Our History

For more than thirty-five years, Pace Center for Girls has been transforming the lives of girls and young women. Founded in 1985 by Vicki Burke, the first Pace Center launched with ten girls in Jacksonville, Florida. Vicki had an idea, rooted facts, that girls were entering the juvenile justice system as a response to behaviors often embedded from trauma. Pace has successfully grown to serve more than 3,000 girls annually in 23 communities in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Through a successful and proven evidence-based model, focused on the development of critical life, health, and academic skills, Pace has changed the life trajectory of more than 40,000 girls and is recognized as one of the nation’s leading advocates and juvenile justice preventative models for girls and young women.