Recent Program Awards
Best After School Program in the South Coast Beacon's 2005 Parents' Choice Awards
Painter's Paradise
2004 Outstanding National Program Award Honorable Mention: Health & Sexuality
Painter's Paradise offers girls ages 9 to 11 years opportunities to utilize the experience of "creating art" to promote positive health. Girls learn to use painting, meditation, and music to relax themselves and focus inwardly to gain a greater awareness of themselves. Painter's Paradise aims to promote girls' positive health through; (1) exploring girls' inner feelings, (2) examining external influences on their sense of self, and (3) exposing them to new techniques for stress management. During each session, girls create a painting, but the paintings themselves are not shared with the group. Instead, girls share what they were thinking about as they painted. Girls use personal observations about their paintings to explore and discuss their personal observations of themselves and their bodies.
Write On!
2004 Outstanding National Program Award: Self-reliance & Life Skills
Write On! is an innovative program that facilitates girls ages 9 - 11 enjoyment and appreciation of writing. The program aims to increase girls' interest and pleasure in the writing process through their participation in many fun and interactive writing activities. In contrast to formal writing exercises focused on in school, Write On! emphasizes the creative aspects of writing and the use of writing as a vehicle for self-expression. Girls in Write On! gain essential writing knowledge and skills while developing a positive attitude towards writing and understanding the importance of writing in both their current and future academic and professional pursuits.
Mother~Daughter Book Club
2004 Strengthening Families Award
Mother~Daughter Book Club offers mothers and daughters structured opportunities to openly communicate about topics pertinent to adolescent girls. Mothers and daughters know that at least once a month there is an evening designated just for them to spend time together with other mothers and daughters discussing issues of central importance. Topics for discussion in Mother~Daughter Book Club include peer pressure, body image, parent-child relationships, identity formation and independence, loss, and women's rights. For more information on our Mother~Daughter Book Club, please contact Dacia Graham, DGraham@girlsincsb.org.
Earth Action
2003 Outstanding National Program Award: Leadership & Community Action
2003 Colgate's Youth for America Campaign Winner
Earth Action offers girls various opportunities to take an active role in local, national, and worldwide environmental issues. Girls take charge in improving the quality of the environment through various activities such as establishing a recycling program at our Center, conducting beach clean-ups, and writing letters to local and national political leaders. Girls gain information about the political aspects and career opportunities in the environmental field through meeting lawyers, activists, scientists, and a preservationists. Earth Action empowers girls to exercise their personal and collective strengths responsibly and effectively towards making changes on issues they feel passionate about.
Pets & Vets
2003 Outstanding National Program Award Honorable Mention: Careers & Life Planning
Pets & Vets offers girls the opportunity to explore the many types of pets available to them and the career of a veterinarian. Girls' gain knowledge and an understanding of the responsibilities there are in having a pet, the varieties of pets, and gain insight into the duties of a veterinarian and a person who rehabilitates animals. Each girl has an opportunity to take our class pets home for a weekend and perform all the duties of a pet owner and also put together a pet book on all the pets they learned about throughout the class.
Women Who Rock
2002 Outstanding National Program Award: Culture & Heritage
Women Who Rock offers girls the opportunity to examine the important contributions women have made to the music industry in the 20th and 21st centuries. Girls gain knowledge of the social and cultural climate surrounding the music and lyrics of various female artists and the role these factors play in their music. Girls increased understanding of women in music facilitates their appreciation of their own and others' heritage, enjoyment of diverse forms of creative expression and recognition of the significant contributions of women to history and culture.
Empowering girls in the juvenile justice system: Applying the Girls' Bill of Rights
2002 National Communications Award - Girls' Bill of Rights Category
2003 Colgate's Youth for America Campaign Winner
Empowering all girls to exercise the Girls' Bill of Rights freely and fully is at the core of all Girls Incorporated of Greater Santa Barbara's programs and activities. In 2002, Girls Inc. of GSB convened four symposia aimed specifically at the empowerment of girls in the juvenile justice system. Girls in the juvenile justice system have had their rights restricted and violated, their voice taken away. Girls Inc. of GSB's Symposia series aimed at empowering girls in the juvenile justice sought to restore the voices of these girls. Increasing community awareness and understanding of the particular strengths and needs of girls' in the justice system lead to an examination and enhancement of intervention and treatment services to insure their appropriateness and effectiveness. The Symposia series has resulted in a committed community of leaders and professionals working collaboratively to empower all girls to exercise their Rights freely and fully.
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