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See It: The Community being helped
I launched Madison SOS (Speak Out, Sister!) at age 15, in the spring of 2007. I wanted to do something to address several issues in my community of Madison, Wisconsin relating to young women: poor self-esteem, political apathy, and little knowledge of how they as community members could affect grassroots change. A high school student myself, I decided to focus on the high school audience as my primary constituency. I realized that teen girls need a place where they can gain education and empowerment by discussing the issues that matter most to them, like body image, women in media, local social justice causes, and racial and gender-based discrimination. I did research and found that many local organizations weren't fully meeting the needs of our teen girls in our community. Studies found that girls suffered from low rates of self-esteem, often turned to high-risk activities, and had low levels of engagement in their school and community. Girls also expressed frustration over the few opportunities that they had to interact with girls of different backgrounds, including girls of different cultures and socio-economic classes. I contacted several groups that work with girls and women to create a comprehensive program to address some of these issues. Working with the Girl Scouts of Black Hawk Council, YWCA Madison, Girl Neigbhorhood Power, and the Wisconsin Women's Network, I created a series of fall workshops for girls to discuss issues of concern to them and learn about ways that they can get involved in their community. The focus of these workshops would be to show girls how to speak out and use their voices to affect change--that's how Madison SOS (Speak Out, Sister!) was born. We began accepting applications from girls at Madison high schools in May. Over the summer, I worked on creating a program of speakers and presenters for our six 90-minute workshops in Madison this fall. A diverse group of 20 high school teen girls will meet under the direction peer leaders and women mentors/co-facilitators. While the first few sessions will focus on discussing local issues of importance to girls, we will focus on community leadership and grassroots activism. Girls will hear from young women activists in the community, and they will develop activism and leadership skills like public speaking, letter-writing, and lobbying. Over the winter, we will work to develop a unique report on the status of teen girls in Madison. This report will allow local policy-makers, including elected officials and leaders of groups that work with girls, to better serve teen girls. We will hold listening sessions and conduct personal interviews to include girls' personal stories in the report. Personal stories and narratives will be interwoven with position papers and data. We will publish this report in March--Women's History month--and hold press conferences on our findings. In addition to working with local media, we will meet with elected officials and policy-makers to discuss our findings and talk to them about the changes we would like to see made in the community. We will also hold trainings for nonprofit community groups on this subject. The final result of a year of Madison SOS work will be a team of well-trained teen leaders ready to keep fighting for issues affecting girls and women in our community, and a greater community that better understands the needs of teen girls. After conversations with statewide groups and politicians, I hope that Madison SOS will be successful as a pilot program for use in other parts of the state of Wisconsin and in the U.S.
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Build it: Steps taken to create the project/org and the kind of impact made
Vital Stats
| Started On: | Madison SOS fall workshops began the week of August 26, 2007! | Ended On: | Madison SOS's pilot year will run through April 2008. After evaluating the program, it may begin again in August 2008. |
| People Involved: | One project leader, 6 adult mentors, college interns, other volunteers; 20 program participants | People Impacted: | Madison SOS will directly train 20 teen girl leaders; it will impact a community of about 5,000 high school teen girls, and an overall community of 220,000 people |
| Money Raised: | So far, over $450 in cash donations and a $3,000 grant from A Fund for Women (of the Madison Community Foundation), as well as several hundred dollars worth of in-kind donations of meeting space, workshop materials, printing resources, guest speaker appearances, and food and beverages |
Project Updates:
At the time of applying for the grant (in Mid-July), we planned to hold a series of six 90-minute workshops for high school teen girls from throughout Madison, WI to explore leadership and activism on the issues that most matter to them. The workshop series ran from late August to November, with a significant amount of publicity. Despite low attendance, the workshops were a huge success, teaching girls financial and ‘people’ power, among several other key abilities. Finally, we introduced the role that gender plays in girls’ leadership with a roundtable discussion with State Rep. Terese Berceau, a strong advocate of women’s health issues. For our final workshops, An ACLU Community Advocate and a Planned Parenthood Public Affairs Organizer provided teens with a framework for action by discussing how decisions are made on important issues affecting young women – and how their actions can affect those decisions. Participants practiced a wide variety of ways to stand up and speak out, participating in activities such as creating a YouTube video on a local political issue and practicing a mock lobby visit with volunteers. Of course, although our workshops addressed serious topics, we worked hard to make them as fun as possible by providing snacks, talking about current events and pop culture, watched and discussed movies, and had fun door prizes and give-aways.
On November 15, we held a community event called Voices of Courage, aimed to turn the spotlight on local women in political leadership, inviting community members of all ages to attend. We publicized the event heavily in local media and provided free transportation for teens to attend. Our energizing speeches included a keynote by former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, as well as a panel moderated by Madison Magazine political columnist Jenny Price.
In December, we began recruiting members of our (adult) Community Advisory Board and our Teen Leadership Council, which will provide visionary leadership as we launch a series of exciting new initiatives this year. We just hired a part-time Community Research Coordinator, a part-time Outreach Specialist, and ten interns for the spring semester to work in areas of community research, outreach, development, and communications. We’re now in the process of launching a series of initiatives that aim to put issues facing girls in the community spotlight that include: creating an online forum for high school women, community roundtables, personal interviews with girls, and conducting surveys on local social justice issues. We’ll then work with our Teen Leadership Council to develop recommendations for how community decision-makers can collaborate to help improve the lives of teen girls in six key areas of focus. The report will feature girls’ anecdotes and stories, along with visual art and photography. It will be released on August 26, 2008 (celebrated nationally was Women’s Equality Day), followed by meetings with elected officials and community members. Finally, we are working with a renowned community muralist to create a girl-painted mural will be painted over the summer and unveiled in conjunction with the release of our report on August 26, 2008.
