| Purpose : |
Spirit Girls is a gender-specific intervention based on the concept that girls require a relationship-based approach to build trust and learn pro-social skills. The project will facilitate the process of connecting or re-connecting with their schools, their communities, peers, families and positive role models. Girls served by this program are high-risk youth at the secondary and tertiary prevention levels.
Spirit Girls uses a blend of group and one-on-one activities to develop support and teach the participants the benefits of long term positive relationships. Multiple issues and barriers such as bullying, drug/alcohol abuse, poor decision making, negative perception of self, poor conflict resolution skills and anger management, etc. are addressed and the girls are taught strategies and skills to cope and develop positive outcomes.
Girls will be referred to the program when they enter junior high school (grade eight). The referral process is a collaborative effort between the teachers, school counsellors and principals. Acceptance criteria will be administered to determine the eligibility of the girls to the program. The girls recruited belong to selected schools located in high needs areas as identified through an analysis of the Community Social Statistics for the City of Calgary.
In total the project is expected to recruit and assist 192 girl participants and 288 parents in 4 schools over the duration of the project.
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