creating safe spaces for adolescent girls

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Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls Julie Wood Josephine Ramage The Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn

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Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls. Julie Wood Josephine Ramage The Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn. Emotional Wellness Programs at TYWLS Brooklyn. Welcoming Goodie Bag. Turn and Talk Share Out. Advisory Safe Space. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Julie WoodJosephine Ramage

The Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn

Page 2: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Emotional Wellness Programs

at TYWLS Brooklyn

Page 3: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Welcoming Goodie Bag

• Turn and Talk• Share Out

Page 4: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Advisory Safe Space

• a place where the physical, social, emotional, and academic developmental needs of our girls are addressed.

• Each year our students are known as a “whole girl” by at least one adult – their advisor

• a place where our girls can come together and support the full inclusion and celebration of GLBTQ and other marginalized populations of our school.

Page 5: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Advisory Safe Space• Meets two or three

times/week• Has a curriculum• Every student

participates• Changes yearly

• Meets once a week• Discussions topics are

chosen by both staff and students

• Voluntary, changing group of participants

• Available to the same students every year

Page 6: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Strategies for Building Strong Relationships

Page 7: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Staff

– Starts with the hiring process– Attendance at yearly training required for both

Advisory and Safe Space– United vision around school’s mission statement– Common language around expectations –

Habits of Being - C2OP3R2 – Confident, compassionate, open-minded, present, prompt, prepared, respectful, responsible

Page 8: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

MISSION STATEMENT

The Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn (TYWLS, Brooklyn) was established to nurture the intellectual curiosity and creativity of young women and to address their developmental needs. Learning is dynamic and participatory, enabling students to experience great success on many levels, especially in science, mathematics, and technology.

At TWYLS, Brooklyn, students are encouraged to achieve their personal

best in and out of the classroom. Teachers will deliberately make connections to students’ lives, prior knowledge, and the world. Through advisory, small class size, and ongoing assessments, students will be known well by the adults in the building. Thus, learning will be tailored to students’ interests, needs, and strengths. Students will be challenged and supported so that they will be prepared for higher level courses throughout middle and high school.

Page 9: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Every TYWLS student is college bound. The Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn will graduate 100% of its students in seven years and each young woman will be accepted into a four year college or university.

Students of TYWLS, Brooklyn, will grow academically and emotionally into leaders of their school, community, and the world. TYWLS strives to work with families to instill in the students a sense of community, responsibility, and ethical principles of behavior-characteristics that will help to make them leaders of their generation.

Through exposure to technology, engagement in community service, and participation in action-research and interdisciplinary projects,

students will find their voice and take responsibility for their community. At TYWLS, Brooklyn, parents are partners and together will support the experience as each leader grows in Brooklyn.

Page 10: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Ingrained in the school’s culture

• Time built into the school day for Advisory connections • Safe Space stickers on classroom doors (teachers who

feel comfortable talking with students about issues around bullying) • Staff supports one another, hence students support

one another• Explicit commitment to “No Bullying”• Whole school Pledge Day every other week–Acknowledgment of Bullying–Reminders, Read Alouds, Video Clips

Page 11: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Safe Space

• Out of 200 students, about 60 different students have attended at least once.

• Core group of 15 students that have come almost every week since we started

• Mostly older students (8th and 9th)• Focus on relationships – friendships, family, romantic

partners• Focus on internal dynamics – not on impacting

surrounding community (outside of our school building)

Page 12: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Safe Space Launch

• Use of GLSEN Safe Space kit (manual, signs, stickers)

• Mandatory staff training, although stickers not mandatory

• Launch in Pledge Day (whole school meeting) each year with a video

Page 13: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

What Students Value About Safe Space and Advisory

• Confidentiality• Not feeling judged• Others sharing their joys and struggles• Consistency of group• Knowing adults care deeply

Page 14: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

How to Establish Safety

We have three rules in Safe Space:1. There’s no attendance requirement; come as often or as

little as you want.2. What happens here, stays here. Don’t talk about the

group outside of the space unless you’re only talking with people who were there with you.

3. There are no labels. Being here doesn’t mean you identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or straight. It means you care about making our school safe for all students. You can identify, but you don’t have to.

Page 15: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

How to Establish Safety in Advisory

• Being responsive to the needs of our girls• Creating a feeling of “coming home” • Advisory House Rules – “Circle of Trust”– What is said here, stays here– Understand others’ perspectives

• Discussions around C2OP3R2 behavior– What does it mean?– How do we achieve this– What does it look like

Page 16: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

How do we Turnkey these Strategies to our Students?

Page 17: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

• Teambuilding Activities• Self-esteem building Activities• Problem solving – academic, social, relational• Role play – practice conversations that may be

difficult• Explicit Conversations• Goal setting/Self Reflection• Student Led Conferences• Communication skills– Listening vs. Hearing

Page 18: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Advisory Activities

• The following foster a sense of camaraderie amongst the students:– Holiday Door Decorating Contest– Advisory Banner Contest– Holiday and Birthday Celebrations– Community Service – food drives, Shoeboxes for

Soldiers, toy drive, book drive, breast cancer walk, Penny Harvest, etc.

– Advisory Trips

Page 19: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls
Page 20: Creating Safe Spaces for Adolescent Girls

Resources

• GLSEN link: www.glsen.org• http://www.makeitbetterproject.org • One by Kathryn Otashi• Bullying and Me : Schoolyard Stories by Ouisie

Shapiro • Handout of advisory resources from

The Young Women’s Leadership Network