The DC Girls’ Coalition was created through an innovation grant to the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence from the National Girls Initiative (NGI) of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention) in the 2010s. Focusing on being a catalyst for change for girls in, and at risk of entering, the juvenile justice system. During its early stages the DCGC focused on collecting stories, completing research, and supporting youth in reducing the reliance of the juvenile justice system to address trauma with youth girls. In 2019, Black Swan Academy and Rights4Girls reconvened the coalition in order to build on the foundation of the work. They expanded the focus to include young girls of color, transgender girls of color, and gender non-conforming people of color in the work.  Also, creating space to ensure that young boys of color and Transgender boys of color  are also not harmed by policy. They also expanded into other areas of advocacy and organizing to cover issues impacting all these groups in various ways. The coalition also created a managing board made of young girls of color,  young transgender girls of color, and young gender non-conforming people of color to ensure that youth are at the center of every decision making process for the coalition. After its first year the DCGC became its own organization with Black Swan Academy stepping up as the fiscal sponsor for the organization.