As the sun sets on 2020…

2020 was an interesting year for for Girls With Guts, as well as the entire world. Despite the challenges and uncertainty that came with 2020, new donors, sponsors and partnerships were abundant!

Thanks to you – we have fully funded our next several in-person Newbie Retreats, will be able to send out more Butt Baskets, Gotta Go Cards and work to host more virtual programming!

I am incredibly proud of how far we have come since 2017 and we couldn’t have done it without our Board of Directors and wonderful volunteers who so selflessly offer their free time to help keep things running smoothly.

The Girls With Guts community continues to expand in ways I never even anticipated. Having been a part of the GWG Board since 2013, I am amazed at the strength, resilience, and sisterhood that we’ve built.

To preserve the safety, health (and sanity) of our community members, we are refocusing our goals for 2021 to host a third Virtual Summit in May.

This event will focus on Mental Health as May is Mental Health Awareness month.

In 2021, we also plan to:

– Continue to send out free “I Gotta Go” Cards on demand to women in the United States and Canada.

– Overhaul our Butt Basket program to expand access by increasing the number of qualifying situations, and also including additional self-care items.

– Host monthly virtual events by connecting women in small group chats or speakers from a diverse list of medical providers and health advocates.

– Offer women with IBD one place to get all the information they need to discuss and decide on a treatment plan with their doctor through our new, medically-reviewed Girls With Guts Academy.

Thank you for your love in 2020!

We are eager to move into 2021 – feeling inspired, supported, and stronger than ever before!

If you’d like to read our 2020 End of Year Report for more details, go here.

• About The Author

Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, Alicia puts a little bit of “brotherly love” into everything she does. She is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University where she studied Television, Radio, & Film. She now works as a freelance editor, producer, videographer, and photographer. Alicia was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at the age of 14 and when she was re-diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 22, Girls With Guts was just starting out. Her passion for GWG was instantaneous as she had not had that kind of support before. She has been on the board of Girls With Guts since 2013 starting out as Director of Multimedia and has now served as President since 2017. She’s always had a knack for bringing ideas to life and that is where her passion and Girls With Guts merged. If she’s not helping to further the overall vision of Girls With Guts, you can catch her raising awareness about her personal IBD journey whenever she can.