By MARVINETTA WOODLEY-PENN | Executive Director
“I never thought I could dance. My mom always told me I had no rhythm. But, in Global Girls I’m dancing, and I love it!” Angela is a 7-year old special needs child who recently joined our afterschool program, Young Women on the Move. She misses session when she has emotional outbursts in school, and her mom has to leave work to attend to her. Now that Angela is learning dance and acting techniques with staff and other girls who accept and appreciate her just the way she is, her disruptive bouts in the classroom have lessened. Her mom is happy. Angela is glad to be in the holiday performance, and we are thrilled with her progress.
Angela’s story is one of many where the girls we engage are learning, making better choices and striving to be their personal best everyday in our afterschool program, in four school partnership programs and two programs in collaboration with other community-based organizations.
Thanks to donations from friends and supporters, known and unknown by us, we are now impact 42% more girls compared to this time last year. We’ve hired two new teaching artists and will add a resource assistant and an office manager in February. A team of interns from the University of Chicago will lead our five-year strategic planning initiative starting in January.
We are huge fans of Lin-Manuel-Miranda’s “Hamilton”. The youth company performs several choreographed musical numbers from the show. It has been their dream with for months to see it live and onstage. Finally, after much planning and deliberations, 25 youth and family members saw “Hamilton” live on the CIBC theatre in downtown Chicago. The youth sold popcorn, held dance party fundraisers and did chores for friends and family members to raise money for the tickets. Two of our team members met people from the cast after the show. They’ve stayed in contact. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that cast members might come to our little studio on the south side of Chicago to work with our girls in a couple of weeks!
The Grenada girls will be in Chicago over Easter break in 2019. Stay tuned for updates and pictures. For now, the teaching artists and youth are very busy preparing for holiday performances and lots of fun. Happy Holidays to everyone!
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