Girl Power group offers middle schoolers guidance and friendship

For many girls, middle school becomes a pressure cooker filled with power struggles, conflicting impulses, physical growth and strong emotions. Girls at this age mostly talk.  Cliques get clique-ier, the need to be in power intensifies, girls can get meaner- and much of this behavior stems from the intense desire to belong. At the same time, middle-school girls develop deep and close friendships, separating from their families and forming their own rewarding social universes.

Out of our Neighborhood Centers after school and evening program, 55 girls meet each month to help each other navigate through these waves of middle school via a special group called: Girl Power!

CCFI Neighborhood Centers Girl Power Group

Developed out of on-going requests from the girls in the Neighborhood Centers program wanting to spend more time with female staff and volunteers, the Girl Power group elects to spend one Friday night per month addressing topics such as fitting in, schoolwork stress, bullying, concerns about being judged, boys, cliques, relationships with family members, and more through all sorts of activities and conversations.

For instance, this past Friday the Girl Power group discussed the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and the first step in building self-esteem was taken- talking about it. Once the conversation was started the girls began to relate with one another and saw that they weren't alone in battling the issues that they face. Each month interactions like these lead to more friendships based on personality and shared interest rather than looks- which causes many girls enormous amounts of pain. Having a strong support system, one where all feelings are valid and listened to can make a world of difference in helping girls 'hold it together' when braving some of those "middle-school storms."

Through interactions like these, each young woman is given the opportunity to hang out, belong and connect with girls they might not be friends with in other settings. For most girls, friends form the center of their lives. Friends light up girls' days in preschool, become inseparable in elementary school, and help girls in middle school develop their own, separate lives- it's through Girl Power, that we try to help them enjoy the ups and survive the downs of their ever evolving social lives with confidence.


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To learn more about Girl Power call (405) 364-1420 or email Jessica at jhutchinson@ccfinorman.org.

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