On a Friday afternoon early in February, the Reproductive
Justice Committee of the adolescent girls’ Rites of Passage program at Urgent,
Inc. was preparing to address the Miami-Dade County School Board. The issue was teen dating violence, the group’s
community service theme for this year. In
2010 the Florida state legislature passed a law prohibiting dating abuse and
mandating that local school districts provide procedures to deal with
infractions. But by early 2012 Miami-Dade County had yet to comply. In their
address to the school board, the girls would argue why the issue is important
both to students and to the board, and then they would make specific requests
for action.
Saliha Nelson, director of Rites of Passage, stood at front
of the computer lab preparing the girls to get to work. To be credible, she said, they would have to
be precise and accurate in naming the law and citing its provisions. To be
convincing, they would have to support their argument for compliance with
statistics. With this guidance, she set them loose to find the information they
needed.
Saliha is working to convert at risk adolescents from
Overtown, Little Haiti and other impoverished urban areas of Miami into
neighborhood leaders who will transform their communities.
The presumption, she says, is that when young people are
effectively educated, motivated and channeled, they will work to better their
communities. And, she notes, historically young people have been the drivers of
change.
First, though, they must gain the insight, motivation and
skills integral to developing their personal potential and world views. To that
end, 60 girls ages 12-17 come together at least once a week at one of three
sites across the City of Miami for a minimum of 60 hours during the school year
for a varied but focused and integrated program of discussion, arts activities,
outings, and community service projects. Conflict resolution, computer
literacy, academic assistance and achievement, health and fitness, civic
responsibility, and summer internships are also part of the program.
In activities
designed to help the girls develop positive core values and understand their
individual strengths, they set personal goals and define strategies to achieve
them. In discussions aimed at creating
positive relationships, they talk about the nature of friendship and meaning of
various kinds friends. What qualities do
you want in a girl friend and what qualities of friendship do you offer? How
about a friendship with a boy? What constitutes a healthy dating relationship?
Through a partnership with the Sierra Club, the girls go
snorkeling, kayaking and camping. They participate in beach clean-ups and visit
the national parks. In the process, they
discover a world quite different from the urban core they call home, develop a
love of nature, and learn about stewardship of the environment.
Through paid summer internships, the girls receive mentoring
and hands-on experience exploring the career opportunities they first learned
about in a series of career development workshops. Some of the girls discover a line of work
they love straight away and pursue the same internship every summer they are in
high school. Others discover that a
career they thought would be for them was, in fact, not, and they go on to
investigate other options. Either way,
they come through the program with valuable experience, personal connections,
and fodder for college applications and work resumes.
Through arts and culture activities, which culminate in an
annual performance of dance, spoken word and drama, the girls learn about women
artists, explore their cultural and ethnic heritage, develop poise and
self-esteem, and find an expressive outlet for ideas they have explored
throughout the year. This year the girls
have written stories of empowerment, self discovery and acceptance on the theme
of teen dating violence. The presentation,
“She Kept Her Bra On Too – Girls Giving Voice to their Power and Taking Action”
will be showcased on May 12[1].
It was the arts program that attracted Magalie Gabriel, a 17-year-old
high school senior who lives in Little Haiti.
Involved with Urgent, Inc., since third grade, when she followed a
friend into the organization’s elementary school program, Magalie appreciates
the way the program emboldens kids to be themselves through the arts.
“I can’t live without
singing, dancing and acting,” she said.
As for Magalie, the atmosphere of candor and honesty has
been especially precious. She feels she can talk to the staff about anything,
including sex. Magalie says her mother was not comfortable talking about sex,
and she was happy to get her questions answered at Urgent, Inc.
Learning about sex and reproductive justice is central to Rites
of Passage, and preventing pregnancy is high among the program’s objectives.
“There’s a lot of contradictions that are right in front of
young people,” noted Saliha. By way of
example, she pointed to one of the high schools that Urgent, Inc. works with. This school has a daycare center and a school
clinic, but the clinic will not dispense condoms.
“So how do we all on one side say you have to be responsible for your reproductive health and the choices that you make? We know you’re having sex, because we have daycare here on campus. But yet we’re not going to give you the tools necessary to protect yourself.”
To understand the impact of such contradictions, the girls
receive comprehensive sex education, relationship education, and an
understanding of anatomy. They also
discuss how poverty and access to reproductive health care and contraception
can limit people’s choices. To manage
the contradictions, they explore how to make good choices for themselves and
how activism and civil engagement can change prevailing practice in the
community.
Which brings us back
to teen dating violence and the Reproductive Justice Committee’s appearance
before the Miami-Dade County School Board.
With the self assurance needed to
stand before this intimidating body and a carefully crafted argument, the girls
made their presentation on February 15. In
the weeks following they met with the Director of Student Services and lead
staff from the Offices of Curriculum Development, Life Skills and HIV/AIDS. They
issued six specific policy recommendations, among them the development of a
resource handbook for teens and parents.
Their next step is to do additional research on policies adopted by
other Florida school boards and identify how to insert their recommendations
into the Florida Department of Education model policy.
While transforming at-risk youth into community leaders is
the ultimate goal of Rites of Passage, a more immediate objective is to open
the girls’ eyes to the prospects for their personal lives. In this regard,
Urgent, Inc. has had unbridled success. The vast majority of those
participating improved school attendance and performance. They also demonstrated increased self-esteem,
employability skills and knowledge of health risks. While Urgent, Inc. does not have the capacity
to track girls who drop out of this voluntary program, 100% of those who have
stayed with it through 12th grade have graduated from high school, and
they have applied to and been accepted at a community or four-year
college. “Most of these young people did not consider that an option after high school for them,” said Saliha, noting that 80% of the girls demonstrated at least three risk factors for trouble as defined by the Department of Juvenile Justice.
Urgent, Inc, a 501 (c) (3) not for profit organization, was founded in 1994 to empower and revitalize urban communities. The Rites of Passage initiative is one of several programs including an after school and summer program for boys and girls in elementary school; an intergenerational project, which offers emotional support and parenting skills to grandparents raising grandchildren; and an affordable housing project, which aims to increase home ownership in urban areas and thereby revitalize neighborhoods.
Urgent, Inc. operates on a $500,000 annual budget. Rites of Passage consumes 37%, all of which
comes from grants.
Urgent, Inc.
1000
NW 1st Ave. Suite 100Miami, FL 33136
Phone: 786-439-1544
www.urgentinc.org
[1]
The performance will take place 11 a.m. -1 p.m. at The Playground Theater, 9806
NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33138. Tickets (Adults, $10;
Students, $5) can be purchased at http://conta.cc/18708q
. Further information: Shedia Nelson, shedia@urgentinc.org or 305-586-6694
