The Be GirlPwrd founder rallied UPS, Mayor Andre Dickens, and 20 partners behind her inaugural Delivering Confidence campaign, now on tour across Metro Atlanta.
Photography by Colin Maloney, Sasa Studios.
This National Women’s Small Business Month, Bacon Magazine spotlights Black women in business whose work is changing their communities, and few stories capture that spirit as well as Jessica Pitre‘s. As founder and executive director of Be GirlPwrd Inc., Pitre set out this fall to remind 1,000 girls across Metro Atlanta that they are seen, supported, and capable. Through the nonprofit’s inaugural Delivering Confidence campaign, she is now putting that reminder directly into their hands, one kit at a time.
The story began with words. Before packing a single kit, Pitre and her team carried Delivering Confidence across the city, hosting message-writing activations at 10 locations, including Atlanta City Hall. Residents, leaders, and neighbors paused to write to girls they may never meet, offering wisdom, encouragement, and affirmation in their own handwriting. By the time the activations ended, Be GirlPwrd held 1,000 handwritten messages, one for every girl who would open a kit.
Held in honor of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, the campaign came together on September 30, 2026, when UPS opened its Atlanta headquarters for a volunteer build day. One hundred volunteers from UPS and the Be GirlPwrd community assembled all 1,000 kits, with UPS employees, mobilized through the company’s internal volunteer network, making up the majority of the team. Each kit was designed for its age group, with separate middle school and high school versions that pair skincare, beauty, and feminine care essentials with one of those handwritten messages.
A Room Full of Belief
The build day felt less like a work shift and more like a celebration of Atlanta’s girls. Guests moved between a live DJ, a wellness station, tables hosted by community partners, light bites and desserts from sponsors, and photo ops with an oversized Delivering Confidence envelope. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens shared a video message during the program, which also featured remarks from Be GirlPwrd board member Samara Spearman, UPS representative David Auguste, and Pitre herself.
“Delivering Confidence started as an idea and became a citywide movement,” Pitre said. “From City Hall to UPS Headquarters, Atlanta showed up for its girls. Every kit carries proof that a whole community believes in her, and that belief is the foundation of everything we teach.”
Even as the last kit was sealed, the story kept writing itself. Volunteers sat down to write a fresh round of messages on site, words that will travel into the next kits Be GirlPwrd builds and reach girls who have yet to hear them.
September Was for Building. October Is for Delivering.
Throughout October, Be GirlPwrd is on tour across Metro Atlanta, popping up at schools and community partner sites to hand-deliver the kits directly to the girls they were built for. For each girl, the moment arrives as something she can hold: a box of essentials chosen with care, and a note from a stranger in her own city who believes in her. Supporters can follow the tour at #DeliveringConfidence.
The campaign was made possible by 20 community partners: UPS, the Mayor’s Office of One Atlanta, Georgia Prevention Project, Sources of Strength, Target, Cotiviti, Self-Help Credit Union, Black Girl Vitamins, Salt.xo, Vance Cosmetics, Waxing the City, Law Offices of Shari Trahan, Bask & Lather, VIV, Play Pits, STICKII, The Fabulous Factory Foundation, OneDay, Beauty Holiday and Creative Girl Connect.
Black Women in Business, Building for the Next Generation
Behind the campaign is a founder who has built an organization around a single conviction: confidence can be taught, nurtured and passed on. Be GirlPwrd is a 501(c)(3) focused on social-emotional learning and leadership development for girls ages 11 to 19, and under Pitre’s leadership, it has served more than 200 girls, delivered more than 50 workshops, and built active school partnerships across Fulton, DeKalb, Paulding, and Douglas counties. Its flagship 12-week cohort, grounded in CASEL’s social-emotional learning framework, is running in partner schools this fall, alongside the Level Up Lab, a hands-on experience that helps girls set goals and map out what comes next.
Pitre is already writing the next chapter. In January 2027, Be GirlPwrd expands into workforce development with PWRD Up, an initiative introducing girls to skilled trades, construction and engineering. It is the kind of vision that defines women in business during this month of celebration: a founder who sees what girls are capable of long before they see it themselves, and builds the path to get them there.
About Be GirlPwrd Inc.
Be GirlPwrd Inc. is a 501(c)(3) youth development nonprofit based in Metro Atlanta, founded by Jessica Pitre and focused on social-emotional learning and leadership development for girls ages 11 to 19. Learn more at begirlpwrd.org and follow on Instagram and Facebook.
