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Women Writing for (a) Change Foundation can help you develop a Young Women Writing for (a) Change program at your school!

Join us in creating an After School Partnership Team to provide a strong framework for building confidence and leadership for the girls and young women at your school.

The overall development of girls is dependent on healthy connections with peers and other adults. Research indicates that girls are relational: they seek out and respond to social connections. A girl’s healthy connections influence all other arenas of individual health—emotional, physical, spiritual, cognitive. To develop psychological health, girls need relationships in which they are able to use their true voices and be heard without risk of alienation. (Brown & Gilligan, 1992)

Young Women Writing for (a) Change programs use writing to help young women reconnect with themselves, with peers, and with their schools and neighborhoods. Without these relationships, young women often turn to destructive or isolating behaviors, which adversely affect their educational and social opportunities. With positive writing experiences and honest, authentic connections with others girls in Young Women Writing for (a) Change programs, young women develop the self-efficacy to be active and engaged, both in the classroom and in extra-curricular activities.

Partnership Teams Include:

Young Women Writing for (a) Change Faculty

A teacher, counselor, psychologist, or administrator from your school

A girl or young woman participating in the program

Program Design:

• Participants meet for 10 weeks after school (or during school if appropriate)

• Writing and Community Building activities are age appropriate

• See sample program agenda

• A Partnership Team is created to help sustain the program

Program Goals include:

• enhance self-esteem

• build skills in creative self-expression

• learn to receive and give honest support and encouragement,

• develop skills in building and keeping community

• help girls develop and maintain inclusive, non-competitive relationships that are both mutually supportive and honest

• seek and recognize role models who inspire creative life choices.

To learn more about creating an After School Partnership Team/Program at your school call the Foundation at 513-272-1171.