New partnerships: Girls Inc. looks to expand community reach

For decades, the next generation of smart, confident and successful girls have been empowered at Girls Inc. of Johnson County.

They come to the organization’s Franklin center to learn about financial literacy, conflict resolution, painting, poetry or starting a small business.

But Girls Inc. wants to be a countywide force for good in girls’ lives. With the help of a nearly $200,000 grant, the organization is taking its programming out into the community.

“The best way to serve the whole county is go where girls are,” said Sonya Ware-Meguiar, CEO of Girls Inc. of Johnson County. “We’re equipping them with some long-term life skills that they are going to be able to take with them.”

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

Girls Inc. has forged partnerships with Esperanza Ministries to reach Greenwood-based Hispanic girls, as well as working weekly with fifth-graders at Pleasant Crossing Elementary School in Whiteland.

Other efforts with Johnson County Juvenile Probation and Atterbury Job Corps has helped the organization bring its message of positivity to all girls who need it.

“It’s exciting to me, because that’s been our plan for several years now. We wanted to reach out to the whole community, and be known as Girls Inc. for all of Johnson County,” Ware-Meguiar said. “These partners see the value of our curriculums, and see the long-term value of the girls who are participating.”

The outreach endeavor has been made possible through a grant from the Lilly Endowment. Johnson County was one of seven Girls Inc. affiliates in Indiana who benefited from the $2 million allotment, with Johnson County’s cut being $197,600 through 2018.

This year, the organization received $70,000 for training, staffing and materials to take out into the community. Girls Inc. will get $63,800 each of the next two years to sustain the newest programs.

Part of the Lilly Endowment grant money has gone to training Girls Inc. staff on a pair of new programs in the outreach partnership.

Work It Out takes aim at the bullying epidemic impacting girls. Girls learn how to identify at least three characteristics of a good friend and develop communication tools to manage anger or hurt feelings.

Most importantly, they start to understand the importance of being their own friend first, Ware-Meguiar said.

Redefining Beauty addresses body image and teaches girls to challenge conventional beauty standards. The hope is that by laying a foundation of self-esteem, girls can avoid suffering from poor body image as they grow older.

“Research has shown us that at age 9, self-esteem plummets and it becomes too closely aligned with physical beauty and physical attributes,” Ware-Meguiar said. “So this helps girls deal with body image and develop confidence as they look at unique inner beauty.”

But the main focus has been outreach.

One of the first partnerships has been with Esperanza Ministries. The Greenwood-based organization provides relief for needy individuals, as well as offering services such as parenting classes, job training, literacy sessions and life coaching.

A large number of the people it serves are Hispanic, though it also provides for immigrants from other cultures as well.

“We wanted to reach out to girls from more diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds,” Ware-Meguiar said. “Girls Inc. has really tried to reach out to girls from the lower socio-economic classes, so this allowed us to do both.”

Esperanza had been searching for an organization that could help work with young people. Girls Inc. proved to be an excellent choice, one that could reach girls while respecting the cultural norms established by their families, said Margarita Hart, executive director of Esperanza.

“They were open to the diversity of students that we have, and the programming they have is very good. It was a mutual benefit for us and them to engage our population and offer their services to us,” she said.

Working with Esperanza, Girls Inc. tweaked its offerings to better fit that organization’s clients. During weekly sessions at the Greenwood Public Library, participating girls as well as their families are invited to work on issues as one. They all gather for dinner, then separate into two groups. Girls Inc. staff does programming with young women and their siblings while parents work with Esperanza staff on adult education.

“Esperanza is very much about family, and doing things together. So that whole initiative serves the whole family,” Ware-Meguiar said. “We call the initiative Poder de Familia, which means ‘Power of Family.'”

The girls have learned about math and science, practiced financial literacy and worked on nutrition initiatives. So far, 25 girls have come through the program.

Girls Inc. has also implemented those concepts into an outreach program with Pleasant Crossing Elementary School in Whiteland. Staff members meet at the school once each week to talk to fifth grade girls about bullying, self-esteem and other issues.

“The social aspect and emotional aspect of it have such an impact on their academic success,” said Angie Green, counselor at Pleasant Crossing. “Girls deal with so many things on a daily basis, at home and at school, we want to prepare them with all of the necessary tools to be able to handle the conflicts and emotions that they start to encounter as they get older.”

Plans are in place to expand it to the fourth-graders as well.

“The girls love it: They’re positive and engaged,” Ware-Meguiar said. “What’s been really neat for us to see is, the girls have been very supportive of each other. They’re building each other up and pointing out each others positive attributes.”

The partnerships with Esperanza and Pleasant Crossing are the major outreach projects of the year. But Girls Inc. also recently started working with Johnson County Juvenile Probation on a separate program.

Funded through the Johnson County Community Foundation, the partnership allows Girls Inc. to work with girls who enter into the probation department.

“The skills that we’re teaching them in this class can be applied to all different kinds of situations or issues,” Ware-Meguiar said. “We’re teaching them good communication skills and good conflict resolution skills, ways to manage their anger and hurt feelings.”

With these outreach programs established, the next goal for Girls Inc. is to ensure that funding exists to keep them going, Ware-Meguiar said.

The Lilly Endowment funding will last for the next two years, so the challenge will be finding organizations and donors to fill in that gap.

“We want to make sure that’s sustainable, to make sure that our existing funders and individual donors and civic clubs, folks who really believe in our mission and vision, they can help us to have the revenue in 2019 to move forward,” Ware-Meguiar said.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Girls Inc. of Johnson County

Outreach programs

What: An opportunity for Girls Inc., which provides programs to address the challenges that girls face in society today, to bring resources to organizations in the community.

What organizations: Girls Inc. representatives meet with girls and families from Esperanza Ministries in Greenwood every Monday night. The group also works with fifth-grade girls at Pleasant Crossing Elementary School in Whiteland every Tuesday during the school day.

How: The outreach programs are made possible through a grant from the Lilly Endowment, a philanthropic organization that supports community development, education and religion throughout Indiana.

How much: Girls Inc. of Johnson County received $70,000 in 2016 to operate the outreach programs, and will received $63,800 for both 2017 and 2018.

How to help: In order to ensure the outreach programs continue after the grants expire, Girls Inc. is looking for donors to support them. Donations can be made at the organization’s website, girlsincjc.org/donate.

[sc:pullout-text-end]