The vision of the Pacific Northwest Girls Collaborative Project (PNWGCP) is to serve as a conduit for girl-serving STEM organizations in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, and Washington that are committed to informing and encouraging girls to pursue careers in STEM.

Through collaboration, dissemination, and the leveraging of individual and collective resources, the PNWGCP creates synergies to increase equity and access to STEM and heightens the interest in STEM fields for all girls throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Too often programs that serve girls in STEM are limited in service and impact due to size, location, funding, expertise, and equipment.  In other cases, projects compete with each other, duplicating services and seeking the same resources.  PNWGCP provides the opportunity for programs to increase their ability to maintain interest and participation of girls in STEM through collaboration.

As the first collaborative site, the Pacific Northwest Girls Collaborative experienced tremendous success during the initial months of funding from the National Science Foundation. As a result, the National Girls Collaborative Project developed a national model that has been replicated in many more regions throughout the United States. Collaboration, as an interactive process, enables professionals across projects and communities to generate and carry out creative solutions and strategies that maximize benefit beyond what one project of community could accomplish.  The model is structured to bring organizations together to leverage resources, share information and exemplary practices, and to plan strategically to expand STEM-related opportunities for girls.