What is Black Girl Connected?
BGC connects Black women to opportunities of service, success, sisterhood, and self care.
Black Girl Connected is an organization for Black Women, by Black women. Our mission is to engage and connect with Black women on a global sale by hosting events that facilitate and promote community service, success, sisterhood, and self care.
Our History
Black Girl Connected (formerly know as The Black Pearl Project) was founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist, Leila Ortiz in 2014 in effort to engage, empower, and support women who look like her and share her experiences.
Since our inception, Black Girl Connected has grown to six chapters in cities across the U.S., connecting over 3000 black women who share our mission and our values through signature initiatives, events, and workshops.
Our Values
Sisterhood is so important to us and at the forefront of everything we do. Our organization was founded to engage with women who look like us and share our experiences. Every single BGC event aims to create a loving and supportive environment that is welcoming and judgement-free - an environment where we can build genuine and meaningful friendships. We do not believe in creating dividing lines based on our differences (complexion, religious beliefs, views on sexuality, level of education, etc.). Instead, we choose to focus on the things that unite us and bring us closer together because at the end of the day, we all we got!
Founded by successful women, to push successful women, we're here to ensure you reach your full potential. Whether you're looking for mentorship during your pursuit of higher education, guidance in climbing the corporate ladder, or assistance in your own entrepreneurial venture, we've created a network of empowered women to coach you along the way to greatness! BGC has formed partnerships with established thought leaders and respected organizations to develop ongoing workshops, networking opportunities, and educational programs that seek to directly empower WOC on their journey to success.
We pride ourselves on being a service to our sisters and a service to our communities with everything we do being rooted in empowering and uplifting Black women in their daily lives. We’ve developed effective, scaleable models for community service initiatives that allow us to continue adding cities to our ever growing list of service areas, which in turn allows us to impact more and more communities as time goes on. We partner with other local and national organizations that share our passion for service.
Self care is a non-negotionable. We encourage you to put yourself first when necessary, as we can be no good to others if we’re no good to ourselves. Since it is the sum of the parts that make the whole, we believe that self care should be applied to every aspect of your being, especially the physical, mental, and spiritual. With that in mind, we host events and workshops that are specifically geared towards building and strengthening those aspects, so that you can become the best possible version of yourself.