Contact Information:
602 635-6215
http://girlsproject.org/index.html
Asu students can help the Girl’s Project by becoming volunteers within the organization and helping with anything from running workshops and tutoring the students to becoming a member on the organization’s board. The Girls’ Project also looks for volunteers willing to help the organization in fundraising events throughout the year, and general event planning.
The Girls’ education project is a community-based organization that helps young girls develop the skills they will need in order to be successful members of our society. through education outreach and self-esteem developing workshops and events, the coordinators of the association aim at keeping young girls in school, and giving them the tools necessary to continue their educations or become positively participating members of their communities. The center offers girls mentoring, tutoring, and weekly meetings in hope of giving the girls who are part of the organization a better chance of succeeding in school, and building their self-esteem. They help girls deal with body and self worth issues. Based off of the Child Protective Services document reporting the state of Arizona girls, “Arizona had the country’s highest high school dropout rate – every day up to 87 teens dropped out of school in Arizona (Mesa has, very recently, been found to have the nation’s highest high school graduation rate. (page 7)” The Girls’ Project hopes at addressing these statistics through their educational and motivational outreach programs. Their activism takes many different forms because of the community is addresses they try to provide these girls with as many kinds of different workshops as possible, in hopes of helping as many girls as possible. Their activism not only hopes to effect change in their low income community, and addresses feminist issues by serving and being completely dedicated to the development of women, but also is a good example of activism in social equality, since they hope to better the achievement gap these minority girls face. The organization is a clear example of feminist activism because their entire focus is to teach girls how to be independent, driven and well-educated individuals.
Many different research results and studies have shown that girls who are a part of poor communities face an overwhelming amount of obstacles when it comes to receiving education and finishing their high school educations. The article Female Dropouts: the Challenges written by the education Development Venter states that, “Girls from poor families must overcome and especially difficult set of obstacles of successfully complete school. Poverty is the primary factor associated with dropping out. Minority groups that are disproportionately represented in the low-income brackets, including African Americans, Hispanic and Native Americans, have highest drop-out rates” (2) the Girls’ Education Project directly addresses these issues by not only educating girls, but educating predominantly African American and Hispanic girls. Also, the Girls’ Project serves many girls who come from a history of abuse and/or violence in their home. The organization understands that the education of those who have been left behind by previous educational systems, or those who have never truly received a positive learning environment helps to create stronger communities that will positively affect not only the girls they help, but also their families and other members of their communities. Advocacy groups such as the Girls’ Project and their advocacy through education and community level organization are essential to the development of oppressed and marginalized communities.
References:
Osborn, Shirley. “The State of Arizona’s Girls.” The Girls’ Education Project (2008): 1-5. www.girlsproject.org Mon. Nov. 1 2010
U.S. Department of Education. “Female Dropouts: The Challenges.” Women’s Education Equity Act Publishing Center (1990) www.eric.ed.gov/pdfs/ed320988.pdf Mon. 9. Nov. 2010
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