Hi there!

We are Girls Rock! Adelaide, a not-for-profit volunteer organisation providing a week-long music and mentoring program for girls, trans and gender diverse young people aged 10-17. We're part of a global network of Girls Rock! organisations that has spread over the last 25 years to include locations such as Finland, Tokyo, Edinburgh and Brazil. Girls Rock! works to support gender equality and diversity in the music industry, through tackling these issues from the ground up. Our second ever program was planned for July 2020 but due to COVID-19 decided to postpone to January 2021, and we need your help to make it happen! 

Why do we need Girls Rock?

The music industry is a difficult place for non-male folks. They are underrepresented on music festival bills, in ‘best of’ lists, Halls of Fame, and in positions of power and decision-making. Figures from the Australian Performing Right Association (APRA) show that only 21.5% of registered songwriters are female. At the critical age when young people are figuring out their place in the world, girls and gender diverse young people can find themselves overly self-conscious in a society that fails to support them in finding out what they are capable of. 

Evidence also shows that young trans and gender diverse people experience a range of difficulties including bullying, harassment and mental health struggles. However, a recent Australian survey found that of all recreational activities employed by trans and gender diverse young people, music was by far the most effective, with 88% of those surveyed stating that it made them feel better!

About us

The Girls Rock! Adelaide committee have an incredibly broad range of skills - many wearing several hats at once. We are musicians, music industry workers, arts practitioners, policy writers, activists and academics. Our broad experience includes marketing, government policy, music management and touring, graphic design, events management, booking, fundraising, governance and a host of other skills! Our community consists of over 50 volunteers, and a huge number of collaborators and donors. We are dedicated to gender equality, diversity, accessibility and safer spaces, and, most of all, to supporting girls, trans and non-binary people to raise their voices and make music their own way. 

What do we do?

Over the space of a week (Monday – Friday) in school holidays, we host a group of girls, trans and non-binary young people and support them to form a band, learn an instrument, participate in creative workshops, see live bands, and collaborate to produce an original song. Each day there is a lunchtime concert performed by a female, female-led, trans or gender diverse musician or band. At the end of the week campers experience what it’s like to perform live to an audience at our Girls Rock! showcase, held on the Saturday. No music experience is necessary and we provide all the instruments! 

The intense nature of the 5-day program fills attendees to the brim with confidence, self-esteem, teamwork skills, positive reinforcement, encouragement and acceptance. Through the medium of music we provide attendees with tools, opportunities to learn how to use them in ways that facilitate their own positive storytelling, and teach them to support others in the same way. All of our mentors and volunteers are female, trans or gender diverse, and all the bands that come in to play for our campers are female, female-led, trans or gender diverse. This is a deliberate strategy to showcase role models for our campers - people that are working in the industry every day, that they can look up to!

Our key goal is to increase opportunities in the music industry for girls, trans and gender diverse young people and musicians, but we can't do it without the support of our community (you!). 

Successes

Our first program in 2019 was a huge success, with 6 new bands formed at our program and heaps of new connections created across the South Australian music community - not just between our campers, but between our volunteers and mentors as well. One of our young new bands even went on to perform at Half Strange Festival!

Feedback from those involved has been heartwarming and so positive: 

Campers

“It both met and exceeded expectations. In terms of the course workshops and lessons etc that met my expectations quite well, but the amount of connections I now have and my musical knowledge has just flourished and I couldn't be more thankful”

“I did not really know what to expect. I did expect it to help with my confidence, but I didn't know it would help as much as it did!”

Parents

“My daughter said 'I discovered a whole community that I didn't know existed'”

“Our daughter had such a great time! She made new like-minded friends and has gained confidence in herself and her abilities. We really hope that she now has the motivation to get out there and form a band and perform live to showcase her skills.”

Volunteers

"A powerful opportunity to role model safety, support and risk-taking across generations”

“I was skeptical going into the week, but this was the best thing I could have done for myself. It was such a good week filled with positivity and self love, something I had forgotten about. I seriously cannot recommend this to people enough!!”

“Honestly such a beautiful opportunity to provide a stepping stone to young people but also to make connections with like minded and supportive women and folks from our own community. Truly life changing.”

How you can help

This year, the second ever Girls Rock! Adelaide program is coming up in January 2021 and we need your help to make it a reality! By helping us get to our goal of $2500 you are supporting a grass roots not-for-profit music organisation, and helping us break down barriers in the music industry for girls, trans and non-binary young people.

We have so many tiers for you to choose from - you can get stickers or guitar picks, get kitted out in GR! merch, or just shoot us a donation amount of your choice! Or if you're feeling generous - you could even Sponsor a Camper to attend our next program! This option pays for a scholarship for one camper to attend for the whole week, free of charge.

Whatever tier you choose, you are contributing to a more diverse music scene by helping Girls Rock! Adelaide provide awesome opportunities to young female, trans and non-binary musicians. Thanks so much for your support, you rock! 

We are fundraising for a range of costs that we will need to cover, including:

• Venue
• Craft supplies
• Workshop presenters and facilitators
• Technical and coordination staff
• Sound and musical equipment and gear
• Lunchtime bands and performers
• Transport hire
• Scholarships

Being able to provide scholarships for young people that want to come along but can't afford the full fee is really important to us. We want to make it possible for anyone to come along regardless of their circumstances, which is why we have included the $500 Sponsor a Camper tier. 

Our goal with this campaign is to reach $2500. In reality, after the cost of fulfilling the merchandise, we will take about half that amount to the bank. So, our stretch goal is $5,000 which will mean we actually reach our $2500 target!

Choose from a range of merchandise options, or just send us a cool lil donation! Every little bit counts, so chuck us some coin and help us get over the line! Maybe if we hit this target there could be a sneaky extra tier made available...!

Stretch target - $5,000

If we reach our initial goal of $2500 we will implement a stretch target of $5000. This would mean we would be able to look at providing a number of full scholarships to young female, trans and non-binary young people for them to attend our music mentoring program free of charge.

Stretch target - $10,000

If people are SUPER generous, an additional $5000 will help us be able to consider further options for community outreach throughout the year, such as hosting a series of workshops at an introductory level for women, girls, trans and gender diverse folks to learn more about the music industry. These might include "How to restring your guitar" or "How to set up and tune a drumkit". In our work we have built up a network of non-male folks working in a range of fields and roles in the music industry, and would love to provide opportunities for them to share their expertise in a workshop series. 

Stretch target - $15,000

These additional funds would allow us to cover travel and accommodation expenses for some campers to be able to attend from regional areas, which is something we currently can't afford to facilitate. We know that living in a rural or regional area contributes to marginalisation so we would love to be able to support more young people to attend from outside the metropolitan area. Depending on the amount we could possibly even look at creating a travel and accommodation fund. 

Stretch target - $20,000
At this amount we would be able to afford to pay for a couple of our committee members to do Girls Rock! work one day a week for a few months. This would be a game-changer in terms of our capacity to grow and develop the work of Girls Rock! Adelaide, so if we get $20,000 we look forward to taking some huge leaps and bounds!