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Support Girl Power
When You Invest in Girls, We All Win
Why Invest in Girls?
For over twenty years Girl Power has served as a safe-haven for at-promise girls providing supportive and nurturing spaces where they can learn new skills, build positive relationships, and unlock their true potential. The Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center’s Study on the Status of Girls Well-being in FL, found that the safety of many girls is compromised and that there are alarming rates of violence and victimization experienced by girls in their communities, schools and homes. There is a high cost that at-promise girls and our society pay when violence, victimization, abuse, and other disparities that inadvertently affect them are not addressed and properly corrected.
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Programs like Girls’ Rock Afterschool, Girls’ Choir of Miami, and Sister Circle Mentoring offer many strategies and solutions that help girls overcome the negative effects of abuse and trauma and empower them to gain the skills and confidence they need to achieve success in life. When a girl believes in herself, nothing can stop her!
Advance Academic Achievement
Girl Power believes every girl should have access to high-quality education and a safe support system that puts her on the path to a brighter future. Girl Power’s academic components serve as a liaison between girls and the schools they attend, which according to research from the Delores Weaver Center is linked to “positive self-esteem, a sense of purpose and buffers against psychological distress, substance abuse, delinquency and school drop-out.” Our programs and services include social and emotional learning, academic support during and after school, health and wellness, mental health services, summer STEAM camps, college, and heritage tours and so much more.
When you invest in girls' education, they have the skills to make choices over their own future and can lift themselves, their community and country out of poverty.
Support Trauma Informed Programs
When girls are supported, nurtured, and receive positive reinforcement, they thrive and excel. When a girl is exposed to traumas that lead to risky behavior, academic failure and poor life choices, her well-being is threatened well into adulthood. Approximately 1 in 5 girls served at Girl Power have reported mental and/or sexual abuse, depression, feeling hopeless, being bullied and bullying others, neglect, and abandonment. Girl Power’s prevention and intervention programs utilize evidence-based curriculums and best practices that support girls who have suffered through trauma.
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Through our partnerships with Jewish Community Services of South Florida and Agape Network, girls and their families receive trauma informed individual, group, and family therapy sessions. These services are essential in helping girls and their families identify triggers, heal, feel empowered and better understand the meanings of the traumatic experiences that took place in their lives.
The School to Prison Pipeline
Increasingly, girls are making up a larger proportion of young people who enter the juvenile justice system. While previous research on juvenile delinquency prevention tends to be focused on boys, girls who have had run-ins with the law have a different profile from their male counterparts. Girls at risk of juvenile delinquency are more often detained for nonviolent offenses, such as truancy or violating probation, and often have a history of abuse and/or trauma.
Run-ins with the law damage girls' relationships with family and friends, negatively impacts mental health, and interrupts academic progress that leads to The School to Prison Pipeline.
At Girl Power, we offer gender-responsive prevention and intervention programs to support at-promise girls who are at risk of entering the juvenile justice system. Our programs are facilitated by trained staffers who provide a nurturing and safe environment to help girls overcome risky behavior, make good choices, and prioritize education. These strategies can help change the trajectory of a girl's life and put her on a pathway to success.
Music and Arts Education
Music can help girls discover new ideas, hidden talents, coping mechanisms for stressful situations and develop feelings of belonging. The Girls’ Choir of Miami (GCOM) provides opportunities for girls’ ages 7 to 17, from all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds to participate in a year-long quality music education program, created with the unique needs of girls in mind. The benefits can have a positive and lasting effect on girls, helping them learn to control their emotions and cope with difficult situations such as peer pressure, abuse, pain, and loss.
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We already know that music can have a profound effect on the human brain. In the article, “Music has Powerful (and Visible) Effects on the Brain,'' Dr. Jonathan Burdette underscores the close connection between music and emotions. GCOM uses the power of music to develop a lifelong appreciation of the arts, expose girls to challenging, multicultural, multi-part choral music and build the confidence and self-esteem of each young girl we serve.
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Through the experience of learning, rehearsing, and performing, the girls grow musically and emotionally. They learn about hard work and working together. Ultimately, many talented girls are combined to create one beautiful voice. In addition to the exposure to great music, skill development and emotional growth, girls form healthy friendships and have fun.