The HerShe Group prepares girls in foster care to successfully transition from adolescence to adult independence through the performing arts, mentor ship, college & career readiness, leadership development and exposure to extraordinary experiences.
The HerShe program is broken up into phases in order to prepare the young ladies for society. The first phase includes Camp Cinderella at Pepperdine University in California and the Cinderella Ball, an event that features foster girls dancing the waltz and being presented to society.
The second phase includes a mentor and a year full of life skills training, exciting activities and another public performance. Lastly, the third phase includes each young lady’s involvement in the selection and peer-mentoring of the next class of HerShe with an official graduation from the program in June. Their goal is for each young lady to stay involved and committed to HerShe until she has achieved the HerShe Group mission of transitioning successfully into adulthood and achieving the 7 HerSh-E Standards:
(1) Education – obtain at least one level higher than a high school diploma;
(2) Emotional Competence – remove emotional barriers of anger, resentment, depression and low self-esteem and able to maintain healthy relationships with peers & adults;
(3) Exposure – regularly exposes oneself to several activities per month;
(4) Earning – has the ability to earn a living wage;
(5) Essentials – can take care of oneself and make adequate choices regarding food, shelter, and healthcare;
(6) Expression – actively participates in creative projects;
(7) Etiquette – is able to be socially accepted in a variety of environments.
It is their hope that the young ladies meet these standards by their 21st birthday or sooner. Ideally, they will meet these standards within one year of emancipation from foster care. They feel this is a critical time period because:
• 7 out of 10 foster youth become homeless within one year of emancipation
• 6 out of 10 foster youth become incarcerated within one year of emancipation.
• Moreover, females are characteristically more wounded, deprived and heavily laden with emotional scars that affect their bodies, behavior and worldview. Their life experiences can leave them suffering from severe anxiety, depression, health, nutrition and low self-esteem.
Join HerShe as they send these young ladies on their path of greatness! Visit them at www.hershegroup.org.
Fantastic work been done here – very good article. Its important that all these issues are address. The future can be made brighter for many of us – with a little bit of support. At Must Have Gifts we encourage charity giving by offering charity donors the option of been able to select a specific gift for a child in a country. These gifts range from a Care and Protection bundle that will provide vital play equipment, a children’s mini library, school materials and an apprenticeship – to a TB Screening Kit.
You can find out more about how it all works here: http://www.musthavegifts.org/how-it-works