Mission

Girls Write Now provides guidance, support, and opportunities for New York City's underserved or at-risk high school girls, enabling them to develop their creative, independent voices, explore careers in professional writing, and learn how to make healthy choices in school, career, and life.

So, why is this so important? Let’s find out.

The Need for Literacy-Based Programming
In fall 2006, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), the National Governors Association, and the National Association of State Boards of Education issued reports warning that middle and high schools must improve reading comprehension. According to the NASSP report, sub-proficient literacy skills lead to sub-par grades and low achievement levels—which can then ultimately lead to middle level- and high-school dropouts. Among 12th-grade students, only 42 percent of whites, 16 percent of blacks and 22 percent of Hispanics read at a level where they understand a high school textbook, the Secondary School Principals reported; one in four students was three or more years behind in reading comprehension. New York City’s public school system is the nation’s largest, enrolling over more than one million children annually. The federal overhaul of education in the United States has set a narrow focus on standardized curriculum and testing in schools, leaving students little time to explore the arts and literature. As a result, writing programs are increasingly nonexistent in schools across the country. A sad situation, considering that good writing skills improve students’ abilities to communicate and to build self-confidence and self-esteem—factors essential to professional and personal success. For non-native speakers of English—a mushrooming sector of the public school population—literacy-based programming allows students to extend and further apply the intensive English lessons they receive each day in class. Though research shows that students who have access to learning the arts through creative writing, music and theater outperform their peers (SCANS Report, 2000), arts programs have been cut from most public schools. The SCANS Report also links arts education with economic realities, asserting that young people who learn the rigors of planning and production in the arts will be valuable employees in the workplace.

The Need for Programs for High School Students
The freshman and sophomore years of high school are hugely important for girls. Often recognized as a time of haywire hormones, these years are also a time of intellectual awakening, when many girls gain a glimpse of academic potential and begin to explore the world beyond that in which they were raised. It is also a delicate time, when boys and girls alike are most vulnerable to peer pressure, sexism and racism in the environment—factors that can contribute to drug and alcohol abuse, unsafe sex and criminal activity. Therefore, it is critical to provide a safe arena for this continued academic and personal development. High school youth in after school programs are at least 5 to 10 percent more likely to earn As and Bs. They have attended a cultural event or visited a museum in the past month; claim they love school or like school a lot; believe being a good student is important; say their schools are preparing them very well for college and plan on continuing their education after graduation. (Peter D. Hart, Research Associates. The Shell Education Survey Poll, 1999)

The Need for Girls-Only Programming
In 2000, the Public Education Network issued a youth development study concluding that girls’ needs were being neglected. The report, “Community Counts—How Youth Organizations Matter for Youth Development,” stated, “We found an absolute level of under service to girls overall in communities, and too many instances of girls being treated as second-class citizens in coeducational programs.” According to "Where Are The Girls?" a recent report by the Girls Coalition of Greater Boston, the need for gender-sensitive youth programming that meets the specific and unique needs of girls is growing. Research and practice both indicate that girls benefit from pro- and all-girl environments. In mixed-sex settings, boys often get the lion’s share of resources and attention. Prejudice, discrimination, expectations of others, peer pressure and violence, however, steadily chip away at a girl’s self-trust. A successful, safe, girls-only space can create time and opportunities where each girl is taken seriously for who she is and who she will become. In New York City, almost half of high school girls will not graduate and have no female role model in their lives. Girls-only programming, which focuses on leadership development and community action, can help girls develop and practice the skills to close the gap.

The Need for Mentoring Programs
Current research on youth development finds that young people who have at least three adults outside of their family to talk to are more resilient than those who don’t. Yet the majority of young people can’t identify a single adult outside of the family to talk to, much less three. Mentors can fill that void for young people. The word mentor comes from the Greek for ”steadfast“ and ”enduring.” Mentoring is the one-to-one or group relationship that one or more adults develop with one or more young people to help them grow and succeed. It is a proven strategy to combat youth crime and violence and increase youth achievement in schools. In fact, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, the primary Republican on the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations subcommittee, has helped take the lead on providing $100 million in federal funding each year for mentoring. Starting last week with a roundtable discussion with educators, law enforcement officials and community leaders, Specter is investigating mentoring and community-based solutions as a means to address youth violence and delinquency in his home state of Pennsylvania. A Terry Williams and William Kornblum study of 900 children concluded that having an adult mentor was the most significant factor in keeping teenagers off the streets. Researchers from Columbia University and the University of Massachusetts found that young people who overcome poverty to reach college often share a common bond: a mentor, or several mentors. Additionally, one in five children in the United States is a child of immigrants; by 2040, it is projected that one in three will be the child of an immigrant (Rong & Preissle, 1998). Many of these youth bring with them remarkable strengths; however, their journey presents a number of challenges. As they settle in highly segregated neighborhoods of deep poverty, immigrant parents often find themselves working long hours, which makes monitoring their children’s progress and activities and understanding their children’s experiences difficult (C. Suárez-Orozco & M. Suárez-Orozco, 2001). Consequently, immigrant youth are vulnerable to emotional difficulties, as well as to the lure of the street. Mentors can provide immigrant youth with structure and supervision, serving as important bridges to their new cultures.