Pace In the News

Mary Marx joined Pace as vice president of external affairs in 2007 and has served as president and CEO since 2010. PND asked her about Pace’s advocacy efforts around juvenile justice reform, its national expansion strategy, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on needs and programs.

When girls are offered the tools, support, and relationships they need to succeed, a positive ripple effect occurs in our communities. The advocacy work that we do at Pace Center for Girls (Pace) does not happen in a vacuum – it is done with the goal of improving the communities that surround us. 

Second, you will make mistakes, and that is okay, as long as you learn from them. You need to pick yourself up, figure out what happened, think about what you’d do differently, and then carry that lesson forward.

Women and girls often take on more of the emotional burden when families experience sudden loss, poverty, and trauma. A report from The Center for American Progress noted young girls are more likely to face long-lasting effects of childhood trauma, and young girls of color are even more adversely impacted.

In recent years, there has been a growing push for nonprofits to move to a participatory feedback model. But what does that look like in practice? Pace Center for Girls — which serves more than 3,000 girls annually in 23 communities across Florida and Georgia —  is one example of how an organization can engage program participants, team members, and community members in producing information supporting equitable policies, processes, and best practices.