From Buds to Blossoms

BY JOAN THARP

November 2004 - Yesenia Guizar of East Palo Alto walked through the doors of the Girls Club of the Mid-Peninsula a shy and sweet little bud of a woman who rarely spoke. When she did, it was mostly in Spanish.

Yesenia Guizar, left, a seven-year veteran of the Girls Club, reads with fellow club member Makiya Francis. At the Girls Club, older girls serve as mentors to younger students. Photos by L.A. Cicero

That was seven years ago. Today, thanks to the tender and deliberate cultivation she received at the Girls Club, Yesenia is a radiant 13-year-old who embraces new experiences and challenges with both arms. She knows learning can be hard and fun at the same time, and she understands that holding back often means missing out.

"We made a movie when I was at the club. When I see myself in it being shy, I tell myself, 'Why are you shy?' I see how it kept me from doing my best," Yesenia explains.

The Girls Club, which is funded in part by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, provides after-school programs for about 50 girls ages 6 to 16 from the surrounding low-income and ethnically diverse communities of East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park. During the week, kids might be found working on a short story or writing about their life goals, researching colleges, or learning about their cultural heritage. Art classes are offered throughout the week -- singing, dancing, sewing, or pressing flowers to make natural dyes. There also are health lessons on nutrition, puberty, and sexuality.

Leadership is emphasized by encouraging the girls to direct club activities and serve as hosts to visitors. And there are outings to youth conferences, such as the annual Girls Summit sponsored by the Girls for a Change organization of San Jose, Calif., which encourages girls to tackle community issues.

The club's staff of eight women, most of whom are part-time, is passionate about the work. Says Executive Director Pat Foster: "We see it as a gift more than a job. I wake up every morning, and rush to get here."

"I am energized and thankful for the gift of shaping, teaching, and learning from these promising girls," Foster adds. "At the Girls Club, we strive to create an environment where girls can reach their full potential, both now and in the future."

The staff ranges in age from early 20s to nearly 60, and in ethnicity from an immigrant from Trinidad to an Irish American. Each of them excels at some activity, which they share with the girls. One woman is a freelance art and technology instructor, and another is an accomplished seamstress and gardener.

Helping Preteens Take Root and Bloom

The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health supports the club's preteen program, called the Asha Budding Blossoms Project. The three-year, $175,000 grant helps to support operating expenses -- primarily staff salaries -- for the project, which aims to serve about 200 girls a year. The Asha project fits the foundation's emphasis on fostering emotional and behavioral health in youth ages 9 to 13 by providing them with a safe place to explore skills, and develop caring relationships, both with one another and with adults.

Studies show that preteen girls are a particularly vulnerable group. But if they have a safe place in which they can be nurtured, challenged, and cared for by adult role models, they blossom and are less likely to put their health and well being at risk.

Makiya Francis plays with a hula hoop outside the Girls Club. The girls help build leadership skills by organizing their own activities.

The Asha Project is comprehensive in its coverage, offering activities in academics, health, social skills, and leadership. Wherever possible, girls are encouraged to help create activities and to be leaders. For example, when a group of girls complained they were bored, Girls Club staff asked them to take responsibility for changing the situation. Not only were they encouraged to come up with an activity they'd like to do that day (they chose charades), the girls also were asked to propose ideas for future activities.

"It's all about respect for girls," says Girls Club Program Director Natalie Seer. "We've chosen to be very flexible and responsive to them, instead of doing what's awfully tempting on a hard day, and that is to say, 'You know what? This is what we're doing today.'"

"You have to hold the girls accountable to doing things that are difficult or don't seem to be as much fun, but also recognize that if they are going to grow up to know how to problem-solve, you have to let them take an active role in creating what we do here," Seer adds.

A Mentor, a Cheerleader, a Second Mom

In many ways, the Girls Club staff is a second family. They attend the girls' first communions, and go to school open houses. All of them have shared bowls of posole (a Mexican soup) with Yesenia and her mother. They are deeply interested in nurturing the girls' talents and helping them be successful. Each staff member keeps a journal on her charges, noting their accomplishments and their challenges. They talk with one another about how the girls are doing, and they brainstorm on how they can challenge the girls to do more and do better.

Yesenia, who was tucked under the wing of art and technology coordinator Eileen McGarvey when she joined the club, was gently and persistently encouraged to reach for the world rather than shy from it. For example, when the girls put together a game show to entertain the youngest club members, Yesenia said she wanted only a very small part. Instead, to her initial horror, she was made the host.

Yesenia, who has grown into an independent and outgoing young woman since she started going to the club seven years ago, chats with Girls Club Executive Director Patricia Foster.

In computer class, Yesenia seemed unsure, yet she kept returning, recalls McGarvey. "I never knew how much of what I was saying she really got, but she kept coming back and I just kept teaching," she recalls.

At the start of her second year at the club, Yesenia stopped by to say hello to McGarvey, and noticed another little girl too timid to try the computer. McGarvey was astounded to see Yesenia walk over to the girl and confidently show her how to use the mouse.

Yesenia now is in her second year at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto, a private secondary school serving students from East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park. She wrote her application to the school while at the Girls Club, and staff helped her decide what to write about for her essay. At Eastside, she's taking classes in language arts, science, math, computers, social studies, music, art, and physical education. She decided to sign up for basketball in P.E. because, she says very earnestly, "I'm really bad at it, and I want to get good."

McGarvey is delighted with this new Yesenia. "Now she's just off the charts. She embraces and pursues new experiences wholeheartedly and with such clear vision and joy. She takes on every challenge she can."

One more vibrant bud unfolding her potential, thanks to the careful cultivation and support young girls receive once they take root at the Girls Club of the Mid-Peninsula.

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(Note: These stories represent the types of organizations the foundation has funded in the past, and the nonprofits featured here may not necessarily be current grantees.)

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