Girl Scouts launches second year of mentoring program to reach at-risk girls

     Girl Scouts launches second year of mentoring program to reach at-risk girls
     
     PRESS CONTACT: Lori Sullivan 954-739-7660, ext. 219
     
     OAKLAND PARK, FL --- The Girl Scouts of Broward County have joined forces with Senior Volunteer Services, to mentor 60 at-risk middle-school age girls in Broward County with their ground breaking “Get Real” mentoring program. Set to start again in mid-August, the “Get Real” mentor program is a collaboration with the State of Florida’s ‘Florida Mentoring Partnership’ initiative which sought to reach 500 at-risk girls state-wide. Last year the Girl Scouts of Broward County achieved remarkable results and head into year two with lessons learned, more girls to serve and successes to drive the program.
     
     The 30-week, school based, mentoring program was designed to initiate underprivileged middle school girls into the Girl Scout program while increasing literary skills, providing character development activities and offering life lessons in the areas of conflict resolution, positive self-esteem/peer pressure, responsibility (to themselves and their community), and abstinence. Girl Scouts and the mentors from Senior Volunteer Services, will meet weekly with 60 girls at Pace Center for Girls in Wilton Manors, Charles Drew Resource Center in Pompano Beach and Arthur Ashe Middle school in Fort Lauderdale during the 2005-06 school year.
     
     When it came time to tap 60 female mentors, the Girl Scouts didn’t need to look very far. Senior Volunteer Services, a county-wide volunteer service agency for individuals of an advanced age, shares office space with the Girl Scouts in Oakland Park. Together the two organizations decided to use their collective expertise and span an intergenerational gap to benefit at-risk girls.
     
     “The age difference makes the relationship ideal; the girls get a maternal-like instinct from the grandmas—a confidant, someone they can depend on and trust. The grandparents are there to help the girls with homework, listen to them, give them advice and encourage them to be better students.” said Tammy Jackson, project director for the Foster Grandparent Program at Senior Volunteers Services. “Virtually everything young girls struggle with in this day and age is included in the program curriculum.”
     
     The “Get Real” program is a departure from the traditional Girl Scouts troop setting. This two-fold program offers one-on-one interaction between mentor and mentee – and on the alternate weeks a group activity led by facilitator Maria Fraxedas. And the “Get Real” program addresses real life issue for these girls. “The girls from these locations are pre-selected by each individual school. Some of the girls have already faced tough issues in their life, like pregnancy, physical abuse, emotional neglect and serious domestic conflict. Many come from a low-income home without much family support.” said Maria Fraxedas, Group Facilitator for the “Get Real” program.
     
     “We are very proud of the success of the ‘Get Real’ program and our partnership with Senior Volunteer Services,” said Leslie Roth, Chief Executive Officer for the Girl Scouts of Broward County. “Our ongoing partnership with the senior volunteers has proven to be an invaluable resource for our girls. They don’t see these ladies as their peers nor as their mothers; but as wisdom filled adults with an excess of advice to offer, stories to share, compassion and years of wisdom. The collaboration is win-win and it couldn’t be working better!”
     
     Activities awaiting this year’s group of girl-mentees will include everything from arts & craft projects to mock court trials. “This year the group sessions are going to contain more hands-on activities, as well as lectures, role-play, speakers, planned activities and games,” said Fraxedas.
     
     Plus they can each expect one-on-one time with an 8-pound, 7-ounce, hungry, crying, simulated baby which is given to every girl in the program to take care of for one weekend. The electronically monitored doll looks, acts and even smells like a real baby. As part of this key program element, girls will also be charged with the responsibility to figure out the budget for a teenage mom and her newborn child.
     
     “If the girls want to go to a movie – they better get a babysitter,” said Monica Cupid, Director of Grants for the Girl Scouts of Broward County, Inc. and administrator of the “Get Real” program. “With the monitors, Maria [Fraxedas] knows exactly how long the baby has been left crying.” This activity made a big impact with one of the participants last year who told Fraxedas, “I’m definitely not going to have a baby, this thing cried all night!”
     
     “We would hope that we would make a life changing impact on the girls—get them to a level of education where they can see they have better alternatives.” School administrators have seen positive results from the program too. Surveys taken by the girls, parents and teachers before and after the program show significant improvements in the students’ grades, FCAT scores and number of referrals, suspensions and absences.
     
     “All the girls [at Pace] passed the FCAT exams,” said Desmin Silvera, Social Services Program Manager at the Pace Center for Girls. “The program’s collaborative approach to learning has greatly enhanced the girls’ performance, as well as their social skills.”
     
     Not only are the young girls benefiting from this time, but the young at heart as well. “The mentors seem to get just as much out of the program as the girls,” Fraxedas said. “The senior volunteers formed a bond with the girls and that is what Girl Scouts is all about.”
     
     The Girl Scouts have high aspirations for the program for year two. “We want to succeed with the outcomes and recruit more mentors, so we can expand the program,” said Cupid. “We need more caring adults to lend a hand to help the next generation—they are our future. The Girl Scout program is here, now it’s the leaders and volunteers who need to step up and make a difference.”
     
     Girl Scouts of Broward County, Inc. serves more than 9,000 girls and 4,500 adult volunteers. For more information regarding the “Get Real” program, including information on how to become a mentor, contact Monica Cupid at 954-739-7660 ext. 218. To learn more about the Girl Scouts of Broward County, including information about registering your girl, adult volunteering or public support opportunities visit www.browardgirlscouts.org.
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