A funding boost for Big Brothers Big Sisters thanks to a local fitness entrepreneur.
Jaclyn Cordeiro, founder of JacFit donated close to $41,000 to the non-profit organization Friday morning.
The money was raised earlier this month at Jaclyn’s 2nd annual Women Supporting Women Summit and will support Big Brothers Big Sisters 'Go Girl, Go Squad Program.'
Cordeiro says the summit brought together more than 300 local women for a night of women-centred empowerment on International Women’s Day.
"We had a live speaker, we had a singer, it was just a women's night, wine night but it was just a little bit bigger in scale and it was a high vibration of energy, it was just fantastic," says Cordeiro. "We had raffle prizes, donation so with everything all included we were able to raise quite a bit of money for Big Brothers and Big Sisters, just fantastic."
She says she always thought if she was given the opportunity to have a platform, she would give back to the city.
"My community, as Jac Fit started to grow, I thought you know what, here we go, here's the opportunity and what better place to participate and growing the community and supporting others especially the youth, to change that narrative amongst women then to put into Go Girls," says Cordeiro.
Becky Parent is the executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters in Windsor-Essex.
She says the organization has girl specific programs and programming specifically for girl identifying youth.
"We were challenged this year," says Parent. "It's been a hard year on every not-for-profit in this community for a couple years really and so finding out this news is huge. It's going to fun the Go Girls, Go Squad program for one year, the entire program serving about 300 to 350 youth in about 40 schools across Windsor-Essex.
Cordeiro says she will continue her partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters.
The Go Girl, Go Squad Program is a group mentoring program for self-identifying females between the ages 12-14.
It focuses on physical activity, balanced eating and self-esteem.
According to the organization, the goal of the program is to positively shape the lives of young females by helping them build a positive self-image – setting them on a path to reach their full potential in life.