PEARLS COMING EVENTS

JOURNAL SENTINEL EDITORIAL ON PEARLS
Feb 22, 2008

VIOLENCE PREVENTION
MARCH & RALLY
November 2007

Welcome to PEARLS for Teen Girls!

Dear Friends,

Welcome to PEARLS for Teen Girls, a totally innovative leadership development organization serving at-risk teen girls in Milwaukee ages 11 to 18. At PEARLS, we believe that every girl is precious, with unique gifts and the potential to succeed, no matter what neighborhood she’s from or what challenges she may face.

Through weekly conversation circles, positive adult and peer relationships, a groundbreaking goal setting system and so much more, PEARLS girls learn to look inside of themselves to develop the inner strength, character, and skills that it takes to be a true leader. Recognizing that education is the key to success, PEARLS is particularly committed to increasing high school graduation and college acceptance rates of girls of color in Milwaukee. PEARLS approach is girl-centered and girl-driven and our results are real. In 2007 PEARLS participants achieved these superb outcomes:

100% of PEARLS seniors graduated from high school.
90% of graduates were accepted to college.
99% of PEARLS girls avoided teen pregnancy.

As Executive Director of PEARLS, I am profoundly proud of our girls. I am also proud of the PEARLS culture that nurtures their success. PEARLS is unique for many reasons, but I think there are three primary features that set our program apart:

Consistency: PEARLS girls face many challenges in their lives, from broken homes to crumbling neighborhoods to struggling schools. But every PEARLS girl knows that once each week, like clockwork, she will gather in a safe space for a positive experience with her PEARLS sisters.
Intimacy: In a PEARLS circle girls learn to honestly express and examine the realities of their daily life for better or worse. They learn to trust and respect one another, and they develop the ability to hold confidences for their friends.
Accountability: PEARLS girls learn to be accountable to their peers and to themselves for their actions, reactions, goals and results on a weekly basis. They learn that accountability is a foundational component for success in school, work and life.

Milwaukee, like so many large cities, faces daunting social challenges, including the 7th highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation, pervasive central city poverty, and simply unacceptable high school drop out rates especially among children of color. That is why a program like PEARLS, proven to be effective, is so important to our community.

For the past three years, under the guidance of PEARLS’ strong Board of Directors, PEARLS has consistently grown to serve more girls. In 2007 we served over 500 girls and in 2008 we plan to serve at least 600. Of course, as a nonprofit organization, the financial support of individual donors is critical to our ability to continue. As you learn more about PEARLS, I invite you to join us in growing a new generation of women leaders by considering a tax deductible contribution to support our important work.

Sincerely,
Danae D. Davis
Executive Director

The primary goal of PEARLS is to help girls, especially those facing the challenges of poverty, to envision their personal potential, take meaningful action, and direct the course of their own lives. PEARLS works with girls to build a lifelong capacity to set goals, work an action plan, and achieve goals. It also helps girls to understand when progress toward a goal is not made and how to change their course of action.

PEARLS

PEARLS is all about girls, with the support of caring women, gathering in girl-only safe space to talk, to be heard, to express fear, joy and anger, to dream bigger, to explore and to trust.

There are 12 to 15 girls in each PEARLS group. We meet for about two hours a few times a week, often for 2, 3 or 5 years, to cultivate our strengths and talents and practice being role models.

Girls have a lot to say about what we talk about and what we do in our groups. Through our sharing circles, art, mentors, field trips and leadership projects we build:

PEARLS Leadership Compass

The compass is a guide that points to the purpose of everything we
do at PEARLS

.
PEARLS girls developed the Leadership Compass as a powerful symbol of their self development (heart, mind, body, and spirit). When we are developing all of the important aspects of ourselves we feel whole and complete, like a pearl! PEARLS 5-point Leadership Compass shows the aspects of our lives that are fundamental to our happiness and well-being:

Loving Myself: how we feel about ourselves
Building Relationships with Others: how we relate to other people
Striving to Achieve: learning throughout life
Believing the Sky is the Limit: setting stretch goals, dreaming big and creating successful futures, and
Helping Hands in the Community: giving back by contributing to the community.

What does each point on the Leadership Compass represent?

LOVING MYSELF means:

Model positive behavior, set a good example.
Resist negative peer pressure and avoid dangerous situations.
Stand up for my beliefs.
Make choices that are healthy for me.
Try new things, learn “I can do it!”
Learn more about who I am and what makes me special and unique.
Be less shy.
Make good decisions.
Handle responsibility better.
Learn how I am a leader.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS means:

Learn how to make and keep friends.
Become more comfortable with people of different cultures, racial and/ or ethnic backgrounds.
Treat others with respect, like I want to be treated.
Practice patience and kindness, especially when it’s hard.
Tell the truth, when it is not easy.
Make friends with positive people.
Build my communication skills.
Trust others more.

STRIVING TO ACHIEVE means:

Improve my grade(s) in school.
Improve my attendance, behavior or some other aspect of my being a student.
Read more, for enjoyment at least three hours each week.
Learn a new hobby or interest.
Take on new responsibilities at home, school or in PEARLS.
Motivate myself to try new, positive things.

BELIEVING THE SKY IS THE LIMIT means:

Be more optimistic about my future.
Believe my life has purpose.
Accomplish new goals that help my future path.
Find out about careers for me.
Build my talents.
Have more good options for my future.

HELPING HANDS IN THE COMMUNITY means:

Value helping people.
Help my neighbors and my neighborhood.
Serve a useful role in the community (outside of PEARLS and my school).
Work on a project that helps promote justice and change for the better.

How You Can Help
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