanding from our Summer Camps, we are moving into after-school programming at our warehouse so we can continue educating girls and women all year long!

 

2600+

Girls LEarning to Build

Since our beginning in 2016 we have taught over 2600 girls through our summer camp and after school programming.

 

625+

Scholarships Awarded

Because of the generosity of our donors we have been able to award over 600 partial or full scholarships.

 
 

85+

Foster Care Kids

Through our foster care program, over 80 foster care kids have attended camp for FREE!

 

The Team

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Our History

Carpenter Katie Hughes frequently found that she was the only woman on construction worksites. To change that, she began teaching classes to girls ages 8-14, showing them how to drill, saw, and weld. Her classes quickly became sold out summer camps and she founded her own non-profit, Girls Build. Since our beginnings in 2016, where 60 girls attended two weeks of camps, Girls Build™ has grown to now empowering close to 500 girls over 9 summer camps.

Get Involved

Make a Donation

The majority of our participants attend on scholarships. How do we manage this? You!

Wondering how your dollar helps? We offer free programming to any child involved in the foster care system—summer camps, after school programming, weekend programming, spring break camps. We are proud of the work we do to welcome girls from all over the state to our programming, and to make sure that money is not a barrier for any girl wanting to access our programs.

Volunteer opportunities

We love Volunteers! In fact, a volunteer is updating this website. If you are available to help, we have various opportunities around camp, in the warehouse, grant writing, etc. Have a look at our available opportunities and let us know if you want to get involved.