Watch for Signs of Child Abuse as School Resumes

Summer’s conclusion is here, and many girls and boys return to school with some mixed feelings of excitement for seeing friends and new teachers, but also with sadness
at the loss of that easier pace of life.

But for some girls and boys, summer’s end is a time of possible help, relief, anxiety, and a need for careful attention by caring adults. These are kids who suffered sexual abuse.

A great article posted in Monday’s Gaston Gazette… …

Great Activity for Girls, Boys, Teens

Dearest Facilitators – Here’s a wonderful site to add to your bag of tricks when looking for activities for your groups. What I like best about this website is that it gets teenagers involved to make a difference in their communities, schools, sports team, congregation, family or with their Girls Circle or Council group! We know from the resiliency studies what the protective factors are that help our youth be resilient: 1) a caring supportive adult; 2) high expectations; and 3) MEANINGFUL PARTICIPATION.

Check out www.dosomething.org This site’s purpose . . .

Body Image Activity Guide More Diverse Focus

Recently we shared news that some of our materials are being improved.

One improvement will be available in time for your fall Girls Circle groups -Week One of the Body Image Activity Guide.

Since Giovanna and I wrote this guide several years ago, we’ve heard both fabulous stories and some constructive criticism.

Miley Cyrus and Other Teen American Idols

Since Miley Cyrus’s controversial performance on the Teen Choice awards earlier this week ( Video link ) there has been a surge of discussion in the media and beyond about teen idols in our society. Four days after the performance, online discussion boards are still buzzing with . . .

Girls Circle meets with Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey

Today, I experienced what it feels like to muster up the energy and courage to really ask for what you need. Especially nerve-wrecking because I only had 10 minutes in front of a very busy political figure.

That was my experience today when I met with U.S. House of Representative’s Lynn Woolsey about national funding for the Girls Circle program. Here’s a woman who is in her local office in the 6th Congressional District in California for a short period of time, and whose phone is ringing off the hook about health care, the economy, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…

What – or Who – is Behind all this “Girl Fighting”?

We hear and see that girl fighting can really stress girls out.
But what is behind all this fighting, and what can facilitators do about it?

GREAT question. When girls are able to talk about what got their conflict going, there is usually a boy somewhere at or near the root of the problem.

Now, we’re not blaming boys or girls here. We just want to raise some questions, and suggest some points for exploration.

A New Name for The Girls Circle Association

As most of you know, the Girls Circle Association no longer solely provides programing for girls. In addition to the the gender-specific Girls Circle program, we launched The Council for Boys & Young Men (formerly called Boys Council) back in 2007. Then in April of this year GCA released the Mother-Daughter Circle program. In the next few years we plan to develop adult gender-specific programming and will continue to expand the curricula and trainings that we offer for The Council, Girls Circle and Mother-Daughter Circle programs.

With the broadening of our mission it became clear that the overarching business name, Girls Circle Association, no longer represented the full spectrum of the work that we do.

To better reflect our purpose as an organization, The Girls Circle Association is changing its name to One Circle Foundation.