Our Mission

A Groundbreaking Movement

GirlTREK is a life-saving sisterhood. Powered by the love and momentum of Black women everywhere walking out of their front doors in solidarity, GirlTREK has built one of the most successful public health movements and organizations for Black women in history. Over a million Black women said yes — to their health, to their communities and to themselves.

Now comes the deeper work.

GirlTREK organizes women to Walk, Talk, and Solve Problems Together — a proven framework for combating “the three deadly I’s” cutting our lives short: inactivity, isolation, and injustice. We do this through Care Villages, regional communities across the country where women walk together, build sisterhood, and lead place-based change in their neighborhoods. We do this through a 10-Point Joy and Justice Agenda that connects every local walk to a national movement for health justice. And we do this because we have never waited for permission to save our own lives.

We walk to heal our bodies, inspire our daughters, and reclaim the streets of our neighborhoods. When we find the strength to walk toward our healthiest, most fulfilled lives — the mission becomes clear: come back and get a sister, and together change the community around you.

GirlTREK ADVOCACY AGENDA

A 10-POINT PLAN FOR JOY & JUSTICE

Background: We have NEVER asked permission to save our own lives – because we’ve never trusted the system. The system killed Fannie Lou Hamer. And yet, we remain steadfast. Our hope lies in our own power. The research says that the health benefits of walking alone adds 7 years of life – and if we walk together, social cohesion adds another 3 years. Bet. And we are not naive. We know that we increase the quality of our lives dramatically when we build coalitions to put pressure on the systems that make us sick in the first place. We desire healthy food, fair pay, and safe communities.

The Preamble to Our New Advocacy Agenda:

GirlTREK is a radical, member-led organization that believes in a visionary and futurist approach to transformational social change. We know that nobody is coming to save us, and that we have the tools to create the world we want. We see a world where Black women are healthy, live longer lives, and hold tangible economic and political power across the globe. We also know that we can’t do this alone: we love and walk in solidarity with Black men, and we support the leadership and collective liberation of all Black people.

Our 10-Point Plan for Joy & Justice is our roadmap for mobilization in our communities over the next ten years.

10 JOY & JUSTICE DEMANDS

1. We Want Healthy Bodies. We want immediate access to affordable and high-quality healthcare for all, including preventive care, comprehensive reproductive care, traditional medicine, access to resources for substance abuse recovery, and treatment that respects self-determination.
2. We Want Healthy Minds. We want relief from the deadly impact of stress and the population-level trauma of forced labor, terror and poverty. We want access to mental health resources and culturally appropriate therapeutic care.
3. We Want Healthy Families. We demand truthful and accurate history and research to demonstrate the impact of slavery, forced separation, colonization and mass incarceration on Black families. To address the pressure of that past, we want jobs, affordable childcare, addiction treatment, the end to cash bail, and paid kinship care to disrupt the foster system. We want our family members to come home. When they get there, we will preserve cultural traditions that center joy.
4. We Want Healthy Food. We support community-led, organic, regenerative food systems and the laborers who power them. We want food sovereignty.
5. We Want Economic Freedom. We will engage in collective bargaining for mutual aid. We demand fair pay, and an end to exploitative labor practices and predatory lending. We seek deep investments in community-owned solutions to the health crisis.
6. We Want Land & Housing. We demand high quality and affordable housing and walkable neighborhoods. We want to own land for our children, protect historic landmarks that bring meaning to our communities, and to end corporate pollution of Mother Earth.
7. We Want Power.  We want free speech, universal voting access and the immediate end to voter suppression. We will fight to uphold the civil rights protections secured by our foremothers, and we will fight for new rights under new suns.
8. We Want Safety & Decarceration. We want an end to violence in our communities; the leading cause of death for our daughters. We demand an end to surveillance, over-policing, the proliferation of guns and drugs, mass incarceration, and private prisons. We want investments in restorative justice and rehabilitation.
9. We Want Care for our Caregivers. We demand care from the womb to the tomb. This means reproductive justice, an end to inequitable treatment of our members during pregnancy and childbirth by healthcare institutions, progressive paid leave, accessibility in public spaces for people with disabilities, and dignified care, support and housing for our elders.
10. We Want the Next Generation to Lead. We believe in the power and potential of the next generation to create a more just, more healthy world. We demand access to quality education and jobs for our young people, including a minimization of student loan debt.

Download the plan!