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National Girls Initiative: About the Program
Growing Girls for Greatness!
Imagine an America where all girls and young women are safe, healthy, thriving, and ready to realize their full potential as productive and contributing citizens…
CWLA recognizes that girls and young women develop in unique and powerful ways. They have distinct strengths and needs that require a specialized focus when working in their behalf. Recognizing this, CWLA developed the National Girls Initiative (NGI), a comprehensive strategy for promoting the positive development of girls and young women in the United States.
NGI in an awareness of the complex developmental process that girls and young women experience in a range of cultural and societal contexts. The initiative will engage the multiple systems and disciplines that affect girls and young women to facilitate the validation and replication of promising gender-competent policies and programs and the development of new programs and policies to fill identified needs.
Objectives
- Initiate professional and public discourse about the optimal development of girls.
- Convene prominent professionals across multiple youth-serving systems (child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health, health, and education) to promote gender-competent and responsive policies and programs.
- Convene national conferences on gender-specific and gender-responsive issues.
- Identify, synthesize, and disseminate knowledge regarding the most promising and effective, gender-competent policies, practices, and programs.
- Engage policymakers, leading experts, practitioners, and the public to make girls and young women a priority in prevention, early intervention, treatment, and aftercare efforts.
Current Activities
In October 2003, CWLA convened the National Girls Initiative Symposium: Growing Girls for Greatness in Arlington, Virginia. A diverse collective of 65 professionals, stakeholders, and consumers from various fields, disciplines, and specialties represented federal, state, and local government agencies, private organizations, and youth from 20 states and the District of Columbia. The symposium produced proceedings that identify current issues and highlight recommendations to improve the work of professionals and stakeholders that work in their behalf. The symposium proceedings are currently available for distribution.
Next Steps
- National Conference. The National Girls Initiative/Florence Crittenton Roundtable 2005, to be held January 5-7, 2005, in Scottsdale, Arizona, will convene prominent professionals and stakeholders across multiple, youth-serving systems to promote gender-competent policies and programs for females.
- National Network. Create a national network of stakeholders working with and in behalf of girls and young women that provides an avenue to inform the field of promising programs, effective practices, and current research.
- Advisory Board. Develop an advisory board of experts from multiple systems, fields, and specialties that will review, prioritize, and develop proposed action steps from the symposium and help guide the direction of NGI.
- Clearinghouse. A web-based clearinghouse about girls and young women in the United States will provide information about federal and state resources and information about effective practices and promising programs.
- Girls Study Group. A research-based group of experts from various child- and family-serving fields that will provide an opportunity to examine existing research, identify gaps, and help define new areas for research.
- Advocacy Agenda. A comprehensive advocacy agenda, both national and local, that increases the level of dialogue and commitment and educates the general public and policymakers about the strengths and needs of girls and young women at risk and at promise.
- Position Statement. Develop a position statement on policies, research, training, programs, and practices that support the optimal development of girls and young women.
- Training and Technical Assistance. Increase training and education for communities, practitioners, policymakers, and elected officials, and develop and enhance training curricula and networks that provide gender-competent and gender-responsive training and resources.
For additional information
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