Program Overview

The Girl Power! Teen Club is a program developed by the Alcohol and Drug Services program of the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board for 11- to 15-year-old girls living in Northern Virginia. The Girl Power! Teen Club provides girls with the opportunity to participate in educational workshops, community service projects, and recreational activities. The goal of the program is to provide girls with the tools they need to resist peer pressure to use alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs or to engage in other risky activities. By helping girls develop critical thinking skills and solid relationships, the program directors hope to help girls handle themselves in awkward and potentially dangerous situations.

Program Format

The Girl Power! Teen Club meets weekly on Mondays, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m., at the West Ford Family Resource Center. The first 3 weeks of each month are dedicated to skill-building sessions and discussions about important issues affecting the girls' lives. During these sessions, the girls learn how to make good decisions and resist peer pressure to use alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs. Some of the sessions include speakers who give presentations on topics such as good nutrition, physical activity, goal setting, mental health, and abstinence from sexual activity. During the fourth week, the girls participate in recreational activities such as bowling, aerobic exercise, or skating. These activities build friendships and allow the girls to relax and have fun together.

Several older girls in the club have been trained for special leadership roles. These girls are responsible for facilitating "check-in" sessions that open the weekly meetings. During these sessions, girls talk about their lives and reflect on events of the past week. The teen leaders also make followup telephone calls to girls who are not at a meeting. If there is a family or school problem, they talk with the girls and inform the adult facilitators, who then provide backup and support.

Girls in the club are encouraged to set both short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals include getting to school on time, working to improve grades, and addressing specific behavior problems. Long-term goals include making plans to attend college or get a job after they graduate from high school. Girls are also encouraged to get involved in community service projects. Club members have participated in a 5-kilometer walk for the homeless, made cookies and meals for children in local shelters, and worked with senior citizens in the community.

The program uses several evaluation tools. Girls are given "pre-resiliency" tests upon joining the club and "post-resiliency" tests 9 months later. These tests help the program directors evaluate the girls' progress and measure what they have learned. The program directors also track improvements in school performance and monitor the number of girls who are referred for other social or educational services, including drug and alcohol screening.

The majority of participants in the Girl Power! Teen Club are English-speaking Hispanic/Latina and African-American girls. The program has been so popular and successful that it is being replicated by substance abuse prevention programs serving non-English-speaking Hispanic/Latina and Asian-American girls in other areas of the county.

Media Outreach

The Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board has yet to focus on widespread media outreach. Instead, the organization distributes informational flyers about the Girl Power! Teen Club to area schools and youth-serving organizations.

Funding

The Girl Power! Teen Club is funded through the Fairfax County substance abuse prevention budget.

Use of Girl Power! Products

Girls participating in the club each receive a Girl Power! pin, bookmark, and sticker. Girl Power! posters hang in the West Ford Family Resource Center, and Girl Power! diaries are frequently used during the sessions.