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Girls in the Lead; Emotional Health and Violence-Prevention Programming for At-Risk Girls

Submitted by ANorby on Sun, 2008-01-20 23:36.


See It: The Community being helped

I had worked in the field of adolescent psychology the year prior to my freshmen year at college, collaborating with members of the Empower Program and the Ophelia Project- both leading girls’ advocacy organizations- at the Girls Leadership Institute. I worked as a counselor in Washington, DC at the Girls Leadership Institute, a residential program that assisted at-risk adolescent females who had been victims of harassment or bullying at their schools. I used my experience working at the Girls Leadership Institute to present an informative and ultimately successful workshop for the Chicago Public School teachers. Since then, I have done volunteer work as a Relational Aggression Consultant for the Chicago Public Schools. Through this, I developed a drama therapy-based program for the intervention and prevention of bullying among girls which has been brought to numerous institutions. The program serves about two schools per semester. The unique curriculum, a combination of art/theatre therapy exercises and emotional strength-based activities is the only one of its kind in the country, and has elicited promising results in behavior changes among girls in various schools and organizations in Illinois.

I have brought this free program to several other institutions, including: Girl Scouts of Chicago, ChildServ, Chicago Communities in Schools, Helping Girls Navigate Adolescence, Teen Living Program and Just Us Girls. The program has impacted over one hundred girls through various venues on a myriad of topics, including bullying, body image, relational aggression, harassment, dating violence, sexual violence, self-injury, sexual orientation, and eating disorders.

Bullying has become one of the biggest problems facing youth today, as it can provoke young people to take harm against themselves, or even others (e.g. School shootings). This program combats this by providing volunteer workers and teachers with the opportunity to become examples for kids who are harassed; role models who will connect and make an impact on children’s lives and relationships. Girls in the Lead offers after-school programs for schools and organizations, as well as parent, teacher, and youth strength-based trainings and workshops.

Believe it: Describe your project/org

Build it: Steps taken to create the project/org and the kind of impact made

Vital Stats

Started On:January 2006Ended On:None (current program)
People Involved:Varies; any number of parents, teachers, or youth volunteers active at a time. At minimum, 5-10 at any time.People Impacted:Over two hundred altogether, with teachers, parents, students, and young adults
Money Raised:Various small donations from schools or organzations; No major grants or fundings  

Do Something! Get Involved

Related Cause: Mental Health

Category: Health & Medicine

Tags: girls self-injury dating violence eating disorders bullying at-risk youth adolescents relational aggression

Project Updates:

Updates coming soon!

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So you want to take a stand against dating violence, but you want all your friends and classmates to listen? Create a zine full of articles, comics, and quizzes that will engage your friends and make them think.

 

FYI

A zine is defined as "An inexpensively produced, self-published, underground publication" - basically a great medium for you to get the word out cheaply and efficiently.

 

Square One

Creating a publication can be a ton of work (though it might look easy from afar). Start this process by sitting down with a notepad and brainstorming your way to a specific format, look and structure for your zine. For instance, maybe you want to:

  • Set up an anonymous letter collection and publish some letters (with responses) in the first section of your zine.
  • Separate the zine into a visual section and a written section. Include comic strips about dating violence situations and how to handle them (of course dating violence is not a laughing matter, but you can handle it in a sensitive way while making it visually interesting as well).
  • Include a quiz on how to tell if you are a victim of dating violence and a section of resources to help those who might be in a violent relationship.

 

Make a list and check it twice

Once you have a good idea of how you want your zine to be structured and separated, you can start compiling a list of the articles you'll need. This list will change over the course of the next month (give yourself a solid month for production), but it's good to have a strong list before you start.

 

Collection

This might be difficult; your classmates are so busy with school and sports and everything else that it's hard to get them to do anything extra. Set up a meeting with a teacher or principal who might let you post flyers and set up collection points throughout your school.

  • You could also treat your writers to something nice (an incentive) like ice cream cones for all, driving them to school for a week or study help.
  • Another idea is to search the internet for real stories about dating violence, contact the website and find out if you can reprint those stories in your zine.

 

Square One

Now, it's up to you how you want to assemble your awesome publication. In true zine fashion, you could cut and paste everything onto paper, photocopy it and staple the binding (completely DIY, ie-Do It Yourself). If you are computer graphics savvy, you could assemble everything (art and writing alike) electronically.

 

Pass It Out

Check with adults at school like teachers and your principal to see when you can pass your zine out to your classmates. If this doesn't work, you might be able to pile your zines in the guidance office or at a local store where kids from your school hang out.

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