Believing in girls vital to their growth, education and success
In conjunction with Women's History Month, Gov. Rick Scott has declared March Believing in Girls Month.
This proclamation reinforces something I hope everyone learns: the powerful impact of a community really BELIEVING -- putting their heart and soul -- into each girl, so that she can realize and achieve her potential.
For 20 years, I have watched girls walk through the doors of PACE Center for Girls, each one ready to begin her journey -- filled with hope, hope that someone will believe in her, until she is fully able to believe in herself. I have had the honor to watch girls transform before my eyes, and I have received the unexpected gift of how much these PACE girls have changed MY life.
They have taught me lessons on persistence that are unparalleled. Most PACE girls are at least two years behind in school. The enormity of that mountain to climb cannot be understated. Dropping out of school is a very real option. In fact, we know that 90 percent of children who are two years behind in school do drop out.
Yet each PACE girl makes the voluntary decision to come to PACE and chip away at that mountain. This may mean taking two to three buses to and from PACE every day. It certainly means acknowledging the learning gaps and the additional steps needed to even begin to get back on track.
Class by class, day by day, credit by credit, our PACE girls persist in their school work in spite of the obstacles in front of them.
Next to the word "brave" in the dictionary should be a picture of a PACE girl. I have watched girls face challenges that would leave most adults I know shattered. The realities of abuse, violence and sexual exploitation exist within our community. Fear can leave our girls silent, invisible to the world.
At PACE, we want each girl to find a safe and loving environment where she can heal and grow, empowering her to use her voice, speak her truth and change the course of her life.
Our PACE girls know that hope is not pixie dust and a school for girls doesn't mean we paint our walls pink. Our girls put their hope in PACE -- that we will see their behavior as a direct response to life's challenges, that we will understand that yelling and screaming is a cry to really hear what they are saying, that being absent from school doesn't always mean they are lazy and do not care, often it means that they have important family responsibilities or they are too anxious or depressed to face the day. Hope that things can and will be different.
And so, in honor of Believing in Girls Month, I challenge each one of us to consider our impact on the young girls in our lives. Do our words lift them up? Do we focus on her strengths and teach her how to use them?
Do we challenge her to take risks and be brave? Do we understand she is NOT BAD, even when her behavior may be? Are we role models of how we speak about and to other girls? Is our belief in her strong enough -- to carry her during times of self-doubt?
Now the real challenge: Can we do all of this for a girl we don't even know yet?
Amy WickMavis, is the executive director of the PACE Center for Girls, Manatee.
This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Believing in girls vital to their growth, education and success ."