By Marvinetta Marie Woodley-Penn | Executive Director
The Global Girls basic belief is that all change begins in the mind. I’ve witnessed it countless times working with youth for nearly 50 years as a high school teacher, a dance/theatre teacher for the Chicago Park District, and as the founder and executive director of Global Girls. My father asked me to always refer to young people as children, never kids as those are baby goats.
It was with that understanding and respect for those young souls that I interact with every child, looking beyond their actions and seeing the genius deep inside in their eyes. I trained our team to engage youth from that same prism which has led to social/emotional and academic growth in our charges. Youth return to our programs year after year. Schools engage us year after year in part because their students request Global Girls. We’ve learned as much from the youth as they’ve learned from us.
With that knowledge as a reference point, I worked with our board of directors on a plan for local and international expansion. In less than three months of making growing new Global Girls communities a priority, we received a grant from the state of Illinois to expand Global Girls to five additional cities – East St. Louis, Mounds, Springfield, Decatur, and Kankakee. One of our “Globes” who is entering her sophomore year at the University of Illinois in Champaign asked if she could lead her own group in Champaign. So, we’ll serve girls in six Illinois cities!
During the summer of 2022, a young lady from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania visited with us and learned the Global Girls way. She was so impressed that she encouraged me to partner with orgs in east Africa. She initiated the conversations, and I followed up with zoom meetings.
In November, I traveled to Tanzania and Kenya to meet with partners, see their work firsthand and discuss possibilities as partners. I’m thrilled to report that we now have five strong international partnerships. This year, we’ll implement and closely evaluate the process and impact on the youth as well as the partners as we plan additional Global Girls communities.
Not only will we work with the girls, but we also now have a workshop series for their mothers called “Joy on the Journey” focusing on Global Girls foundational principle – change the way you think, and the things around you begin to change.
I’m excited to share our successes and our challenges as we move into this new territory and will keep you informed every step of the way.
We wish you joy on your journey this year and beyond.
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