{"id":5459,"date":"2013-10-25T10:07:46","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T17:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=5459"},"modified":"2013-10-26T09:36:15","modified_gmt":"2013-10-26T16:36:15","slug":"worthy-girls-worthy-lives-program-nurtures-girls-self-esteem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/worthy-girls-worthy-lives-program-nurtures-girls-self-esteem\/","title":{"rendered":"Worthy Girls, Worthy Lives: Program Nurtures Girls\u2019 Self-Esteem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Program Director Kirstyn Mayden, left back, and Assistant Director Ava Simpson with the girls who are showing off certificates they received after completing the 10-week program. Photo by John Coleman.<\/em><\/p>\n

By John W. Coleman*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like too many girls, Ariel Gilliam, a shy 8-year-old, was used to being bullied at school. She would keep to herself mostly, but then \u201cact out\u201d with aggression when she\u2019d had enough, according to her mother.<\/p>\n

So it was no surprise that learning to understand and to resist bullying through assertive behavior was Ariel\u2019s favorite lesson at Worthy Girls, Worthy Lives, a new, 10-week education and mentoring program in inner-city Baltimore, Md.<\/p>\n

Ariel\u2019s shyness is giving way to growing self-expression. \u201cThey\u2019re teaching her to be more confident, and she\u2019s even becoming a role model to her friends,\u201d said Linnea Wayman, a grateful mom who uses Facebook and other social media to eagerly tell friends and family about this newfound blessing in her daughter\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

The aptly named Worthy Girls, Worthy Lives (WGWL) is one of two innovative local ministries launched in 2013 and resourced through a new collaborative initiative called Spark12. Spark12, a pilot incubator program, was a collaborative effort by several United Methodist agencies, including the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the General Board of Church and Society, and United Methodist Communication. The Leadership Table, which authorized the first year of the program, also included the General Board of Discipleship, and the General Board of Global Ministries. <\/p>\n

The Spark12 program helps emerging Christian leaders \u2013 mostly young adults \u2013 design, launch, and find sustainable support for start-up ministries that emphasize social justice and equal opportunity.<\/p>\n

A second round of applications will be accepted early next year.<\/p>\n

After months of training, selection, and preparation, Kirstyn Mayden, WGWL executive director, and Ava Simpson, assistant director, welcomed their first class of 13 young girls on July 27. For 10 Saturdays, the girls, mostly ages 9 to 12, joined in creative activities to learn self-esteem, personal responsibility, service to others, spiritual growth, and leadership skills.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 12, at Baltimore\u2019s Eubie Blake Cultural Center, 10 girls received certificates and celebrated the completion of their first session with a banquet and visual and verbal presentations of what they had learned.<\/p>\n

They had created colorful anti-bullying T-shirts and \u201cvision boards\u201d to illustrate their own hopes and dreams. They had visited museums, kept daily journals, and learned gardening, healthy nutrition, personal hygiene, grooming and exercise, restaurant etiquette, interpretive dance, and other self-enriching pursuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt awesome to learn how to dance with feeling and to express myself,\u201d Samaya Johnson, 11, told the audience. She also assured them, \u201cI\u2019ll never be a bully.\u201d Like other girls who spoke, she intends to bring a friend to the next session, beginning in January 2014, when program organizers hope to have 15 girls enrolled.<\/p>\n

Samaya\u2019s mother, Gwendolyn Johnson, one of several parents who also addressed the gathering, said she could tell her daughter was \u201clearning to make good choices and decisions for herself . . . and having experiences that build character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayden and Simpson, both in their thirties, attend Celebration Church on Monroe Street, a Baltimore congregation and site of the Worthy Girls, Worthy Lives program. Through the church, the two friends have worked for several years with girls in the surrounding Poppleton community, an area rife with poverty, crime, teen pregnancy, poor academic performance, and poor health.<\/p>\n

Mayden, a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., also earned a Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology at Emory University. An intake counselor at a local adult education center, she has 12 years of experience as a tutor, summer camp teacher, counselor, and children\u2019s program director.<\/p>\n

Simpson, a Howard University graduate with a Master\u2019s degree in Public Administration, has experience in nonprofit children\u2019s programs and in writing and public speaking, which she teaches to the girls. Both partners speak of the importance of ardent commitment in this ministry and their \u201cpassion to help girls succeed in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these girls don\u2019t have freedom or opportunities to dream and articulate their dreams,\u201d said Mayden. \u201cThis is the age group that often doesn\u2019t get enough attention or support; but they are vibrant and talented, and we\u2019re trying to expose them to knowledge and life skills that can benefit them in this transitional period, as they begin to mature into young adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worthy Girls, Worthy Lives reminded Tracy Adams of her own difficult childhood. \u201cI was always blaming my mother for everything,\u201d she confessed to the audience. \u201cBut I when I thought about it later, I realized I didn\u2019t think much of myself as a child. I didn\u2019t think of myself as worthy. I\u2019m glad this program is helping and caring for my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spark12 provided Mayden and Simpson with a $10,000 seed grant and 12 weeks of coaching and boot-camp-style training in program and curriculum development, fundraising and friend-raising, promotion through traditional and social media, and other basics needed for any start-up business or organization.<\/p>\n

While its goal is to support innovative social justice ministries in the U.S., Africa, and the Philippines, the Spark12 program is also considered a means of developing principled Christian leaders, one of four areas of mission focus adopted by the 2008 General Conference, the denomination\u2019s top legislative body.<\/p>\n

To Learn More<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Worthy Girls, Worthy Lives,” a resource for African-American girls ages 9 to 14 and young women that helps them understand their worth as children of God and learn to find their voices in the midst of unrealistic media portrayals of women and African-Americans. Visit www.worthygirlsworthylives.com<\/a>, or call 443-621-9326.<\/p>\n\n

* John W. Coleman, of Laurel, Md., is an independent, multi-media journalist in The United Methodist Church.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program Director Kirstyn Mayden, left back, and Assistant Director Ava Simpson with the girls who are showing off certificates they received after completing the 10-week program. Photo by John Coleman. By John W. Coleman* Like too many girls, Ariel Gilliam, a shy 8-year-old, was used to being bullied at school. She would keep to herself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":5461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,3,112],"tags":[97,107,273,80,274],"class_list":{"0":"post-5459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-umns","9":"category-ministries-with-young-people","10":"tag-gbcs","11":"tag-gbhem","12":"tag-innovation","13":"tag-spark12","14":"tag-startup"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Certificates.jpg?fit=640%2C466&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-1q3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5485,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5459\/revisions\/5485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}