A child’s teenage years can be a time of great change and confusion. A healthy and stable living environment with a strong network of friends, family, and people who care ensures an adolescent’s mental and physical growth reaches its full potential. The Girl Talk Mentoring Program is a vocational leadership skills development program for teen girls that focuses on building a positive understanding of self-worth and confidence through group mentoring, life skills training, career and academic planning and community change. Our program follows a structured curriculum developed by Girl Talk Inc. (an international mentoring program found in over 43 states and six countries worldwide). We integrate proper etiquette, accountability, skills training and community service into every workshop and outreach project.

The Girl Talk Mentoring Program works with youth to improve self-esteem and confidence and explore the basic skills that are easily transferable to the workplace and everyday life. Mentees undertake a process of self-discovery that results in them exploring educational institutions and careers that represent their interests and needs. Students work on various tasks to explore their identities and to tell their stories: who they are, what challenges they face and how we can help them. Several guest speakers have participated in our mentoring program, including the Prince George’s County Police, Health, and Youth Services departments. We have also brought in guest mentors to inspire and educate our mentees on a wide range of topics, including anger management and women’s health and fitness.

The girls in our mentoring program are also required to contribute positively to the community through volunteerism. As a year-round program, we work with at-risk girls to identify, develop and implement service projects in their communities.

The Girl Talk Mentoring Program was designed to serve a fast-growing part of our community: middle and high school girls living in DC, Maryland and Virginia. The program addresses high-priority community concerns to prepare mentees for a smooth and successful transition into adulthood. Our program’s focus areas include:

Educational Support and Dropout Prevention Services

A lack of educational support for at-risk teens has been an undeniable issue that continues to grow each year. Often times we see that schools do not have the resources to offer quality learning, parents lack the ability to effectively communicate the importance of education to their child, and students are often distracted by their classroom surroundings, all resulting in the child’s inability to excel academically. This can cause a student to feel unmotivated and disconnected from their studies, which often leads to failing grades, expulsion, and higher drop-out rates.

Through our educational support programs, we combat these issues and design solutions that specifically target the needs of each individual student. We created an atmosphere devoted to academic excellence that allows us to work with students so they can receive the attention needed to process the information they receive and implement learned skills in their daily studies. These solutions are the core focus of our Girl Talk Mentoring Program and academic labs. Through the mentoring program, we provide an advanced curriculum that allows students to explore academic and career options, while setting goals to help them get closer to achieving their future ambitions.

Recreation and Social Opportunities

The importance of bonding amongst teen girls is a rewarding experience that we are proud to foster among the mentees of our program. Creating an atmosphere of friendship, trust, and thoughtfulness not only allow our girls to understand and respect each other, but it also gives them an outlet to get the support and love they may not receive on a regular basis.

To encourage this connection, we implement recreational and social opportunities into every outing, workshop, lab, and general gathering. We plan a full schedule of weekend and overnight activities throughout the year, which allows students to enhance their social skills outside of school. Whether dancing, exercising, hiking, or enjoying a meal, mentees are constantly working to improve their team building skills to motivate each other to do better. This naturally creates a feeling of camaraderie and a powerful system of support- two of the main things the girls in our program need the most.

Outside of the friendship aspect, these opportunities also encourage our mentees to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles which will positively affect their diet, physique, and learning abilities. Our social and recreational activities include: scrapbooking, Zumba, photography, painting, jewelry making, and sleepovers.

Life-skills Training

Life skills training enable youth to become responsible, self-sufficient leaders with a deeper knowledge and understanding of how to work through everyday challenges. As they enter the program, mentees are immersed into the importance of developing the skills needed to be proficient in their everyday lives. Through our trainings we stress the importance of progressive development for young women, personal and professional growth, and life experience knowledge. Our interpersonal programs include art, dance and music enrichment, daily living skills enhancement, safety skills enhancement, life experience classes and assistance with self-advocacy.

Mentees are also given the opportunity to engage in vocational experiences, including cooking, in-house maintenance, training and proper etiquette. We then encourage them to implement these new skills in their everyday lives, instilling the ideals learned through the program.

Interpersonal Communications Skills

Many young people are faced with their greatest challenges during the awkward stages of their teen years. In constant social situations every day, they are forced to deal with peer pressure, fears, struggles, and many uncertainties about life. A teen’s ability to integrate social and life skills is crucial when considering the need to improve academic performance, increase social interactions, and develop effective networking skills.

Through our interpersonal skills training we provide interactive communications activities that allow mentees to become confident in their social abilities. During this ongoing process they develop effective public speaking skills, enhance written and spoken communication, and maintain ongoing social relationships with each other.

Social Responsibility and Community Service

Charitable work and community service are a crucial part of the My Girlfriend’s House organization. In fact, it’s our heart and soul. Helping at-risk teenage girls by creating a community of individuals that support and care for them has been our mission since inception. Our Girl Talk Mentoring, Purse Strings, and d-Store programs are all large parts of our continued efforts to improve the lives of impoverished teenage girls. However, no matter how many we help, there are always others in need. My Girlfriend’s House makes a concerted effort to instill in the girls of the Girl Talk Mentoring Program that there is always someone in greater need. To that end, community service for others in greater need is a requirement of the Girl Talk Mentoring Program.

On a monthly basis, our girls are engaged in a variety of give-back community service projects and earn upwards of 50-70 community service hours per year.

The Girl Talk Mentoring Program not only provides these learning skills to mentees, but the program also ensures each girl benefits from the many social, community, and extracurricular activities we introduce.

Through workshops, open forums, projects and community service activities, we aim to empower teenage girls to build self-esteem, develop their strengths and leadership abilities, live up to their highest potential and motivate each other to become more influential voices in their community. Our weekly workshops are broken up into three sections:

The Girl Talk Workshop

Professional business leaders and volunteers teach mentees the fundamentals of achieving academic success, finding their ideal career path, and expanding their skill and knowledge pool.

Educational & Creative Labs

Mentees are introduced to various academic and creative skills building labs to help them hone in on specific topics, subjects, or hobbies of interest.

Pillow Talk

Clubhouse volunteers and mentees discuss social issues affecting girls today.