Pace Center for Girls to spend grant money on financial literacy programs

The Pace Center for Girls has received a massive donation to keep its programs running in the community and help set Southwest Florida’s young women up for success.

The Center provides education, counseling, training and advocacy for girls and young women, and this $35,000 grant from the First Horizon Foundation will go towards teaching them financial literacy, something Pace staff says will help the girls in their careers and lives long after they leave the Center.

One young woman says while she feels well prepared for the real world after going to Pace, nothing compares to what she’s learned about herself and others there.

“I don’t even really like to talk about the person I was before I came here, because I didn’t like that person,” said Pace student Alexis Garcia. “Any girl can, like, do the change that they want to be. They can be whoever they want to be. It takes patience, it takes time. And you just need the right people around you who really care about you and want to help you. I really, really don’t know the person I’d be if I wasn’t here.”

Pace says these funds will give its students more hands-on experiences when it comes to finances.

“Our main goal is to make sure that, when they leave here, they have all the tools that they need to just have a successful life,” said Jennifer Cellitti, executive director of the Pace Center for Girls. “We are so grateful and thankful for this. I know our girls will just get so much out of this, and it’s so exciting to see them grow and to see them come back… using the tools that grants like this provide and just watching them flourish in their futures.”

The partnership between First Horizon and the Pace Center for Girls will run through the 2021/2022 school year, supporting multiple Pace centers across seven counties in Florida, including Lee and Collier. The money will also buy the Center new laptops.