Girls Inc. of Sarasota County CEO Angie Stringer has an unusual history with the organization: she worked there from 2003 to 2007 in roughly the role her colleague Jamie Kattrein, now director of community relations, holds today, left for eight years to raise money for Children First's Head Start program, then returned about a decade ago as CEO. Kattrein has been with Girls Inc. for almost ten years herself, five of them running programming before shifting into development and community relations. Together they walk through a mission that has not changed since the organization's Civil War-era founding, teaching girls skills for the moment, once homemaking, now something far broader, distilled today into three words: strong, smart and bold.
The standout program is Dream Harbor, the after-school offering at the Tuttle Avenue facility where girls organize into guilds, an Artisans Guild, a STEM guild, even a government and a recreation guild nicknamed Parks and Wreck, and earn simulated dream dollars that get taxed 35 percent by their own mock government before girls spend what's left at monthly market days. It is hands-on financial literacy dressed up as play, tracked on spreadsheets and a mock bank the girls run themselves. Beyond Dream Harbor, staff carry curricula on media literacy, anti-bullying and healthy relationships into about 20 county schools, prioritizing Title I schools in south county that cannot easily reach the Tuttle Avenue campus.
From Dream Dollars to College For the oldest girls, Project Accelerate serves ages eleven through college completion, most of them first-generation college students, with resume building, coaching and scholarship help; roughly ten alumnae currently attend Tallahassee-area schools and still hold weekly family dinners together for support. A teen advocacy council, which includes a few boys, has taken on real local issues, including pushing for a roundabout at the notoriously dangerous Fruitville and Tuttle intersection near their own building, after a girl in the program was hit by a bicyclist there. Stringer and Kattrein note a $250,000 matching grant from the Baranic Foundation is currently funding the organization's mental health and family strengthening programs, work that matters as Girls Inc. heads toward a 50th anniversary event planned for October 23, 2026, paired with a capital campaign for a new building.
On roundabouts, both guests are enthusiastic, pointing out they keep working during hurricanes when the power and traffic lights go out, and explaining that the landscaping in the center island is intentional, designed to block sightlines so drivers are forced to yield rather than try to time gaps in oncoming traffic. They close with a list of future guest ideas, including Bill Vanranco of the Tulman Foundation, a Thai monk who runs an all-girls school rescuing children from trafficking, Visit Sarasota's Chantel Norman, and two Girls Inc. alumnae now studying communications and marketing at USF and FSU.
What you'll take away
- Girls Inc. of Sarasota County's mission distills to strong, smart and bold, tracing back to a Civil War-era national founding
- The Dream Harbor after-school program teaches financial literacy through a mock economy, complete with guilds, taxed dream dollars and monthly market days
- Project Accelerate supports first-generation college-bound alumnae ages eleven through college completion, with about ten currently attending Tallahassee-area schools
- A teen advocacy council pushed for a roundabout at Fruitville and Tuttle after a girl in the program was hit by a bicyclist there
- A $250,000 matching grant from the Baranic Foundation funds mental health and family strengthening programming ahead of the group's 50th anniversary in 2026
“We call it strong, smart and bold.”
“The landscaping is there on purpose, so you can't see through it and time the gap.”
Places mentioned: Tuttle Avenue, Fruitville Road