Hi! We are a group of women in Columbia, SC working together to organize a summer camp for girls to come and learn to play rock music together.

Our mission statement:

Girls Rock Columbia is a one-week long day camp that exists to foster a community of girls ages 8-18 through music, performance, and various workshops. The program encourages an environment that cultivates self-confidence, challenges gender stereotypes, promotes positive female relationships, creativity, and leadership.  The ultimate goal of Girls Rock Columbia is to empower everyone involved; both campers and volunteers, to take the sense of community learned from within the organization and carry that throughout the city they call home.

Girls Rock Columbia is in the process of becoming a part of the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, a coalition of Girls Rock Camp organizers across the country where over 10,000 girls have been inspired, challenged, and mentored in rock camps. That number is constantly growing. Many prominent women musicians have shown their support for GRCA by volunteering as instructors and coaches at their local rock camp chapters.

The overwhelmingly positive response girls rock camps have received (including features in the New York Times, LA Times, and a documentary) and the rapid rate that the camps continue to spread across the world indicate that this truly a global movement for cultural change. While each camp tailors programming and services to best fit the needs of its community, the basic mission is the same: to empower girls through music education. In one week of camp, girls are guided by mentors in music instruction as they learn an instrument, form a band, write a song, and play a show. Additionally, campers are led in a wide array of workshops, including songwriting, recording, self defense, zine-making, and media literacy.

Girls Rock Columbia will take place late summer of 2013 in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.

For more information about the Girls Rock Columbia, including interviews, how to become a sponsoring organization, or information on the camp later this summer, please contact sign up for email updates.